Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.” – Jeremiah 31:10 (NASB)

During World War II Brigadier Gen Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101^st Airborne Division, was surrounded in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944.  The Germans had surrounded Bastogne by December 21 and the surrounded American forces were desperate.  Most medical supplies and personnel were captured, food supplies were limited, and ammunition was running low.  However, the perimeter held.  The German commander requested the Americans surrender, to which he received the most famous one word reply in military history – “Nuts!”.  This one word reply from the besieged BG McAuliffe gave boosted morale in what seemed a hopeless situation.  The Americans held and the siege was broken a few days later.

In my last post we focused on the lessons from Jeremiah’s prophetic leadership as the city of Jerusalem faced impending Babylonian captivity.  Jeremiah did not try to hide from the inevitable, but faced it head on while fulfilling his responsibility to warn his city’s inhabitants that because of their spiritual and moral decline they would be judged harshly.

Some years God’s people are in Babylonian captivity.  They are surrounded by a foreign culture, scattered to foreign lands, and subject to the foreign rule of the most powerful empire in the world at that time.  Within this seemingly hopeless situation God commissions Jeremiah to proclaim a new message, one of hope and a better future.  This better future is realized after 70 years of captivity when the Jews are allowed to return to their homeland and begin to rebuild their society and identity as God’s chosen people.

Brigadier General McAuliffe’s response to the Germans provided hope in desperate times.  God’s message delivered by Jeremiah also provided hope in desperate times and the promise of a better future.  My experience has been that hope is contagious.  As shepherds we should provide messages of hope to the congregation as a whole and to individuals we spend time to shepherd individually.  We should proclaim God’s message that there is a better future to be had and that there is freedom from their sins if they will only obey God’s Will and not their own.

We should also let our members know that hope is also found in the flock. While scattered, sheep are lost with no sense of direction. When gathered together they gain a sense of direction from the flock which in turn gains its sense of direction from the shepherds.  While captive to sin our members have no sense of direction. They can become so consumed by their condition they don’t see any way out. Shepherds have to help them see it and remind them Satan does not want them to see a way out.  Satan wants them to stay scattered from the flock so they don’t gain a sense of direction and the safety and security that comes from it.

So shepherds, let us proclaim God’s message of hope as we are surrounded today by an increasingly Godless culture.  Let us remind them of a better future to be found in heaven and a better intermediate future to be found in active participation with the flock doing God’s Will.  Finally, let us influence the stray sheep to come back into the flock and gain that sense of direction to find the straight and narrow path.

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM

But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, nor have I longed for the woeful day; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips was in Your presence. – Jeremiah 17:16 (NASB)

Lead, follow, or get out of the way is a popular saying within military leadership circles.  The saying implies there is a mission to be done and you can either lead others to accomplish the mission, help someone complete the mission, or be someone that does not hinder mission accomplishment.

I had a commander one time who framed the saying in a slightly different manner – when in charge, take charge; when in command, take command.  By this he meant if given the responsibility to lead or command, don’t shy away from it, embrace it.  (Side note – while a great saying, the commander I referenced was one of, if not the worst, commander I ever had.  You’ve heard the saying of the blind squirrel and the acorn…?).

Our verse for this post’s lesson comes from the prophet Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is sometimes referred to as the “weeping prophet”.  While accurate in describing Jeremiah’s emotional state at times, I personally think the nickname does not do him justice.  On the contrary, I think Jeremiah was one of the boldest, compassionate, and courageous leaders in the history of God’s people.

We should gain a greater appreciation for his leadership when we consider he served as God’s prophet for 40 years (how many of us can say we’ve served God as long?).  He was never popular, always ridiculed, and beaten for delivering God’s messages of impending doom.  God forbade him to marry and commanded him to wear stocks as an example of Babylonian bondage, and he was imprisoned.

God told Jeremiah that he would preside over the moral and spiritual decline of his country despite God’s words and Jeremiah’s efforts.  Yet, as Jeremiah states in our lesson’s verse, he did not shy away (i.e. “hurry away”) from his God-given responsibility even in the face of adversity.  He did not shirk from his responsibility to hold God’s people accountable and warn them of impending judgment even when they would not listen.

