2009 – Day 94.Apr. 5 – A Shepherd’s Heart

2009 – Day 94.Apr. 5 – A Shepherd’s Heart

Passage of the Day: Numbers 27: 12 – 23 … Link to study passage …

My Journal for Today: Realizing that he, Moses, would never be the one to lead God’s chosen into the promised land, Moses recognized that the one to do so needed to have special qualities; and having been the “shepherd” of these people in the wilderness, Moses was perceptive to note that they didn’t need a CEO type or an organizational superstar. No, he saw that God’s flock needed another shepherd. As Swindoll points out we read that in today’s passage in Numbers 27: 17, where Moses pleads with God, saying, “…who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” Interesting, but not unpredictable, that God would choose one named “Joshua” to do so, the name “Joshua” meaning, “the one who saves,” the same root Hebrew name from which comes “Yeshua” (or “Jesus”).

Moses recognized what any Pastor or Christian leader recognizes today, … that disciples of Christ, in order to fulfill Christ’s own command to follow Him (see Luke 9: 23) need leadership who will lead a body of believers as a shepherd leads his flock. Hence we read the repeated middle-eastern Bible references to the Messiah being our “Good Shepherd;” and Jesus, Himself, uses the same word-picture comparison (see John 10). It is a word picture completely understood from the context of the Middle Eastern, 1st Century cultures. The flocks of sheep of those days would have been totally lost and vulnerable to the preditors of the country side if they didn’t have a “good shepherd.”

Even today, the Pastor or Elders of any church are the shepherds of that flock. In 1st Peter 5: 1 – 8 [link provided] the Apostle Peter realized that and used this word picture of a shepherd watching over his flock to illustrate how Christian leaders needed to lead as a shepherd leads his sheep, protecting them from the dangers of the world, depicted as a “roaring lion” in this passage (see verse 8).

Anyone, as I have, who has been called to “pastor” a flock of Christians, recognizes how his designated body will flock to him, needing to stay close and follow the oversight that a “shepherd” would provide for a flock of sheep. And the younger, the more immature, in the flock may be, the closer they need to stay to the oversight of the shepherd (i.e., leader) of that flock. However, occasionally one, or more, of those wayward “lambs” will wander off, isolating himself from the flock and getting into dangerous territory. That is like the story of the wayward lamb in Luke 15: 1 – 7 [linked]. Again we see the biblical word picture of how important God, The Good Shepherd, our Messiah, sees every one in His Flock, the Church.

You and I are sheep, dear one. And we are wayward lambs, as Isaiah 53: 6 [linked] clearly depicts. But as that verse also declares, our Lord has taken upon Himself the iniquity of us all. My friends, we need to stay close to The Good Shepherd and remain close to the flock of believers for protection and sustenance, especially if we don’t have the maturity or the calling to lead. For those who are more mature and have taken on some calling to leadership of God’s flock, we need to become “shepherds” following our Model, The Good Shepherd, Who is always willing to do all He can to protect and raise up the flock for God’s glory. The Apostle Paul recognized this as he told his Corinthian flock, (in 1st Cor. 11: 1), “Imitate me; just as I also imitate Christ.”

I pray, fellow lamb of God, that we all follow the Good Shepherd closely; and I pray, you shepherds, that you feed and tend your flock, following our Good Shepherd’s example.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are my Good Shepherd. Help me to shepherd the flock You have ordained me to lead. Amen