NOTES for Eze 34:12
In the preaching of the prophets, God's people are often compared to a flock left without a shepherd. Jesus Himself uses the same comparison, having in mind primarily the members of the Pharisaic brotherhood who claimed spiritual leadership and the role of teachers. Prophets such as Ezekiel, however, usually had in mind priests who did not fulfil, or did not properly fulfil, the duties God had entrusted to them. Of course, this was not a matter of the care of souls in the sense practised by the Pharisee-rabbis. The priests' task was different: besides sacrifices and everything connected with worship, they were also to oversee the people's ritual purity.
At first sight, this concerns only the outward, formal side of religion. In reality, however, it was not so simple. Whether a person was clean or unclean determined whether they could take part in a sacrifice and a sacrificial meal, and therefore in communion with God. Neglect of ritual purity in such circumstances could mean only one thing: the people simply did not go to the Temple, remaining religiously indifferent and giving no thought either to religion or to spiritual life. Priests who accepted this state of affairs were effectively encouraging such behaviour, becoming false shepherds who spiritually misled those they were meant to guide.
Then God says through His prophet that, in that case, He Himself will care for His flock. Evidently, this concerns the plan of salvation that envisages the coming of the Messiah. He will take upon Himself the task the priests refused to fulfil. But in that arrangement they themselves are left with no role: God no longer needs them, at least as His ministers.
This raises the question of their spiritual destiny as a whole. By refusing to participate in the fulfilment of God's plan, they have lost not only their ministry, but also the meaning of their own existence. They have lost something without which one cannot enter the Kingdom: to enter it, one must be a person, and there is no personhood without meaning. By refusing their ministry, they have, through that refusal, deprived themselves of salvation.