Love the Shepherd, Love the Sheep

Simon Attwood

It is wonderful to be able to say with David, ‘the Lord is my shepherd’ (Ps. 23:1) — no one guides and provides like Him in His greatness and grace. No wonder each of us who knows Him adds ‘Amen’ to the words: ‘I shall not want’. Jacob, who tried to gain so much by his own devices rather than depend on God, said in old age, ‘[He] shepherded me all my life long to this day’ (Gen. 48:15). No doubt as we grow older, we join in this confession of our Lord’s constant care whether there has been a large dose of Jacob in us or not.

‘thy rod and thy staff’ (Ps. 23:4)

David spoke of the Lord being with him even as he passed through circumstances that characterise this world as ‘the valley of the shadow of death’. His confidence in the great shepherd dispelled any anxiety he would otherwise have felt because of the evil that beset his path. The shepherd’s rod speaks of authority and the staff of ability to help His sheep each step of the way. No doubt the rod has a disciplinary bearing in other scriptures — for example, Paul writes to the errant Corinthians with tears, ‘What will ye? that I come to you with a rod; or in love, and in a spirit of meekness?’ (1 Cor. 4:21; 2 Cor. 2:4)[1] — but in the psalm where David follows dependently in ‘paths of righteousness for his name’s sake’ (v. 3), it has more to do with the shepherd being in control and able to protect His sheep from their enemies.

Christ’s sheep, God’s flock

Like David we can enjoy our Lord’s shepherd ministry individually, but Scripture generally refers to His sheep in the plural (e.g. Ps. 95:7; John 10:15) or under the collective noun ‘flock’ (e.g. Ps. 77:20; 1 Pet. 5:2).[2] This means we should never think of ourselves in isolation from one another but as sheep together with all who form the flock of God. As we do this, we will value our fellow believers and treat them with love, care and dignity because they are His sheep, ‘purchased with the blood of his own’ (John 10:27; Acts 20:28). Added to this affection and respect, there should be mutual submission: ‘ye younger, be subject to the elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against the proud, but to the humble gives grace’ (1 Pet. 5:5).

What does it take to be shepherds?

The lowliness that should mark the sheep must mark those who seek to serve the Lord as His under-shepherds. Stephen says in Acts 7 of Moses that when he ‘was mighty in his words and deeds … it came into his heart to look upon his brethren, the sons of Israel’, thinking they would ‘understand that God by his hand was giving them deliverance’ (vs. 22–23, 25). This was faith (Heb. 11:24) but God did not allow it to bear fruit then; first Moses had to learn that though he was something in Egypt, he could only lead God’s people out of that land when he was nothing in his own eyes.[3] He learned this as he kept ‘the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian’ and led it ‘to the backside of the desert’ (Ex. 3:1).

God also formed ‘the man Moses’ to be ‘very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth’ (Num. 12:3). Meekness is accepting God’s will but showing grace to others rather than insisting on any rights we might think we have. This is to be like Christ — ‘the chief shepherd’ (1 Pet. 5:4) — who had every right but claimed none (cf. Phil. 2:7), saying, ‘I am meek and lowly in heart’ (Matt. 11:29). We need ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ in our lives for this: ‘love, joy, peace’ in relation to God; ‘long-suffering, kindness, goodness’ towards others; and ‘fidelity, meekness, self-control’ within ourselves (Gal. 5:22–23). Meekness in particular is vital in a shepherd for, as we shall see, sheep can be insubordinate and rebellious despite the care lavished on them.

Moses also learned something about God in the desert — in the burning bush that symbolised His people. God saw his action in turning aside to ‘see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt’ (Ex. 3:3–4) as a metaphor for his interest in what interested Him: His people. The ‘flame of fire’ (v. 2) spoke of God’s holiness and righteousness but the fact that the bush ‘was not being consumed’ witnessed to His good will towards them (Deut. 33:16) though they were sinful (thorns being a consequence of sin: Gen. 3:18). He desired to bless them — and, more than that, to dwell among them (Ex. 15:17; 25:8–9). The Lord Jesus has promised us, ‘wheretwo or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Matt. 18:20), but to enjoy this in reality we must be in a right spiritual condition. He can use shepherds — those who see His people in the same loving way as He does — to promote this through their ministry.

