Shepherds

 Read Genesis 46

 

When the people came out of bondage in Egypt, they had a variety of skills.  We see these in building the Ark of the Covenant and even in the Tabernacle.  They were skilled at woodworking and there was some metallurgy. Even though the Tabernacle was essentially a tent, there were fine fabrics, wood, and gold included in the design.

When the people went into Egypt, they were shepherds. Yes, shepherds needed some tentmaking and woodworking skills, but their stock and trade was shepherding.

This was the family of Jacob—Israel.  While other skills would be acquired over the next 400 years, these people were shepherds.

That worked to their advantage.  Shepherds were detestable to the Egyptians.  Yes, the Egyptians had flocks, but shepherds were at the very bottom of the social ladder.  The Pharoah was happy to send Israel’s family to Goshen. Out of sight was out of mind.

The Pharoah wanted to keep Joseph happy but he didn’t want shepherds hanging out with the social elite.  Goshen would work just fine.

He added, if you have a really good shepherd among you, put him in charge of my flocks. But it was Goshen where Israel’s family would settle and grow.

Let’s turn the clock ahead.  God’s Chosen People had come out of Egypt.  They had received the Law of Moses.  They had acquired kings for themselves.

The people still described themselves in terms of shepherds and sheep. Consider David’s words.

The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want…

How about this one.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

These descendants of Jacob had also acquired a class of religious experts—Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus had come into the world and spoke to the people in metaphors.  The Pharisees didn’t understand the metaphors concerning sheep and shepherds.

We should.  Let’s go to John 10.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus is the way.

Jesus cares for his flock.

Jesus laid down his life for his flock—for us.

Anyone or anything that leads us away from Jesus is a thief—a deceiver.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

How about this one?

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Jesus wasn’t at a shepherd’s convention when he offered this, but the people he addressed certainly knew about shepherds and sheep. It was their history.  It was their culture.

Americans don’t have that culture.  Our livestock business has more business to it than lifestyle.  Yes, farm life can be a tough life.  It can also be a rewarding and  liberating life, but it is not the shepherd’s life.

The modern-day farmer or rancher will not lay down his life for his livestock.  He has a rifle in the truck if the wolf comes. It’s a different deal these days.

But we should seek to understand the life of a shepherd.  So much of the Bible is framed in terms of this vocation.  Of course, it is.  These people in Jacob’s family were shepherds.  Shepherds entered Egypt and for all the skills they acquired in their centuries of bondage, shepherds emerged from Egypt.

Study to understand shepherds. Why?

We must know the Good Shepherd. We must know his voice.  In an age where confusion reigns, we must know the voice of the Good Shepherd so as not to be led astray by so many other voices calling out to us.

Know the Good Shepherd and draw near to him.

Amen.

 

Reunion

 Read Genesis 46

About 10 years ago, I got an email from someone I served with 30 years earlier.  He was trying to get a few of us who served together at Parris Island to meet for an ad hoc reunion.  I had been easy to find.  My email address has my name and my MOS designation.  The other 2 we were looking for were not so easy to find.

One guy, Bill, was hiding from his ex-wife.  The other, Marvin, had no email or Facebook or anything else that required a computer.  He was off the grid and didn’t even know what off the grid meant. We found everyone and set the date. We met somewhere in Tennessee. We visited a Civil War Battlefield in Mississippi to have something to do while we assessed our mental damage.

It’s a different feeling when you see someone with whom you went through some stuff.  You see, Parris Island was officer hell.  No one was shooting at you, but there were days you would be glad to be in the middle of rounds impacting around you than where you were. You see, the drill instructors did everything and the officers watched the drill instructors to make sure that they didn’t break any of the 22,000 rules and regulations for training recruits.

The officers had to participate in physical training.  At least we got our run in.  That was just in case a recruit died, there would be someone to take the blame.  There were many a day where at the end of that 16-18 hour day, the 4 of us just stared at each other and asked, “Where did the Marine Corps go?”

We had to investigate every allegation of wrongdoing no matter how small and at the same time chew out the drill instructors if their platoons were not up to speed.  What a bizarre equation. We had all gone from the Fleet Marine Force where you only needed to know 5 words, take the hill and follow me, to asking 18-year-old kids if the drill instructor said any bad words to them.

So, we needed to get together and see how much mental damage the Corps had done to us in those years long ago.  We did.  It was as if we had been brothers and reunited after almost 3 decades.

