Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
The Shepherd's Guidance
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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John 10:1-5
Although Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd, He is not the church's only shepherd. From the days of ancient Israel up through the New Covenant church era, He has also appointed under-shepherds to watch over His physical or spiritual flock—and this will continue into the Millennium (Numbers 27:15-17; II Samuel 5:2; 7:7; I Chronicles 11:2; 17:6; Psalm 78:70-72; Isaiah 44:28; Ezekiel 34:23; 37:24; John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; I Peter 5:2-4). The Chief Shepherd provides the pattern for His under-shepherds, and thus He gifts them to carry out their responsibilities in a way that reflects His own shepherding. Notice some of the attributes of a godly shepherd: » He cares for his sheep to the point of giving his own life for them (II Samuel 24:17; John 10:11, 13). » He knows his sheep (John 10:14). » He is known by his sheep (John 10:14). » He feeds his flock (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:23; John 21:15, 17). » He pays special attention to the young (Isaiah 40:11; John 21:15). » He gathers his flock when they become scattered (Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 34:12). » He oversees the flock willingly rather than by compulsion (I Peter 5:2). » He is not greedy for money, but eager to serve (I Peter 5:2). » He serves by example rather than force (Ezekiel 34:4; I Peter 5:3; see Matthew 25:20-28). » He seeks out the lost sheep (Deuteronomy 22:1; Ezekiel 34:16; Psalm 119:176; Matthew 10:6; 18:10-14; Luke 15:1-7). » He protects the sheep (I Samuel 17:34-36). On the other hand, false shepherds also exist, those whom God has not appointed. Jesus describes a person who tries to access the sheep without going through Him as "a thief and a robber" (John 10:1, 8). The thief comes "to steal, to kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10), though these actions may not be apparent on the surface. He also describes "hirelings," whose care is not for the sheep but for their own safety and security (John 10:12-13). Rather than laying down their lives for them, such hirelings abandon the sheep at the very time they need help the most. God also calls attention to His appointed shepherds who have become derelict in their duties. In Jeremiah 23:1, the One who became Jesus Christ pronounces a "woe" on "shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture," who have "scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them" (verse 2). He says in Jeremiah 50:6, "My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray . . .." Jeremiah 10:21 speaks of shepherds who "have become dull-hearted, and have not sought the LORD," and the result is that "they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered." Likewise, Ezekiel mentions shepherds who feed themselves rather than the flock (Ezekiel 34:2-3), who rule with "cruelty and force" rather than strengthening, healing, binding what is broken, bringing back what was driven away, and seeking what was lost (verse 4). Though the most immediate application in these verses is to the physical leaders of the nations of Israel, it also applies in antitype to the shepherds of God's spiritual flock. Even though under-shepherds do not always perfectly emulate the Good Shepherd, He has nevertheless established their roles and offices, and He has specifically gifted them to serve in this way. This is the order that Jesus Christ has ordained. Yet, our carnal tendency may be to either abuse or rebel against this order—either to become too dependent on an under-shepherd or to reject human shepherds altogether, believing that we are better off on our own, finding our own food, and determining our own paths.
David C. Grabbe
The Shepherd's Guidance (Part Two)
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John 10:9
A significant title of Jesus Christ is "the Good Shepherd" (John 10:11, 14), and it is a perfect description for what He does in personally knowing and caring for His sheep. As part of this title, He mentions one of His primary activities in the latter half of John 10:9: "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." The matter of "finding pasture" is a critical part of what a shepherd does for his sheep. Sheep are the farthest thing from being self-sufficient. They cannot make it on their own for very long, though they are seemingly oblivious to this. Left to themselves, they will not thrive because they require constant attention and direction. More than any other class of livestock, they are dependent on outside intervention, which is one reason why Jesus refers to Christians—us—as sheep: Without Him to lead, provide, and protect us, we would be in real trouble. As Phillip Keller details in his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, when sheep are left to their own ways, they cause utter desolation. Since sheep are so docile, we do not typically think of them as destructive animals, but their destructiveness lies in the fact that they are creatures of habit. Stubbornly following their habitual nature, they do not consider the future. Sheep will follow the same trails until the trails become ruts, and they will continue to walk those ruts until they have carved gullies in the midst of their pastureland. They will graze an area, day after day, until it has been turned into a wasteland. They will nibble the grass down to its roots, leading to the erosion of what may have been prime topsoil. In addition, they will pollute those same fields until they are rife with parasites and disease. Sheep have their favorite spots, to which they will return repeatedly, quickly contaminating those areas. If great care is not taken, disease can run amok through an entire flock. If sheep are left to themselves, this is guaranteed to happen, which is why they require a shepherd's constant management and oversight. To keep a flock well-fed and free of disease, as well as to maintain his pastures, a skilled shepherd keeps his flock on the move, slowly but continually. He frequently changes where they pasture, gradually moving them throughout all of his fields. In this way, he ensures that his flock has the best food and enough of it. He makes sure that he returns to an area only after the life cycles of the various parasites have run their courses, so the flock does not continually re-infect itself. The longer the sheep remain in the same place, the more the shepherd incurs the risk that they will malnourish and sicken themselves or those around them. Since Christ refers to the church as a flock, and to individuals as sheep (Matthew 26:31; Luke 12:32; John 10:16), we can be sure that He will be doing something similar with His church. Left to ourselves, we tend to develop habits that can be destructive, whether to ourselves or those in our environment. Even with the best of intentions, we sin, and our sins pollute and can cause an environment of disease. We consume, but without a wise Shepherd overseeing what we consume, there is tremendous danger to ourselves and those around us. Thus, when we find that the circumstances of our lives are changing, we do not have to fear that things are actually out of control. They may just be out of our control. When we are under the ownership and care of the Good Shepherd, He changes our circumstances and keeps our lives from becoming static.