The home and the assembly

Under-shepherds learn their ministry in communion with the chief shepherd. Like Moses before him, David was a shepherd of natural sheep before he became the shepherd of God’s earthly people. It also appears that he wrote many of his psalms when he was caring for his father’s sheep. By way of illustration:

Early in life he was occupied with ‘feeding the sheep’ (1 Sam. 16:11).
When Saul wanted someone to play the harp before him, he said to Jesse, ‘Send me David thy son, who is with the sheep’ (v. 19). These words may carry the implication that Jesse could easily spare him if that was ‘all he was doing’ but the fact the king knew that David would be ‘with the sheep’ shows he had a reputation as one who was faithful in looking after them.
David ‘returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem’ (17:15) because he was content to devote himself to their welfare rather than seek glory in battle with his brothers.
When his father asked him to take food to his brothers in the army and check on their welfare, he ‘left the sheep with a keeper’ (v. 20) so they would be looked after while he was away.
He did not retaliate when Eliab, his brother, derided him by saying: ‘with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?’ (v. 28). He was content to care for his father’s sheep, be they few or many.
He told Saul, ‘Thy servant fed his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and also a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth’ (vs. 34–36). He had put his life on the line for the sake of the sheep.
He put the stone that would bring down Goliath in ‘the shepherd’s bag that he had’ (v. 40). He used the same resources for delivering Israel from the Philistines that he used as a shepherd, but the vital factor was his implicit faith in God in all that he did (vs. 45–47).

This is a beautiful example of the way we should serve our Lord in one setting before we take on another. As we do this faithfully, no matter how limited it may seem, He will fit us for further service according to His will. Paul writes about someone who desires to exercise oversight among God’s people: ‘if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God’ (1 Tim. 3:5). This is relevant to shepherd ministry because Peter exhorts elders — those with the mature moral qualities required in overseers — to ‘shepherd the flock of God which is among you’ (1 Pet. 5:2).[4] We cannot help our brethren effectively if aspects of our own lives are not as they should be.

Difficulty and disappointment

We have noted Israel’s natural thorn-bush character. This agrees with Isaiah 53: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way’ (v. 6). A shepherd, trained in the school of God, will be conscious that he has a fallen nature capable of this himself, as do all the sheep of Christ. He will exercise self-judgment so that he can deal with the spiritual needs of the flock of God in the lowliness and meekness of his perfect Master (cf. Gal. 6:1).

Psalm 77 tells us that God led Israel ‘like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron’ (v. 20), whom Isaiah dignifies as ‘the shepherds of his flock’ (63:11). But it soon became clear that they had a difficult job on their hands. Although God ‘made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock’ (Ps. 78:52), they rebelled. He ‘said that he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach, to turn away his fury, lest he should destroy them’ (Ps. 106:23). This shows how faithful to God and caring of His people Moses was, but eventually ‘they moved him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with [him] on their account’ (v. 32; Num. 20:1–13). Poor Moses, he failed in the very thing that was his strength — meekness — and because of this he could not enter the promised land in his lifetime. Yet he never held this against the people but continued to shepherd them until they reached Moab on the border of Canaan, where he died (Deut. 34:1–5).

While we should not expect God’s people today to flagrantly disobey Him as Israel did then, it is sadly true that, too often, our behaviour betrays the old nature rather than displays the new one. This means that shepherds must be dependant, obedient and faithful, keeping close to their Lord and letting the Holy Spirit control them if they are to maintain the energy and endurance to fulfil their ministry. They must wait upon the Lord to renew their strength if they are to be faithful to their calling each day (Isa. 40:31). Flagging shepherds cannot make straight paths for the feet ‘that that which is lame be not turned aside; but that rather it may be healed’ (Heb. 12:13).

