Potency. Knowledge. As children, in some form or fashion, we played something that resembled house. Even us boys mimicked our father or a father figure in our lives. And as we grew older, we held lofty ideas and ideals of our future life. Money to be had, comfortable career, recreation, and if children were part of the dream, they were the most well behaved. It seemed as if becoming an adult would make life so much easier.
But something I've learned from well over 20 years of marriage and raising three children into adulthood with one of them married and another one who made me a grandpa, are the standards and principles that once seemed absolute, resolute, stone-wall became something towards grey. A definitive target with an aim to the bullseye eventually gave way to just being happy/content to just land somewhere on the target...even if it's best three out of five toward the target. Attempt is better than never trying?
Whether we like it or not or admit it or not, something stealthily creeps into our lives. We are still a Christian, attend church, and declare Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Nonetheless, a little bit of comfort. A little bit of security. A little bit of less stress. Flying by the seat of our pants on faith and shoestring budgets give way to planning and caution. Some of us older Christians remember going out of town for an outreach (sharing Jesus with someone) with little to no money so long as we had at most twenty dollars for fuel, we were all good. We just wanted to do something for God and money had very little concern with what we did for God. Some of us ate little or cheap to save a few dollars to go to a Bible conference and once there, we ate grocery-store food or perhaps some food brought from home. After we got there, we gladly shared our meager food with one another. Even in our homes and families, perhaps we saved for a once-a-year trip or a once-every-other-year trip, by spending little to save money over time. Playing with the kids meant going outside. It is amazing what a little bit of time and a water hose can do. Speaking of which, we never worried what would happen by drinking from a water hose. Now we justify by calling everything wisdom and maturity in what we do now in contrast to back then. Yet in truth, potency and passion that once was there had to bow out from being our copilot. Or maybe I am only speaking about my life?
In the Bible David, who later became a king, was a man's man even as a youth. It didn't take long after David and Goliath and this youth was leading armies. Men of varying backgrounds gravitated to him. Perhaps the anointing. Perhaps his faith in God. Perhaps he naturally got along with men. And within this young warrior and into his kingship, David trusted God. Whether he directly inquired of the Lord or just lived in the comfort to know that God was there, he never once concerned himself as a leader—in any capacity—with the size of his army. He knew his men's mighty exploits. He knew what God did. He knew the arts of war. And he had natural (and God-given) abilities, training, and talent. There was a potency in his life. And whether David ever desired it, his and his men's fame went throughout the land to make their enemies think twice before considering a foolish attack or attempt. Even David's sons learned that passion and pride to overthrow the kingdom cannot overpower a man who loved God.
The battle was (and is and forever will be) the Lord’s (see 1 Samuel 17:47). And whether by idolatry or complacency or something, the Bible records in 1 Samuel 24:1 that the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. A compulsion within King David motivated him to number his troops in Israel and Judah. His mighty men, his great army, troops able to rally together for a singular cause simply by the call of a servant king and great commander in chief gave way to the king to number his armies to see where he stood. Can my army of X number of troops go against an enemy with Y number of troops? Will the twilight of my reign and subsequent reigns through my protogyny continue without fear of an aggressor taking it all away? Can I tout throughout the land before any enemy, foreign or domestic, that they had better really reconsider before taking on King David and his subsequent heir. And perhaps this last thought could had also been the reason: “son, I paved the way and now you have X number of troops who will fight and die for you as faithfully as they did with me”. A dreadful lie we can convince ourselves is in contrast to what Zechariah 4:6 says, “…Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”. We can lie to ourselves that it is by charisma, talent, title, ability, capability, and even availability is sufficient enough to carry things on even if and when God is absent or when we believe “I've got this and will only bring God out from His box/bottle when I really need help”. Like Samson, we believe in ourselves, our past victories, our past anointing, and now couple that with our “wisdom”, we can just shake off the enemy just as simply as we once did when we were cutting edge.