On occasion I too feel that I am serving as a leader witnessing the spiritual demise of America and the Church.  Just as it pained Jeremiah to tears to know his country and countrymen, God’s chosen people, were destined for judgment, I too am pained when I see Christians being rebellious, sinful, and disobedient to God’s Will and ambivalent toward His judgment.   Sometimes we think it is a new phenomenon that Christians take the attitude of “don’t tell me what to do”, even if it is sinful.  However, Jeremiah’s fellow Jews were the same way 2500 years ago.

So what are the lessons for us shepherds today?  They are what I call “simply difficult” – at least for me.

First, while we may lose a popularity contest within the congregation, we must remember we have the majority with God on our side as long as we are still doing His will.  My nature is to avoid conflict.  I want to be liked by everyone, I want to be popular.  In times past I have lacked courage and compromised my beliefs in order to be liked (I thought).  Fortunately, God has blessed me with a career of Army leadership training and hard lessons learned to providentially prepare me to start serving as a shepherd.  Now, I still don’t like conflict, I don’t go looking for conflict, but I am not about to avoid conflict, especially where His Will and Word are concerned.

Second, let’s face it, leadership is lonely.  Just by being a shepherd people view and interact with you differently.  Maybe they forget shepherds are human with all the flaws of humanity.  Maybe they forget that while they should esteem and doubly honor shepherds, those same shepherds are not there to “lord over them” but to serve God by serving the members of His Church.  Maybe they view shepherds as strictly authority figures and will rebel against authority in any form.  Regardless, and in some cases whether they know it or not, people treat you differently.  Just ask an elder’s wife sometime after a member introduces her to a visitor (“I want you to meet Mrs. Firstname Lastname.  She is one of our elder’s wives…”).  Thank the Lord he instituted a plurality of shepherds so we don’t have to bear that burden alone.

Third, we must endure like Jeremiah as long as we are doing God’s will.  I have only served a little more than a year as a shepherd.  My respect grows for those that have served for more years than I can imagine after every spiritual challenge.  And yet, when you compare what we endure, it pales in comparison with what Jeremiah went through, much less what our Lord and Savior experienced during his relatively short ministry.  Maybe God knew what he was doing when He gave us examples like Jeremiah to draw encouragement from…

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM

The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.  The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.              – Ecclesiastes 12: 10 – 11 (NASB)

The military is an institution that operates on acronyms.  My present employer is much the same way.  One of the first acronyms I learned was KISS – Keep it simple, stupid! Many times I will try to make things more complicated than they need to be.  At times I find myself suffering from “analysis paralysis” because of it.  To my detriment, sometimes I approach studying God’s Word with the same desire to make it more complicated in places where it really isn’t.

As I continued my personal study of Biblical shepherding I came across the above introductory verse for this post.  As I studied it I found myself once again trying to make it more complicated than it is.  However, once I stepped back and approached Ecclesiastes 12: 9 – 14 again the lessons for me practically jumped from the page.

First, in verse 9 we see “the Preacher” teaching the people so they would have knowledge.  Shepherds should similarly teach God’s people so they will also have knowledge.  In fact, this is not an option but a responsibility (Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:2).

Second, the Preacher sought to teach the people truth based on the words of God (verse 10) and also warns us to prioritize God’s words over those found in “many books”.  This lesson is especially relevant to me personally and maybe it is for you as well.  I find the amount of time I have available for reading is more limited now with my new career.  When I have had limited study time in the past I have been guilty of supplementing books about the Bible with Bible reading instead of supplementing Bible reading with books about the Bible.  We have to get our study priorities right or we will miss something very important and end up not teaching the truth or what I think is more likely we will not be astute enough to teach the whole truth.

Third, from verse 11 the Preacher relates that God’s words should drive us to act just like goads drive cattle and nails are driven by a hammer.  Early in His ministry our Lord and Savior reminds us of the consequences for both acting and not acting on His words in the parable of the wise man (Matthew 7:24 – 27).  James warns us “faith without works is dead” (2:26).

