Word of Encouragement (11/16/2022)

Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” (Num. 27:15-17)

In this prayer, Moses prayed for his successor. Notice how he described his role: “a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” Moses was using the imagery of a shepherd to describe his and his successor’s role: he should take care of the congregation of Israel so that they would not be like sheep without a shepherd.

How was he supposed to carry out the work? Moses described the work with four verbs: “go out before them”; “come in before them”; “lead them out”; and “bring them in”. Interestingly, these are not four different verbs in Hebrew; they are two pairs of two verbs (in different voices): “go out” and “lead out” are of the same verb; “come in” and “bring in” are of the same verb, too. To put it more literally, the shepherd is to “go out” and “cause [his sheep] to go out” (or “lead out”); he is to “come in” and “cause [his sheep] to come in’ (or “bring in”).

Let us observe two things. The first is that these verbal connections show that the shepherd would lead by example: as he goes out, he leads out the sheep; as he comes in, he brings them in. This seems only natural, nothing exceptional. This is the way a shepherd leads his sheep: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). This is precisely the reason that Moses used this shepherd imagery to describe Israel’s leader. A leader, who does not have a shepherd’s heart, is prone to be a tyrant.

For the second point, notice that the two same verbs are used for both the shepherd of Israel and the congregation of Israel. This is a clever way of showing the unity between the two, isn’t it? This was certainly true of Moses and the exodus generation. Regarding their unity, Paul said, “...all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea...” (1 Cor. 10:2). Maybe this was why Moses could not enter the promised land: not only did he represent the Law (by the works of which no one can be justified before God), he was united with the exodus generation, who was condemned to perish for their disobedience and rebellion against the LORD. Even though Moses was a great leader, he could not change the sinful people. (Thus is the limitation of the Law.) As their shepherd/leader, he had to share their fate.

God answered this prayer by designating Joshua to succeed Moses as Israel’s new shepherd. He, too, was a great leader. He succeeded in bringing the people of Israel into the promised land and gave them rest from their 40-year wilderness journey. But that was only a picture of God’s greater plan for His people, which He would accomplish through a greater Joshua, Jesus Christ (and “Jesus,” by the way, is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name, “Joshua”). Through His death and resurrection, Jesus entered the eternal, heavenly promised land as our great Shepherd. And He will not fail to bring His sheep into His fold in the kingdom of heaven.

You can see how wonderfully God answered Moses’ prayer. He might have thought that God answered his prayer when He picked Joshua as his successor. Could he have imagined that God would send His Son to be our Shepherd-Savior, who would sacrifice Himself for the redemption of His sheep? Let us remember that Jesus Christ is the ultimate answer to all of our prayers: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). Let us also be assured that even our “mundane” prayers will be answered “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). What a wonderful blessing it is to pray!

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