Will All of The
REAL pastors
PLEASE Stand Up!
-4-
I have often been guilty of declaring that I believe The Church at large is in trouble & also of leaving that statement hanging in the air, much like a cricket ball spinning in slow motion towards a plate glass window. At a time when there are, undoubtedly, clowns to the left of us & jokers to the right, here we are & we ought to be grateful to be stuck in the middle, in Him. There has never been a time at which God has been without a people. Neither has there ever been a time when His people have ever been without leadership. That leadership has never been without mandate & said mandate should be trusted because it’s handed down by He Who works all things according to the counsel of His own will (Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:11). With the passing of Moses, Israel came under the leadership of Joshua. When Joshua died, Israel came under the leadership of the Judges. When we arrive at the end of the book of Judges, we may be tempted to say, as I have often said of The Church at large, Israel is in trouble because we’re told that ‘In those days there was no King in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes’ (Judges 21:25). Cue the slowly spinning cricket ball & cut to the plate glass window. However, God always has a plan A. Once we come to the book of 1st Samuel it is here that we see The Lord orchestrate the promotion of a man who would become the new Shepherd for His people Israel. It’s no accident that after Judges we have the book of Ruth & as we hop, skip & jump through it, we see the providential lineage of our Messiah & the man whose throne He will inherit. That man was David.
At this point I would heartily recommend that you take some time to read the first fifteen chapters of 1st Samuel as background before going any further. It shouldn’t take you too long, unless you’re reading from the King James Version, in which case you might have to spray your tongue with Mr. Sheen in order to slip through it quickly. I’m joking, please do not spray your tongue with Mr. Sheen or any other type of wax-based, household cleaning product. It will not end well!
The book of 1stSamuel opens with the story of the miraculous conception of the Prophet of God after which the book is named & his dedication to the service of The Lord by his mother Hannah, who had been barren. She petitions The Lord with her tears, pouring her heart out, asking Him to give her a son. (1st Samuel 1:11). I love it when The Lord does stuff, because He’s The Lord & He can do stuff like this. True to form, God opens Hannah’s womb & she conceives a child. When the child is born, it is a son & she names him Samuel because he was asked for. As soon as the boy is weaned, he is taken to Eli the priest, by Hannah’s husband.
Eli had two tearaway sons that he either could not or would not control; they were Hophni & Phinehas. These boys would steal from the offerings that were brought to be offered before The Lord & they would also sleep with the women. This was a known fact to all & sundry, yet their behaviour went unchecked by their father. Such was the state of the ministry then at that time & so it remains today. Some of our ministers operate with an unbridled impunity & a diminished fear of God. Everyone can see what’s going on, everyone talks about it, everyone knows. However, nothing is done. Not by man at least.
Samuel flourished. He learned the ropes. He ministered before The Lord in his little Linen Ephod, he wore the little coat that his mother brought for him every year when she came with her offering & he grew in favour with The Lord & with men. Samuel was God’s man, in the midst of everything that was happening, despite the nepotism, blatant immorality & endemic dishonesty. He was exactly where God wanted him, doing exactly what God wanted him to do. The Lord had plans for Eli’s sons & sent a man to tell their father the bad news. I dread to think what went through Eli’s mind as he listened to those terrible words of prophecy which included the deaths of his boys on the same day (1st Samuel 2:27-36 & 1st Samuel 3:11-12). Eventually, Israel asked for a King.
This may have displeased Samuel, but it came as no surprise to The Lord. He had already said that this would happen when Israel came into the Promised Land & had made provision in his commandments for the time when it did. (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). The elders of Israel said they wanted a King because Samuel was old & his sons Joel & Abiah didn’t walk in his ways, but this was a very poor excuse.
Eli was old & his sons were reprobate, yet no one cried out for a King during their tenure.
Wherever there’s an Eli, God will provide a Samuel & wherever there’s a Saul, He will provide a David. I know that this sounds clichéd & perhaps it is a little, but my point is that The Lord always raises someone up to Shepherd His flock. Samuel grew up and faithfully served The Lord until the time that he was ready to take up his duties as a Judge & Prophet over Israel. Despite the lacklustre performance of Eli & the theft & whoredom of Hophni & Phineas, God prepared Samuel for his calling. Similarly, when Israel asked for a King & rejected The Lord, He didn’t fall to pieces. He continued to execute his plan even though people were slaughtered in battle. God always has a plan A. He sent Samuel to Jesse’s house.
Of course, Samuel obeys The Lord & goes, prepared to anoint the new King. It is here that a most valuable lesson is to be learned. In Samuel’s experience, Saul had been tall, good looking & gifted, but these qualities mean absolutely nothing. Samuel’s experience in the choosing of Saul may have come to bear on his judgement in this situation, but when The Lord had instructed him to go to Jesse, He had said that He would name Saul’s successor.
Parts of The Church today are not always be led by men who are led by The Holy Spirit, but it is certainly led by men who are led by other men. Neither is it always led by men who are convicted of a vocation. There are plenty of blokes who are extremely gifted, talented & blessed with attractive attributes. They’re creative, charismatic & imposing, with a delivery that’s as sweet as honey & as smooth as silk. But are they faithful. God views the heart.