Integrity and gentleness

As for David, Jehovah took him ‘from the pasture-grounds, from following the sheep, to be prince over [his] people, over Israel’ (2 Sam 7:8). When he saw the people suffer the consequences of his own sin, he pleaded with God for them: ‘Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten’ (1 Chr. 21:1–17). Though imperfect, David sets a beautiful example for us: God ‘chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands’ (Ps. 78:70–72).

David is a type of the Lord Jesus as the great shepherd who will lead His earthly people into the blessing of the millennium: ‘he will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead those that give suck’ (Isa. 40:11). But it is His under-shepherds’ privilege and responsibility to minister in the assembly today in the same character, especially in regard to the lambs of the flock.

What under-shepherds must not do

In Ezekiel 34 God is angry with the shepherds of Israel not only for neglecting the sheep but also for ruling them ‘with harshness and with rigour’ (v. 4). We could link the latter with shearing them for though this is a normal part of looking after natural sheep (God required His portion of the wool under the law: Deut. 18:4), the four occurrences of it in Scripture are all negative in a typical sense. The men who did it were selfish and uncaring, the very opposite of what a shepherd should be: Laban (Gen. 31:19); Judah (38:12); Nabal (1 Sam. 25:4); and Absalom (2 Sam 13:23–24). They acted towards others in the same character as the chief priests and rulers of the Jews when the Lord Jesus ‘was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth’ (Isa. 53:7; Matt. 27:18).[5] Let us not roughly denude our fellow believers of the fleeces with which God has clothed them. Rather, let Christ’s under-shepherds heed His words to Peter when restoring him to service — ‘Feed my lambs … Shepherd my sheep … Feed my sheep’ (John 21:15, 16, 17) — and Peter’s to them — ‘shepherd the flock of God … not as lording it over your possessions’ (1 Pet. 5:2–3).

Joy in shepherding

There is much joy in seeing the sheep of Christ flourish spiritually as the result of shepherd ministry. Let us not dwell on our failure and our weakness, though we must confess them, but on the blessing Christ continues to give through His gifts so that even today we may experience something of ‘the perfecting of the saints’ and ‘the edifying of the body’ and are not destabilised by false teaching (Eph. 4:12–14). God’s restoring grace is also a continuing reality so we should pray for and go after the sheep who have gone astray whenever we can. Peter writes: ‘ye were going astray as sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls’ (1 Pet 2:25). We should not compromise assembly discipline where this has been necessary, but we should long for repentance and foster it, as Paul did in the case of the Corinthians, so that those who have sinned can be restored (see Gal. 6:1; 2 Cor. 2:1–13; 7:5–16).

May Christ’s under-shepherds lead by example (1 Pet. 5:3; Heb. 13:7) and watch over the flock of God so that they can detect and deal with difficulties at their earliest stages (Acts 20:28; Heb. 12:15). And may we — Christ’s sheep — honour them, pray for them and submit to their ministry (1 Thess. 5:12, 25; 1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17).

[1] Paul, being an apostle, could exercise such discipline. Today the authority for this resides with those gathered to the Lord’s name (Matt. 18:18), not with individuals or committees.

[2] While the first part of the parable in Luke 15 refers to ‘my lost sheep’ (v. 6), speaking of one person, this means a sinner rather than a saint (v. 7).

[3] Stephen is a pattern of this himself. He served tables before he entered on his more public ministry (Acts 6:2–6, 8–10).

[4] As noted earlier in this issue, the Lord Jesus enables elders to shepherd ‘all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set [them] as overseers’ (Acts 20:28) — i.e. the assembly of God locally. Those who are shepherds according to Ephesians 4:11 are gifts from Him as head to the whole assembly.

[5] It is sobering to read the lives of these four men. Happily, God brought about a change in Judah later in life — see his words in Genesis 44:30–34 where he pleads to Joseph for the interests of his father rather than his own.

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023