April 19

An Expert Searcher

For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. — Ezek 34:11 BSB

The Lord seeks out His own when they are like wandering sheep, unaware of the Shepherd or the fold. How wonderfully the Lord finds His chosen! Jesus is as great a seeking Shepherd as He is a saving Shepherd. Even when some of those His Father gave Him have gone as near to hell as possible, yet the Lord, by searching and seeking, discovers them and draws near to them in grace. He has sought out us; let us have good hope for those who are laid upon our hearts in prayer, for He will find them out as well.

The Lord repeats this process when any of His flock stray from the pastures of truth and holiness. They may fall into gross error, sad sin, and grievous hardness; but the Lord, who has become a surety for them to His Father, will not allow any of them to go so far as to perish. He will pursue them by providence and grace, into foreign lands, into abodes of poverty, into dens of obscurity, into depths of despair; He will not lose one of all that the Father has given Him. It is a point of honor with Jesus to seek and to save all the flock, without a single exception. What a promise to plead if at this hour I am compelled to cry, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep!”