Ezekiel 34:17 -19
" 'As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?’”
" 'As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?’”
When I read these verses it seems like an attack on business or political morals. In its context it is Isaiah speaking to the Israelites. Is Isaiah talking about literal water, a metaphor, or both? It can be easily both, although I am not sure. For now, let’s look to it as referring to both. Water is an important resource – it sustains life. The verse can however be talking about such things as money or other resources as well.
I think there are some great examples of this today. The first being politics. It is one thing to represent yourself in politics. It is another to deliberately dig up dirt and bash other candidates. There is also the matter of business morals. Probably the most well know example is Enron. But it isn’t just with a company - individuals do this as well in their personal business proceedings. What lengths do people take to get a job or to get promoted? This can also be seen in sports: deliberately injuring someone from the other team. Capitalism and consumerism actually feeds off of this passage. Everything is individual – and “if someone gets stuck in the mud behind me it is their fault not mine. Everyone is accountable for themselves and how they get a job, house, and live. Nothing is connected.” This, however, is not how life works. People are connected and individual effort is not the only thing that makes a person successful or not successful.
There is a sense of community here in the verses. What are we doing for ourselves and what are we doing to others? Am I helping or ailing people?
What does this have to do with the environment? I will simply write a few words: reservation, rain forest, colonizing, oil.
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