David C. Grabbe
The Shepherd's Guidance (Part One)
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Ephesians 4:11-16
Sometimes, circumstances conspire to scatter Christians into small groups or even from all contact with other believers and from the ministry Jesus Christ gives to the church to equip them and encourage their growth—in the biblical metaphor, leaving the sheep without a shepherd. However, if sheep should choose to become "without a shepherd," they are rejecting one of the Chief Shepherd's major gifts to His flock, willfully taking themselves outside of His established order. Sheep may choose to do this, reasoning that Christ is their Shepherd, which is certainly true. It is likewise true that our relationship with God is individual, without a man in the middle. Nevertheless, none of this nullifies the fact that Christ has gifted human shepherds to aid in bringing all the sheep "to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). By implication, the only time a sheep of His pasture does not need an under-shepherd is when he has grown completely into the image of the Lamb of God. Our Savior oversees the under-shepherds, holding them accountable for failures in their responsibilities, which there will be simply because they are human. However, to purposefully become a "sheep without a shepherd" is to put oneself in serious danger, for the Christian is then likely to turn to his own way, develop bad spiritual habits, become stuck in a rut, make himself a prey for Satan, and ultimately become malnourished and spiritually diseased. He may not even realize his life is in danger—until it is too late. Christ clearly establishes that, rather than wandering away from God's shepherds, the sheep have the responsibility to submit to the godly shepherds, not considering them infallible, by any means, but comparing their instruction with what God has already established in His Word. As I Corinthians 11:1 teaches, sheep are to follow a shepherd's faith only as it complements and corresponds with the teachings of Jesus. As Acts 5:29 points out, "[W]e ought to obey God rather than men," whenever the two are not in alignment.
David C. Grabbe
The Shepherd's Guidance (Part Three)
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1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
Because of the unraveling of the church of God in recent decades, the overall flock has experienced a great deal of agitation. In some cases, sheep are distrustful or disdainful of sheep in other legitimate folds. What seems to happen more often, though, is that shepherds are suspicious—and even contemptuous—of other shepherds, and may even engage in turf wars and sheep rustling, inciting further unrest among the sheep. If sheep have suffered abuse or neglect at the hands of a hireling or derelict shepherd, they will be less inclined to trust other shepherds, and peace is the casualty. God says through Ezekiel that some dominant sheep will push other sheep around, "butt[ing] all the weak ones with your horns, and scatter[ing] them abroad" (Ezekiel 34:21), all the while using up the pasture and then defiling it (verses 18-19). Some shepherds, in letting their attention slip away from the Good Shepherd, have filled the void by elevating themselves. When this happens, a tendency arises to use and abuse the sheep rather than tending and feeding them. Because of the pressures of the times, both sheep and shepherd risk becoming bogged down in the quicksand of the world. These symptoms can all be understood in light of Jeremiah 18:15-17, where God says that He scatters His people because they have forgotten Him. If He is not the top priority in our lives, He will change our circumstances—our "pasture," which could have many different applications—until we remember and seek Him once again. Thus, the ongoing unrest in the church of God is partly attributable to the carnality remaining within it and partly to the Good Shepherd's skillful management in guiding His sheep into circumstances ideal for growth, which can seem quite disruptive. It is crucial to understand that, despite the chaos and confusion in the greater church of God, none of it is out of the Shepherd's control. He knew what He was doing when He scattered Israel and Judah, when He scattered the first-century church from Jerusalem, and when He scattered the church in our time. His thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours (Isaiah 55:9), but His acts always accomplish a good purpose. He limits the harm the hirelings can cause, even using their harm for ultimate good, if the sheep continue to look to Him. He oversees the under-shepherds, working in their lives to ensure that His will is fulfilled. He has already literally laid down His life for His sheep; not one who is looking to Him will be lost (John 6:39; 10:27-28). If we are intent on following the Shepherd's guidance, continually looking to Him for direction, He will lead us to the best pastures. His guidance typically requires us to look to Him for everything. Part of the cost of discipleship is renouncing control of the direction and contents of our lives and submitting to His guidance when our circumstances undergo changes out of our control. When He moves us, it may be uncomfortable, but what it produces is invaluable: a singular focus on Him and a faith—trust—that will carry us into the Kingdom. It is comforting to remember that the Good Shepherd assures us, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32).
David C. Grabbe
The Shepherd's Guidance (Part Three)
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