Joseph had been reunited with his brothers already but now he was going to see his father again.  Israel was going to see his son—his son whom he thought dead—once again.

It was surely hard for Jacob—Israel—to believe that Joseph was alive.  We don’t know if the 10 brothers confessed what they had done to Joseph and how they deceived their father or not.  We just don’t know.

But Israel and everyone related to him, all of his flocks, and many of his possessions were headed to Egypt.  Israel surely wanted to see his son but did he want to go to Egypt?

The land where he was living was the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Now he was leaving that land behind.  Was this the right thing to do?

After traveling to Beersheba—probably the southernmost city in what was to be the Promised Land—Israel offered sacrifices to God.  That night God spoke to Israel in a vision.

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

Israel had heard it from the ultimate authority.  He was going to Egypt. This was God’s will.  God would be with him. You will see your son Joseph before you die.

Israel was going to see his son.  This was God’s will, and more than that, these few people would become a great nation while in the land of Egypt. OBTW—God would be with him.

It was almost reunion time.

Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father, Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.

Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”

The rest of the chapter is about protocol and ensuring Pharoah concurs with the family living in Goshen, but the human element is reunion.

What was lost was found.  Think to the story of the Prodigal Son. The younger son had taken his share of the inheritance while his father was alive.  He squandered it on wild living. He was eating worse than the pigs he was feeding. 

He would go home and beg his father for a job as a servant.  His father treated his servants well.  None of them were starving.  He had rehearsed a speech that he would give his father in the hope of being accepted as a servant in his household.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

There is something to this lost and found business.  I lose things all the time these days. Most of the time I find them, if I remember to keep looking for them, but it’s different when it is a loved one.

It’s different if it’s your son.

It’s different if it’s your father.

There is joy in reunion.

The biblical story here is that Israel and his whole family got to Egypt.  They grew into a great nation in Egypt.  If you read beyond Genesis, you will see that they were so powerful that the Egyptians enslaved them, but they grew to this size in Egypt.

God would deliver them from Egypt but they had to get there first.  This chapter gets them there but it also speaks to the power of reunion. A reunion among brothers was one thing.  A father and son reunion was another.

Not everyone has experienced a good relationship with their father, but your Father in heaven has always been on your side and at your side whether you knew it or not.

One day, we will come to know our Father in heaven in person.  He knew us in the womb. We have believed in him through his Son, Jesus Christ.  We have known him best by his Spirit that lives within us, but one day we will be united with him in person.

It will be a reunion.  We will not have known our heavenly Father in this way before, but we do know him.  He has a room prepared for us.  Jesus picked it out special for us.

We will be going home.  Heaven is not the undiscovered country.  It is home.  We will be returning home for the first time.

Have you seen the meme of Jesus embracing the Marine as he enters heaven?  It’s a cool picture, but it’s better with the caption.  Welcome home Marine.  OBTW, you have duty today.

We will be going home for the first time and what a reunion it will be.

That’s a little paradox to chew on this week. 

When we depart from this place, we venture into this world where so many deny God and so many seek after worldly things. That does not surprise us.

But it is Christians that we find most often who put themselves in the judgment seat.  So many point fingers from the sidelines.  So many say my way or the highway, and of course, my way is God’s way.

As we go into this world where so many Christians are known by the selected scriptures which they stand on while ignoring the full biblical witness, know that one day we will be home.

One day we will not be in the midst of the craziness of this world to include the divisiveness of many Christians. One day, all of this messiness will be gone.

One day we will stand before Jesus. One day we will go home for the first time.

One day God himself will be in our presence and we won’t need the sun or the moon for light.

One day we will see what eye has not seen and ear has not heard.

One day, our heavenly Father will gather all of his children and we will be home.  It will be a reunion like none we have known.

So, when the day is too hard to bear, know that a glorious day is coming.

So when you can’t walk any farther in faith, know there is a crown in store for you.

When you just feel all alone in the world, know there is a reunion coming like you have never known.

We see glimpses here in this chapter.

We see glimpses in our life experiences.

We hear of glimpses in the testimonies of others.

But know with certainty, that one day we will see our Father in heaven.  Know for sure that he will embrace us and it will be the greatest feeling we have ever known.

Hang in there. There is a wonderful reunion on your horizon.

Amen.