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 sections in order from 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) and designate office(s) to info AT christcommunity church DOT com.

fifth excerpt from Lessons in Shepherding

Jeremiah’s Lamentation—23:9-15

In the verses that follow, we hear Jeremiah’s reaction to his nation’s leaders. Jeremiah writes,

As for the prophets: my heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, even like a man overcome with wine, because of the LORD and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also is evil and their might is not right. “For both prophet and priest are polluted; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD. “Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it; for I will bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD. “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: the committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets, “Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the land'” (Jer 23:9-15).

What is Jeremiah doing in verses 9 and 10? He’s lamenting the state of the people and the land.

Why? Because God has brought the covenant curse of famine as a result of the prophets’ disobedience (“For the land mourns because of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.”). The famine here may be literal, but it may also be spiritual – it’s a famine of the Word of the Lord among the prophets and priests. God says the prophets and priests are both polluted (v.11), and he promises to judge them (v.12). In verse 13, God brings back shepherding imagery with the idea of leading God’s people astray.

How are the Samarian prophets leading God’s people astray in verse 13? By prophesying according to Baal.

How are the Jerusalem prophets leading them astray in verse 14? By walking in immorality (adultery) and falsehood (heterodoxy), and by not calling the people to repentance (“so that no one has turned back from his wickedness”). Calling people to repent of wickedness is part of biblical, spiritual shepherding.

So how does God judge these prophets in verse 15? Since the prophets and priests are polluted in verse 11 by immorality and heterodoxy, God will pollute them by feeding them on the wormwood and poisonous water of his judgment. This is an example of lex talionis, the law of retribution in which the punishment fits the crime.

“My Words to My People”—23:16-22

What’s ultimately the problem with these false prophets? They do not stand with God, which is evidenced by the fact that they do not speak his Word. Instead they speak according to their own imaginings.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the LORD. “They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You will have peace “‘; and as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, they say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’ “But who has stood in the council of the LORD, that he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? “Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, even a whirling tempest; it will swirl down on the head of the wicked. “The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it. “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. “But if they had stood in my council, then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds (Jer. 23:16-22).

How might we sum up the problem expressed in these verses? The prophets are speaking out of their own imaginations rather than out of God’s Word. They speak without first being spoken to and listening (v. 18 “But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear his word? Who has given heed to his word and listened?”; v.21 “I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied.”)

What would the prophets have said to God’s people if they had listened to God before speaking to them? They would have announced God’s words to God’s people (v.22). And they would have called them to turn back “from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.” In other words, they would have called the people to repentance.

What a dire warning this presents to evangelical elders today! Commenting on an earlier chapter of Jeremiah, Tenth Presbyterian pastor Philip Ryken meditates on what will be the outcome of church members whose pastors preach “Peace, peace” where there is no peace. Ryken writes,

“It is easy to imagine that many people will say the same thing on the day of judgment, when Jesus Christ will judge every man, woman, and child according to his or her deeds. ‘We hoped for peace,’ some will say. ‘My pastor told me there wouldn’t be any Hell.’ Or ‘My spiritual advisor said God would accept me as long as I did my best.’”[1]

Elders, do you want to put the members of your church in this position?

Lost Sheep—50:6-7

When God’s shepherds forsake, or overlook, or simply take for granted, God’s Word, God’s people will be led astray. As the Lord himself says through Jeremiah,

My people have become lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray. They have made them turn aside on the mountains; they have gone along from mountain to hill and have forgotten their resting place. All who came upon them have devoured them; and their adversaries have said, “We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned against the LORD who is the habitation of righteousness, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers” (Jer 50:6-7).

What failures does God highlight among his shepherds in these verses? First, the shepherds have led the sheep astray. They have turned aside from the path, away from the green pastures, and along the dangerous cliffs of the mountains and from the mountains to the hills. The hills in Jeremiah are associated with the worship of Baal, the storm God (see 2:20—committing adultery on every high hill; also, 3:2—harlotry on the barren heights). The shepherds are probably not just the kings, but the priests as well, and likely the prophets too. All of them are leading the people into idolatry and away from the true worship of the true God.

Second, they’ve caused the sheep to forget their resting place.

Third, they’ve failed to protect them from the wild animals that would devour them.

What effect does this have on outsiders, that is, those who are not God’s people? The outsiders begin to assume that they are not guilty of attacking the people of God, since the people of God are clearly compromised (“We are not guilty, inasmuch as they have sinned.”)!

As we saw in our prior study, being a responsible shepherd means knowing where you are going with the sheep, knowing how to get there, doing your best to ensure that all the sheep actually get there, and making sure that your destination is a safe place where the sheep would have plenty of food and water and be protected by wild animals. Bad shepherds neglect all these responsibilities. They are more impressed with their own wisdom than with God’s. They are more ambitious for their own fame than God’s.

As shepherds of God’s flock, we are responsible to God the Father, under Jesus Christ, by the power of his Spirit, to lead the congregation into the green pastures of God’s Word and true worship of him. We are responsible to protect them from those who would teach false doctrine (or no doctrine) to them. And we are responsible to lead them to enter into the rest of God by ensuring their salvation through the right teaching and application of the Scriptures according to 1 Timothy 4:12-16.

Hope in God as the true Shepherd—50:17-20

“Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. ‘And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. ‘In those days and at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’

Who are the lions here? The kings of Assyria and Babylon. And again, Israel is scattered, which is a bad thing. God wants his sheep together.

What is God going to do for Israel in verse 19? He’s going to bring Israel back to his pasture.

Why? So he can graze and be satisfied. So the goal of God for his sheep—the reason he’s bringing them back to their own pasture—is to let them graze and be satisfied with eating from the good grass. He will pardon their iniquity, and grant them their desires for knowing and truly worshipping him. May our work contribute to, and not hinder, God’s re-gathering.

Thank you for praying for Brad and Cathie. Brad is now recovering at home from successful heart bypass surgery.

We are memorizing together the some words of our teacher. Our Master was asked in
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The bold italicized words we are committing to memory–to the end of living them.

Our own Sarah Hamersma is on the panel Wednesday!

Perspectives from Academic Disciplines – UF faculty address the question of how their discipline conceives of justice and what challenges they face in the pursuit of justice.  Participants include:

Sarah Hamersma, Economics 
Elizabeth Dale, Law
Jaime Ahlberg, Philosophy

Moderated by Joseph Spillane, Criminology and History

Wednesday, September 19
7:30 p.m. in the Christian Study Center classroom

The Christian Study Center will spend the next three semesters exploring the idea of justice and the Christian tradition in pursuit of a common understanding of justice that leads, in turn, to the collaborative pursuit of justice across religious lines and in ways that span the university and the church. This semester this inquiry will begin with two local panels, one from the standpoint of academic disciplines and a second from the perspective of Abrahamic religions, and it will culminate in a visit from Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Emeritus, Yale University.