Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ezekiel chapter 34 verses 17 through 22:
17 As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: 18Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? 19And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord Godto them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.21Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
The care and preservation of the earth are Biblical mandates which we have to hear and obey.
It is too easy to shrug our shoulders at all the damage we are doing and tell ourselves we can’t do much as one person or as a community or even as a single nation. The vastness and complexity of our environmental problems will not excuse our inaction.
And the outright denials of global climate change and the ongoing attempts to actually roll back environmental protection are anathema to all our most basic Biblical and human values. A simple question: how could pumping extreme amounts of harmful pollutants into the air for over a century not have significant impact on the environment?
Why do we continue to accept the lies of convenience which want to assure us this really isn’t a problem? Do we really believe them or are we the primary polluters confident we will not suffer the most serious effects of our action and inaction?
In today’s Lesson the Prophet Ezekiel condemns the flock which in the midst of taking from the stream and soils and debases it at the same time, ruining it for the rest of the flocks which also need its water. What a parable for our time! The Prophet still convicts!
Ezekiel says the LORD shall “judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.” This means we shall all be held accountable — for our actions and also our inactions. And so we have to take steps — make better personal choices, make better policy choices, invest in cleaner sources of energy, and be more committed to protecting and caring for the millions of people who are being displaced because of now-dramatic and even tragic environmental change.
The LORD is watching. And so too are the flocks downstream.
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