Monday, November 9
Think about the main characters of our favorite stories. They tend to fall into certain categories: The chiseled action hero. The dogged crime fighter. The brilliant doctor. The pair of beautiful lovers. The seemingly ordinary person who is secretly destined for greatness. All of these characters are popular because they’re aspirational; we’d love to be like them.
The Bible is not fiction, and the characters in it are of a decidedly different sort. For instance, think about how many biblical figures are shepherds: Abel, all of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, even Rachel), Moses, David, Amos, and the first visitors of the newborn Messiah. Yet shepherding wasn’t an aspirational vocation in the slightest. Shepherds spent their entire lives living in the fields with the sheep. It was hard, dangerous, low-paying work. Little wonder David—the little brother—got stuck with the job. To put an even finer point on it, we don’t make TV shows about the guys who nail shingles on roofs in the summer heat. We don’t put farm laborers on magazine covers. Yet God in Scripture keeps putting shepherds before us. Why?
Even more surprising is how often God refers to Himself as a shepherd. No wealthy man tended His own sheep, just as you’ll never see a billionaire cleaning the toilets at his company’s highrise headquarters. Yet at least 27 times, God tells us to think of Him as a shepherd. One of those times is in John 10:11-18. One of the seven “I am” statements in that Gospel is Jesus telling us He is the Good Shepherd. This week, we’ll explore what that means.
But first, let’s ask: Why is there so much shepherd imagery in the Bible? Why does God so often choose shepherds to do His most important work? Why does He compare Himself to one of the lowliest, dirtiest professions of the time? I think He’s trying to tell us something. I think He wants us to know that, no matter how proud we are of our strength or our intellect, we’re sheep. We need a shepherd. And until we let Him be our shepherd, our lives will be a mess.
“Lord, you see me, like a sheep, as foolish, helpless, and easily lost. Banish my pride so that I can see myself through your eyes, and follow you as my Good Shepherd. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
