BIBLICAL BRIEFS 79
One of the most beautiful verses in the Bible explaining the heart of the shepherd is Ps. 78:70-72 – “He also chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds; From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skilful hands.” The end-time church which ought to be restored after God’s heart is not accidentally referred to as the “tabernacle of David”. Amos 9:11 says this tabernacle is currently “a house fallen into ruins”. Therefore, the Lord says: “I will repair its walls and restore it. I will rebuild it and make it as it was long ago. “(GNB). As for Jesus, it is said, “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt. 9:36). This is still the unfortunate condition of the present church – the vast majority of sheep are exhausted, not being kept well, because there are not enough shepherds. One finds pastors and bishops and cardinals and evangelists, elders and deacons, a fully organized and active church structure, but the sheep “fainted, and were scattered abroad” (Webster). David proved himself true to the sheep in the field. In the concise, there was a demonstration to God that he served the sheep with sincerity and faithfulness, with love, where no one necessarily had seen him, but where he demonstrated God’s goodness to them. God’s seminary is in the sheepfold, not in the Bible school. Every person has a potential sheepfold somewhere: your children, workers, neighbours, friends, at the workplace, or whatsoever. Where no one sees that you are herding, God sees (Matt. 6: 4), and He will recompense you (6:18) according to the sincerity of your heart. God entrusts his inheritance to those only. God’s seminary is found close to the still, quiet waters of rest where the herd is cared for. You and I have to create it. Therefore, it is not strange that Jesus asks Simon Peter, the one whom he called as a prototype to establish the ecclesia, in John 21: 15-17, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you really love me?” And Peter said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Two more times he asks him the same question, and then replied, “Take care of my sheep” and “feed my sheep”. In Joh. 10 Jesus explains the tremendous importance of shepherd in the Kingdom of God. In verse 2 he states it unequivocally: “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” In verse 7, He declared: “I am the gate for the sheep.” Therefore, everyone who is saved (who entered through the Gate) is a shepherd of the sheep – it indisputably includes YOU. Please, go find your herd.
Dr Tom Gouws
