Wednesday, November 11
We all need a shepherd. We are, after all, mere sheep in a perilous world. So much can go wrong if we follow the wrong one. As we saw yesterday, there are many bad options, countless false shepherds. But in John 10:11-18 Jesus claims to be the only Good (or true) Shepherd. What does that mean? What does He offer us that no one (or no thing) can match?
First of all, He is a shepherd who truly knows us. As He puts it in vv. 14-15, “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”
Think about how astonishing that is. I grew up in cattle country. Ranchers like my Dad, and his father-in-law, my Grandpa, before him, know their cattle. Each one has a name. I’m sure it was that way with shepherds and their sheep as well. But Jesus doesn’t mean that He looks down and says, “Oh, there’s that stumpy one with the cowlick in his hair. I call him Jeff.” His knowledge of us is as intimate as the relationship between Him and His Father. He doesn’t just know your name. He knows everything.
Genesis 16 is one of many examples of the Bible’s heroes behaving terribly. Sarah suggests to Abraham that he conceive a baby with her slave girl, an Egyptian named Hagar. Abraham seems all too willing to sleep with this younger woman. Whether Hagar consented to this is left unsaid. Once she is pregnant, her attitude toward Sarah changes. Maybe this is because she’s been violated by her slave master. Or perhaps she thinks her fertility will lead to her becoming Abraham’s second wife. Either way, Sarah doesn’t like the insolence from her slave, and abuses Hagar until the poor woman flees. God comes to her in the desert, where she is presumably determined to make it back to Egypt or die trying. He tells her that she will bear a son who will become a great nation. He sends her back to Abraham and Sarah, where she and her son will be cared for.
Hagar is a slave. In her own mind, she has no rights, no worth. Yet the God of the universe has appeared to her, making promises of protection and future greatness. She is so blown away by this, she gives Him a new name: El Roi, “The God who Sees.”
No matter what the world has told you about yourself, no matter how much you dislike what you see in the mirror, or what mistakes you’ve made in your past, God sees you. He knows you—your every thought, every fear, every dream, every flaw, every hope. There are no secrets. There is no reason to pretend to be something (or someone) you’re not. He knows you as you truly are, and loves you anyway.
“Father, there is nothing I can hide from you. That’s terrifying, until I consider the love you have for me. So thank you for being the only One who loves me as I truly am…and loves me too much to leave me like this. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