It is our duty to act on God’s commands (vs. 14).  Too many times my experience in the Church has been we are good at teaching God’s Word but fall short at putting it into action.  The purpose of the knowledge is meant to lead us to action, not to impress others with our knowledge, especially if that “knowledge” is gained from books other than the Bible.  Not that sharing knowledge is bad, but we must balance talking the talk and walking the walk, not being devoted completely to one or the other.  We as shepherds should lead by example just as our Lord Jesus Christ led His disciples.  The next time you read the gospels notice how many times our Savior first teaches disciples and then those teachings become action.  Similar instances exist throughout the Bible.  Yet, too many times we confine our teachings and actions to activity within our buildings instead of within the community.  Our congregations must do better, and will only do so if they are led properly.

So, back to the KIS principle (I am dropping the “stupid” part).  In summary, the lesson for me from Ecclesiastes 12: 9 – 14 is to teach God’s Word to His people and use both Word and deed to inspire them to action.  By doing so we can fulfill the whole duty of man – knowing what God’s commands are and then keeping them so we may fulfill the “equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM

The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him. The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance; Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.  Psalm 28: 7 – 9 (NASB)

In my last post I mentioned I was retiring from the Army.  Well, I am working again thanks to God’s blessing.  It appears I now have to actually work for my paycheck and long hours are ahead.  I will endeavor to keep posting to my blog, but due to time available I will probably be down to one post a month.  Since I don’t have many readers this should not be much of a deal to anyone, but I thought I would warn the few of you out there taking the time to read my posts.

Football season is fast approaching, once we finish enduring preseason games.  When it comes to football conversations you will often hear the phrase “defense wins championships”.  You may also hear the phrase “the best offense is a good defense”.  Personally, I’ve always enjoyed watching a good defense and good defensive players in action – provided it is a team I like!

Additionally, in military doctrine being in a prepared defense is considered the strongest form of maneuver, meaning your enemy would be required to field a minimum of a 3:1 superiority to defeat you.  However, it is not the preferred form of maneuver because it means you have surrendered the initiative to the enemy and are looking for an opportunity to consolidate resources, reorganize, and go back on the attack.

The concept of defending is not new.  The idea of defending against attack is woven throughout the scriptures.  Sometimes the references are to defending against physical attacks, as often found in the Old Testament.  Sometimes the references are to defending against spiritual attacks.    It is this vain we find the last three verses of our shepherding scriptures above, which are laced with language about God defending His people.

As shepherds, we are still required to defend God’s people (Acts 20:28).  Prior to becoming a shepherd I knew this to be true but seldom experienced it.  However, in a little over a year I have come to see first-hand the lengths Satan will go to attack our defenses.  For example, Satan presents temptations to attack God’s plan for marriages to be loving, honoring, co-dependent, and utterly fulfilling for both husband and wife (Genesis 1, Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3).  Satan attacks God’s Will for the Church to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28, Mark 16) by convincing us as long as we assemble and worship we are doing all that God wants instead of just part of it.  Satan also attacks our efforts to stay united in love and faith (John 17, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3) by finding the slightest disagreement and doing his best to amplify it into a divisive issue.

Also notice the last verse of our scriptures.  I am struck by the words “carry them forever”.   For me it brings forth the image of a shepherd carrying a sheep.  Maybe the sheep was lost, they have a long way to go, the shepherd knows the way, and so he carries the sheep back.  Or maybe the sheep was injured (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually) and the shepherd must carry the sheep and tend to the sheep until it is able to walk on its own.  Whatever the reason, the sheep must be carried and the shepherd is the one doing it.  There is also a word of caution here, in that the Psalmist said to carry the sheep “forever”.  While God can do that easily, the challenge to us is to remember that practically every reason mentioned above requires the strength and endurance to shepherd, sometimes for an entire lifetime.

So the lesson for today is meant more as a reminder than a compelling revelation.  As shepherds we are to defend God’s people against Satan’s attacks, carry them through the difficulties and tragedies of life, and do so with love, care, strength, and endurance.

May your blessings exceed mine today and all your days. – DEM