Now we come to the juicy part of our story. The bit that everyone knows & remembers. It is the stock-in-trade of any Sunday school teacher worth their salt. The tale of David & Goliath. I have to confess that until I began writing this series of articles, I hadn’t paid close enough attention to the fetes or fates of the men God had called to serve as Shepherds among His flock. To my shame, I had paid the least attention to David because this tale is probably the best known Bible story there is & yet it is the least known in its significance.
It appears that one of the servants of Saul had somehow come to witness David’s exploits & gifts. He gives David a glowing reference before the King, saying, ‘I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite’ (1st Samuel 16:18). However, in none of these matters had David become lifted up. He faithfully tended his father’s flock & we will come to see that whatever he had done to earn his reputation, had been done for the sake of the flock, not for himself. Happy & humble servitude is such a rarity.
After Samuel had anointed him the new King of Israel, David went back to keeping his father’s sheep & evidently remained there until he was sent for by the King. He did what Saul had failed to do. He remained small in his own eyes. David did not exalt himself, despite his gifts, talents & anointing. Here is a man who was happy in his place of service, doing whatever needed to be done for the flock, by whatever means necessary. Being a Shepherd was hot, hard & dirty work but David did it. Shepherds were often shunned & looked down upon & yet a faithful one is worth his weight in Gold. When was the last time you met a Pastor like that? Brethren, men like this are in our midst & The Lord will set them to serve & to Shepherd His sheep. Cue Goliath.
At this point in the story, using my over-active & extremely vivid imagination, I would skip to the blood & guts in slow motion, as David delivers his Oscar nominated monologue & despatches Goliath with a single, well placed stone, launched from his trusty sling. He then runs, summersaults through the air, lands perfectly in a manner worthy of a gymnast, unsheathes the giant’s sword & removes his head, all in one fluid movement. Go David!! However, having read the narrative again more carefully & prayerfully, I see that I’ve missed an entire seam of truth, even though I have been reading it for many, many years.
David is chosen above all of his brothers & is anointed King, yet he returns to his flock. David’s reputation precedes him & Saul sends for him, making him his personal musician & also his armour bearer. When battle threatened, David’s three eldest brothers went with Saul, but once again David returned to his flock. He never forgets his duty to the sheep, nor his place of service, even though he knew what was going on at the front.
Some Pastor’s cannot wait to get away from their congregations, whereas other Pastors cannot wait to return to them. David loved his flock.
Jesse sends his youngest boy back to the battle with supplies for his three eldest sons & their Captain. David leaves his flock with a keeper & goes, shouting for the battle. At this point, Goliath appears & re-issues his challenge to Israel. David hears every word the man says & it is here that his calling becomes evident. It is here that we can see the heart of a man who transitions from being a faithful keeper of his father’s flock, to the defender & protector of the flock of God.
David’s touch-paper was now well & truly lit. He was not interested in anything other than the glory of God, the removal of Israel’s embarrassment & the restoration of her dignity. Eliab, David’s eldest brother & the first to have been rejected by God, rebukes his sibling for his boldness, even though his charge of conceit & pride were groundless. What did his youngest brother have to be conceited or proud about? Could it be that Eliab was jealous? He was the eldest & yet The Lord had overlooked him. Indeed, the elder shall serve the younger & the first shall be last.
David had remained a humble & faithful servant despite his calling & anointing, but now his hot pursuit of the heart of God spurred him on. He had left his sheep in the wilderness in order to Shepherd tend to another, greater flock & no one realised it. Is there not a cause? Saul summons him to his tent & David states quite clearly that he is willing to kill the man. Point blank. No frills. When Saul objects, he demonstrates a side of pastoral ministry that I had hitherto not seen. Whether it was the flock at home, or here on the battlefield, David was still tending his father’s sheep. He never, ever stopped being a Shepherd.
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. (1st Samuel 17:34-36).
I am very sorry to say that it is my observation that there are times when The Church doesn’t need a Goliath arrayed against it, because its own ministers are its biggest enemy.
This battle was no different to David going out against the Lion or the Bear. Goliath was as much an animal as they were. David faithfully tended his father’s sheep & dealt with the predators that came to steal, kill & destroy. He was simply doing what any Shepherd would do & that is the reason he returned home to Bethlehem to his father’s sheep time after time. As a matter of fact, I believe that he would have returned to his beloved sheep once again after killing Goliath, had Saul not prevented him from going home (1st Samuel 18:2). King or not, anointed by Samuel or not, David saw that this was a Pastor’s duty. Protect the flock of God. The good Shepherd lays his life on the line, for the sheep. Saul should have stepped up, but in his weakness he hid. I have known leaders like this.
David’s humility blinded him to any delusions of grandeur, which is why his brother’s comments didn’t ruffle his feathers. He didn’t care about the money. He didn’t care about the fame. He didn’t care about getting the girl. A Shepherd cares that Gid is honoured. He cares for the sheep. His staff, bag & sling were the only tools he needed for the job because Israel were the flock that needed to be rescued from the big mouth of the Philistine. I would contend that if David had been twenty-five stone with one eye & a limp, he would have said & done exactly the same things. This was something that he was doing for the God he loved & the people he loved. This is what a true Pastor does.
David
was humble.
David was a servant. David was tender-hearted. David was compassionate.
When he sinned he repented quickly. When he wrote the 23rd Psalm,
I believe that it was a testimony not only to the faithfulness of God, but also
to the fact that The Lord had treated him as he had treated his father’s
flock & the flock of God. Dear God, may we have Shepherds like this.
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David Samuel Parkins mmxvi all rights reserved.
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