Shepherd

 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 77:20 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.77.20.ESV

The Lord as our Shepherd might be a familiar image, but it's still a humbling one. If the Lord is our Shepherd, we are His sheep. Sheep are smelly, silly, and often downright stupid.

The Lord as our Shepherd is humbling for Him too. Shepherding is a smelly, and potentially dangerous job, when sheep need to be protected from predators like wolves, lions and bears. Thankfully, nothing and no one is a match for our Good Shepherd.

Note too that God isn't too proud or precious to have mere mortals to help shepherd His heavenly flock. Moses and Aaron were commissioned to help lead God's people out of slavery to the promised land. With His help they succeeded.

The ultimately Good Shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for His sheep. His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. He delivers us from slavery to sin to the promised new creation.

'Good Shepherd of our souls, please lead us safe to our heavenly home. May You keep us safe from all that would destroy us, and keep us close to You. For the glory of Your name, amen'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Power

 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.Exodus 9:16 ESVhttps://bible.com/bible/59/exo.9.16.ESV  Secular historians point to the lack of extra-biblical evidence of Hebrew slavery in Egypt and ensuing exodus. But here in this verse, God describes how this anonymous Pharoah has been immortalised in the annals of the Hebrews, so that God is proclaimed in all the earth. The mighty men of the world might think they can stand against God and win, but resistance is futile!  The more stubborn Pharoah was, the more the Lord was able to display His power. The more insistent Pharoah was of keeping his slaves, the more unreasonable he appeared. It was a battle of wills, and the will of Yahweh prevailed.  In the end, Pharoah will have been broken by the plagues. In the final plague, his own firstborn son was killed, the next in line to the throne of the world superpower. He might have tried to put a brave...
Read more

Confession

 Ezra 10:2 ESV And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.  God's people were at a low ebb. Although they were restored to the promised land, they were still in thrall to their Persian occupiers. Instead of committing to God, they had adulterated themselves with the unbelieving people around them. We might wonder what this has to do with us. Even in the new covenant era, we're commanded not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. In other words, it's wrong for a Christian to marry a pagan. Ezra had led his people in a powerful prayer of repentance. It seemed to have had the desired effect. The people reacted well, as this verse begins to reveal. The people confessed their sin, but they didn't wallow in it. They don't nurse the hurt and indulge the misery. They were hopeful God would have mer...
Read more

Forget

 Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. God isn't telling us to have amnesia. He's not telling us to forget his goodness to us in times past. He is in the context telling us to forget our rebellion against him, and the judgement that our sinfulness incurs. Isaiah's audience were rebellious and sinful, just as we are. As such, God would punish them with the rod of his wrath. Babylonia would sweep in to take them captive.  Graciously, God said captivity wasn't the end of the story. He was going to do a new thing. He was going to make a way in the wilderness. This life is a spiritual wilderness. Happily though, Jesus is the way through that wilderness to Father God in glory. He provides spiritual rivers in the desert to sustain us on the way to glory: primarily his word, his Spirit, and our...
Read more