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excerpt one from Lessons in Shepherding
This month Christ Community is seeking to raise awareness and understanding of the offices that the New Testament prescribes for churches: elder and deacon. To that end, I’ll be posting in sequential order a wonderful survey of shepherding, the task of elders, on this blog in the coming days.
You can also read the entire article in one shot.
To nominate men for the office of elder and deacon, fill out a form on Sunday morning, or email name(s) to info AT christcommunity church DOT com.
Jeremiah 3:15 “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding” (NAS used throughout).
GOD – THE ULTIMATE SHEPHERD
The whole history of God’s people can be traced using the metaphor of God as the shepherd of his people. From Jacob in Genesis, to the exodus from Egypt, and all the way to the second exodus from the wilderness of this world, God reveals himself as the shepherd of his people.
For Jacob
To begin with, God reveals himself as the shepherd of particular individuals, and individuals who were representative of the whole nation of Israel, such as Jacob.
And [Jacob/Israel] blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and may my name live on in them, and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and may they grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Gen 48:15).
What did Jacob mean when he said that God had been his shepherd all the days of his life? It’s helpful to go back to God’s promise to Jacob in Genesis 28, where he promises to give Jacob the Promised Land and many descendants, and then says to him, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen 28:15).
God’s presence and God’s protection were the ways in which God shepherded Jacob all his life. So even before Israel became a nation—when Israel was just Jacob the individual—God was the shepherd of his people, providing his sovereign presence and omnipotent protection to ensure the fulfillment of his original promises to Abraham of a people and a place.
For David
God also shepherded David, another representative Israelite. As we read in Psalm 23,
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever (Ps. 23).
What are some of the functions of a shepherd that David ascribes to God in this chapter?
- In verses 1-2, God provides nourishment (green grass, quiet waters), rest (lie down), restoration of the soul, and satisfaction (I shall not want).
- In verse 3, he provides guidance (in paths of righteousness).
- In verse 4, he provides protection and comfort, by virtue of his presence and his rod and staff (the instruments a shepherd used to gather the sheep and fend off wild animals).
Through The Exodus
Just as God shepherded Jacob and David, two representative individuals of Israel, so God shepherded the entire nation of Israel through the exodus. For instance, the Psalmist describes God’s care for corporate, national Israel in the wilderness of Sinai as shepherding care:
You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron (Ps. 77:20).
He leveled a path for his anger; He did not spare their soul from death, but gave over their life to the plague, and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham. But He led forth his own people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock; He led them safely, so that they did not fear; but the sea engulfed their enemies. So He brought them to his holy land, to this hill country which his right hand had gained” (Ps 78:50-54; see also Ps. 80:1).
What aspects of shepherding do we see in these verses?
- Leadership through the wilderness,
- protection and safety in the desert,
- settling the fears of the sheep,
- fending off enemies of the sheep with power and courage.
It’s important to see here that Israel’s whole history is described as one seamless pastoral journey. From the days of Jacob, through the exodus from Egypt, through the wilderness of Sinai, to the people’s possession of the Promised Land, God’s relates to his people as a shepherd to his sheep.
Through The Exile
Looking forward to the nation’s exile, Isaiah saw another exodus coming, an exodus out of slavery to sin and into the holiness of the new creation:
Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for Him. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend his flock, in his arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes” (Is. 40:10-11).
Chapter 40 of Isaiah, from which these verses come, marks the beginning of a new section in Isaiah in which God promises that he will lead his people through a new exodus. Several chapters later, Isaiah says, “Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Is. 43:18-19). In one sense, this is exactly what God had done in the wilderness of Sinai—lead the people through a wasteland with no road, and provide water in the desert. Yet now he promises to do it in a new way. It won’t be a physical or geographical exodus, but a spiritual exodus out of slavery to sin, through the wilderness of this world, and into the new creation (see Is. 40:1-2). Still, God uses the same language to describe how he will lead his people in this second exodus—”like a shepherd.”
Jeremiah sees the same thing: “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock” (Jer 31:10). In exile, the shepherd’s gathering role comes to the foreground. God will gather his scattered sheep back together in one place.
Micah sees God gathering his sheep from exile as well: “I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; like a flock in the midst of its pasture they will be noisy with men” (Micah 2:12).
Micah later prays, “Shepherd your people with Your scepter, the flock of Your possession which dwells by itself in the woodland, in the midst of a fruitful field. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you miracles” (Micah 7:14). Notice that God speaks of protecting his sheep, which is what a scepter was for. He also speaks of feeding them. And Micah connects this shepherding idea with the new exodus out of exile for sins. It’s going to be like the days when Israel came out of Egypt.
Summary
So God is the shepherd of his people. First, he leads them through the dry wilderness of Sinai to the Promised Land, and then he leads us through the parched wilderness of a sinful world on our way to heaven.
What aspects of God’s shepherding care for Israel have we seen so far?
- Protecting the sheep,
- providing for the sheep,
- being present with his sheep,
- gathering the sheep together,
- and guiding the sheep.
These are the activities that God thinks about and performs when he uses the metaphor of shepherding for leading his people.
As under-shepherds, then, we who are elders are called to shepherd God’s people in the same way:
- under his authority,
- through a wilderness world that is not our home,
- toward the Promised Land of heaven, where our true citizenship lies.
We lead them there
- by knowing the way ourselves,
- by keeping them together along the way,
- by feeding them on God’s Word,
- and by being present with them.
excerpted from Lessons in Shepherding
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