Will All of The
REAL pastors
PLEASE Stand Up!
-2-
Pastoral service in particular & the ministry of The Church in general, ought to take its cue from The Lord Jesus Christ. I say that it ought to, but it doesn’t always. Why not? Doesn’t The Church have a mountain of evidence, a multitude of examples & an abundance of Scripture that makes this clear? That’s a rhetorical question. Times have changed & I guess we just have to change with them, right? Although the State Church has definitely had a head start in terms of its accumulation of prosperity, property & power, the modern Church has chosen to follow in its wake. For leadership of this ilk, this is completely understandable, given the sacrificial alternative. In the tradition that I come from, Pastors were revered. They were loved, lifted up & listened to. However, the men who ministered when I was coming up were very different to the new breed of professional ministers present in The Church today. My Pastor & men like him cared deeply for their flocks. We knew where they lived & were often in their homes. They knew where we lived & visited us if we weren’t seen at services. Whenever they prayed God answered them. If anyone was sick they were visited by the elders of The Church & anointed with oil in the Name of The Lord. Our Pastors bought shopping for us. They clothed us on occasion & their wives would cook for us. Lord have mercy, those women could cook! Lord knows, I miss those days & I miss those men of God. As well as all of this, we were reproved, rebuked & exhorted whenever it was necessary. Those men knew they were charged with our oversight & they took that calling seriously enough to execute it in the fear of God. They eschewed the trappings of the world as primary concerns & they continually exhorted us to do the same thing. All of this was an example to the flock, but I was too proud, blind & stupid to appreciate it. Foolishly, I embraced The Charismatic Movement & with it I saw a side to pastoral ministry that in time, would come to seriously haunt me.
In our last meeting we looked at Abel, the first Shepherd & we will come back to him when we take our masterclass from The Chief Shepherd Himself, The Lord Jesus Christ. As we move through The Scriptures, we come to Joseph. Abraham had flocks, as did his grandson Jacob, who became Israel. The sons of Israel including Joseph were all keepers of sheep & so began a long typological & pastoral tradition.
2 Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren (Genesis 37:2).
Joseph was Jacob’s favourite & the son of his old age, but this affection earned him the hatred of his other siblings. He did himself no favours by reporting them to their father & recounting the dreams that he had concerning their future obeisance to him. The brothers conspired to murder him, but Reuben was against this & suggested that Joseph was thrown into a pit. He had every intention of getting the lad home to his father. Instead, Judah elected that Joseph be sold into slavery & this was done behind Reuben’s back.
They stripped him of his coat, dipped it in the blood of a kid & gave it to Jacob when they returned home. Jacob was beside himself with grief, assuming that a wild beast had killed him in the wilderness. In Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife took a shine to the young man & tried to seduce him. Well, you know the rest of that story. Joseph ended up in prison for attempted rape, but was favoured in prison by the keeper of the jail.
Joseph the Shepherd boy was now Pastor of the king’s prison. ‘And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it’ (Genesis 39:22). Pharaoh’s chief butler & baker were also in prison with Joseph ‘And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward’ (Genesis 40:4). When dealing with the flock of God, a true Pastor’s calling & duty is that of service & care. I have heard many a sweaty & emotional motivational sermon on Joseph’s rise from the pit to the palace & God’s ability to raise us up out of any circumstances. Although technically his journey was from the pit, to the slave auction, to Potiphar’s house, to the prison & then to the palace. Sorry. But Joseph’s life reveals much more than that. He reveals Christ as Messiah, beloved of The Father, sent to his own who didn’t receive Him. Joseph also reveals Christ as Shepherd & notice that before Joseph was raised up to lead, he already possessed a Pastor’s heart & that never left him.
As a result of interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams concerning the coming famine, Joseph is elevated to ruler over Egypt, second only to the king himself. He’s also given a Gentile bride. The famine was so severe that we’re told ‘And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands’ (Genesis 41:57). Jacob orders his sons to go down into Egypt to buy corn & the ten of them go, leaving Benjamin, the youngest, behind. They fail to recognise their brother, who is now 13 years older than he was when they last saw him. Joseph is now 30 years old ‘And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him’ (Genesis 42:7). He sells them corn but has their money put back into their sacks, essentially feeding them for free. This is a Pastor; he always gives far more than he takes. So many leaders miss this.
The second time that they come to buy corn, Benjamin the youngest is with them. Joseph goes even further, feeding them & giving his youngest brother five times as much as the others. He again gives his brothers as much as they can carry at no charge. Can you see the Pastor & how he cares for those who are under his governance?
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you.And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not: and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: and there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty (Genesis 45:4-11).
When Joseph’s family are brought to Egypt, Joseph demonstrates unequivocally that he had never lost touch with his Pastoral roots. He gives his family strict instructions, saying, ‘And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servants’ trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians’ (Genesis 46:33-34).
And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers. They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle (Genesis 47:3-6).
In this, we see that Joseph was not simply a Shepherd by occupation, but as a true Pastor at heart. He was humble, with a servant’s disposition. What he did was done for the good of others, not for money, not for recognition or for power & yet he ended up with all of these things. However, what he prised far more highly, were those he was able to bless, serve & save. He is a true type of Christ. Joseph was a true Pastor. Just as it was prophesied of him; from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24). Modern ministry could learn a lot from studying the life of Joseph & pastors could achieve a lot by following his example.
When Israel died & Joseph buried him, his brothers feared repercussion, ‘And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them’ (Genesis 50:19-21). Joseph never, ever stopped being a Shepherd.
And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to their families (Genesis 47:12).
Joseph fed his flock. When there was no money left to buy food, Joseph still fed the people. He took their cattle, their horses, their flocks & their asses in exchange for bread for that year. When the people returned & had no money or livestock, offering him their lands & themselves, Joseph still fed them. He also gave them seed to sow in order that they might feed themselves & their families.
And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones (Genesis 47:24).
Again, Joseph demonstrates the heart of a true Pastor. He gives more than he is asked for, more than has to, more than he takes. How many so called men of God do this today? Whatever Joseph had was given to him. He didn’t engineer it. He truly gave God the glory for saving his life in order that he might save the lives of others. The ministry today is not like that. The ministry today would rather enrich itself on the backs of those who are hungry & thirsty, who come to The Church for bread week after week. Yet week after week they are pressed for their donations & when their cash runs out, they’re asked for more. They take jewellery. They take property. When there is nothing left to give & the people faint because of a lack of bread, these so called Shepherds will make their people donate their free time as volunteers, rather than pay them. I have seen this done & it makes me nuclear with an incandescent rage.
The word that Joseph gave to Pharaoh came to pass, but these men prophesy falsely, always telling their flock that something is about to happen. Just keep giving. The famine will soon be over, while it is they who starve God’s people, line their pockets & fatten themselves. Where are the real Pastors? Where are the true Shepherds?
Eventually,
Joseph died, having given instructions concerning his bones. A king arose in
Egypt who didn’t know Joseph & because of his xenophobia he invokes bondage
on the Israelites & instructs the Hebrew midwives to kill any males born
among the Jews. Thankfully the women disobey this instruction, claiming that
the Hebrew women deliver too quickly. God blessed them for this & Pharaoh
ordered that every male child was to be cast into the river (Exodus
1:8-22). Then, there came a certain son, of the tribe of Levi.
