Prayer: Father, how rich Your word is, filled with wisdom and warnings. I am ready to learn and to listen. Amen.
Reading: Zechariah 11 key: vs. 15-17 “Again Adonai said to me, “Once more take up the equipment of a foolish shepherd! For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the dying, seek out the young or heal the injured or nourish the healthy. Instead, he will eat the meat of the choice sheep, even tearing off their hoofs.” Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May a sword fell his arm and his right eye! May his arm be all withered and his right eye totally blinded!” TLV
Attention: The focus of Adonai in His message to Zechariah is the shepherds of his day were not fulfilling their God given role.
In modern day theology, the office of pastor has been liked to the shepherd which Adonai is speaking of. Whether you have participated in the church model of worship or not, you have a concept of what a pastor is task with. In larger congregations, there are a plurality of pastors. The senior pastor is primarily a preacher or a skilled orator and his or her primary responsibility is preaching the word. Contact with the congregation (the sheep) is limited to the church structure and mostly worship services. Are they true shepherds in the definition of a shepherd?
The old-time pastors were preachers and shepherds. They were like old-time rural doctors, made house calls and lived among the people whom they married and buried. Contact with a pastor was frequent and outside of the four walls of a church facility. Some large churches do have a pastor assigned to hospital visitation, but again, contact outside of the church facility is limited. How can one shepherd without being in the field with the sheep? Are our current pastor offices, truly shepherding if they are “not caring for the dying, seek out the young or heal the injured or nourish the healthy?” Have our current pastors “deserted” the flock they are tasked with shepherding?
Adonai gives a warning to those shepherds who have deserted their flock. May those who are pastors, heed God’s warning.
Action: I choose to heed God’s warnings to me.
Yield: I choose to submit to the authority of Adonai and His word.
Engage: I choose to engage in the teaching of the word.
Relationship: I choose to live in relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, You give us all warnings in scripture of the consequences of not following Your Commandments. May those who lead, and preach, and teach, and shepherd be in the forefront of Your followers, modeling a life in subjection and obedience to You. Amen.
Memory Verses: Ephesians 4:11-13 “He Himself gave some to be emissaries, some as prophets, some as proclaimers of the Good News, and some as shepherds and teachers— to equip the kedoshim for the work of service, for building up the body of Messiah. This will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Ben-Elohim—to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of Messiah’s fullness.” TLV
Music Video: Steve Green—Find Us Faithful https://youtu.be/MKT5BCmvmq0?si=fEAa3y4KYGgpvbjc
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”