Micah 7:14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest,
    in fertile pasturelands.^[a]
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
    as in days long ago.

This whole passage is confusing as to who is saying what to whom, but there is no question it involves God as the Great Shepherd, just as is expressed in Hebrews 13:20. The Bible is full of the image of shepherds and sheep, with kings as well as ministers being referred to as shepherds, and the people as sheep. One of the most famous of those is of course the supreme Old Testament description of Christ in Isaiah 53, where verse six says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Very few people today have much personal experience with sheep and shepherds, so it takes a little extra revelation to grasp all these Bible passages. The point is the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd. There is of course a massive difference in intelligence and understanding. That certainly holds between God and mankind, but the distinctions get very muddy when both “shepherd” and “sheep” are human. In fact, a fairly recent construction is “sheeple,” blending “sheep” and “people,” describing when people fail to exercise the discernment they were born with and blindly follow a leader, particularly a politician. God is the only Shepherd worthy of such devotion! That said, there is a lot of responsibility in the role of shepherd. Human leaders are at best under-shepherds, accountable to the Great Shepherd, but far too few of them really grasp that fact. And few of them really acknowledge that, as Jesus said, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) Jesus Himself is of course the ultimate example of that, but every human leader needs to take it to heart.

I am in the middle of a rather rough lesson in this principle. Yesterday I corrected someone, they didn’t accept the correction, and the exchange got rather heated. On top of that, their spouse took me to task and said, “Would Jesus have talked like that? You need to be more like Jesus.” I was in a lot of turmoil over that, and contacted a retired pastor friend to consult about it. This morning I woke up to a text message from him, pointing out that an honest reading of the Gospels shows that Jesus’ words weren’t always gentle, particularly when he was correcting people. The last thing I want to do is drive people away, but I must speak the truth in love. Just two days ago the reading focused specifically on that, and God gave me a practicum in it yesterday. Being a good shepherd doesn’t mean pampering the sheep, and it doesn’t just mean feeding them, though that is impor­tant. I am to seek and receive wisdom from the Great Shepherd and apply discipline as called for, because anything less is not true love. How that is received is between the person and God.

Father, thank You for my retired pastor friend, and for the comfort You gave me through him. I do pray for the person I corrected yesterday, that they would be willing to look at themselves honestly and not defensively. I do ask for peace, for that person, their spouse, and for me, that all of us may grow as You intend, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!