And to that end, something else changed over time in David’s heart and life. The warrior, the king, the valiant man replaced the one who used to fight and care even if only over a few sheep. David forgot where he came from. The potency and power in leadership is the care of a leader for his men. Words carry weight. Words can rally. Words can make one believe again. But there is a quality (a number of qualities) within leaders who lead by example and service. An example of being one with the men versus apart from the men (this is not saying leaders should not consecrate). He leads by serving. And he leads by sacrifice. It was David’s sacrifice and leadership (along with David’s passionate belief/relationship in God) that made Johnathan believe that two can take out a garrison. It is a leadership that makes three men risk their lives and position to go behind enemy lines just to get a drink of certain water from a well for their general. I am not talking about elevating a leader to a godlike position. But when love and sacrifice is shown from a leader to his men, then it isn’t difficult for the troops to not only give their love and devotion toward their leader…as well as instruct and lead others to carry and have the vision of the founding leader. It is a leadership that stayed David and his troops to not rise up against God’s anointed even when the anointed King Saul grew insanely jealous and eventually (I believe) demonically led. It is a leader who stops midway from taking out Nabal by the soft wisdom and visionary words of Abigail. It is a leader who would not throw his troops under the bus when they spoke of stoning David as well as being sensitive toward his soldiers who were too battle weary to continue once again in a fight. Additionally this same excellence in leadership was shone toward a weak Egyptian servant who couldn’t continue on the conquest with Israel’s enemy. Lastly it is that love and leadership who desired to bless any descendants of the former king for his friend Johnathon’s sake (see 2 Samuel 9).
Yet with all these and more valiant leadership qualities within David, something shifted. Not glaring sin. Not rebellion. But most likely a drift over time. Something changed a heart of this former shepherd of sheep to a shepherd of his people (a promise prophesied to him in 2 Samuel 5:2). 2 Samuel 24 holds a number of verses that make great sermon material. But when reading this passage recently, something caught my attention. We approach the matter of numbering the men and how wrong that was. Commonly we approach with sermons and offerings with David paying for the sacrifice and where to have the sacrifice versus just taking it because he is king. I commented recently during an offering I took up at church that David had the right to take but he didn't want to offer anything to God that didn't cost him anything. But something said in the Bible between these two events stood out to me about David that happened. It is a failure that crept into David’s heart. The Bible records the following narrative in 2 Samuel 24:10-15, “10 And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.’ 11 Now when David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 ‘Go and tell David, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.’“‘ 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, ‘Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.’ 14 And David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.’ 15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.” For a moment, I would like to pause to tie in two New Testament scriptures to show the issue at hand. The first one that comes to mind is found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke with Jesus healing the centurion's servant. The centurion spoke of his authority and a man who also serves under authority. But if we are not careful we miss something. To be a servant of a centurion required trust of the centurion toward the servant. The earned position of the servant was also treated well, ate well, and were at important events with the centurion. But this servant wasn't an employee or a slave of the centurion to just be cast aside, fired, or to hop onto Indeed.com to get another one to replace his servant flippantly. Whether the Trail of Tears, the Bataan Death March, in 1 Samuel 30 about the Egyptian left on the side of the road by the Amalekites (referenced above), or other events, the sick and dying were either left to the side to suffer and die on their own or they were promptly executed so that the sick person's food ration can be given to another and/or their (the moving military’s) pace doesn't slow. But that wasn’t the case of this servant of the centurion. Regardless of race and despite this man having nothing—money, power, fame, family heritage, whatever—couldn’t benefit the centurion other than simple loyalty. It takes a special person to serve an enemy leader and to serve well. A wise saying from the late Pastor Wayman Mitchell said that the kind of men you will pastor one day will be most likely what kind of a man you were and are under your pastor as a disciple. So because of this privileged position of servant, that leader was willing to stop the music to seek out a cure. Perhaps the Centurion tried normal medicinal methods and they failed. Perhaps the Centurion gave it time but time only made the servant worse and not better. So this is a really important and noteworthy moment for this Centurion to go to Jesus. Jew or not, alleged miracle worker or not, Jesus was this man’s best hope. And Jesus moved not just because of the word “authority” but also because of devoted service and trust between the two compelled this Centurion to go beyond his fellow Centurions did…He went to God. A word and it was done. This servant-leader’s heart was noticed. The other passage of emphasis I would like to tie in is found in the Gospel of John chapter 10:11-13, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.” A shepherd is and was an occupation of dedication and devotion. The sheep (or goats) was the family’s source of income when animals were sold, it was the source of meat when butchered, a source of milk for the family, and it’s body and fleece were completely used. Further, the sheep and lamb may serve as the family’s sacrificial lamb/sheep once a year. Sheep are skittish. They will run because of noise even if running will lead to its death. So the shepherd would sing and talk to the sheep to bring comfort by the tone of the shepherd’s voice. The sheep know by the voice when to go into the corral/sheepfold or out to pasture for grazing. The shepherd would always be on the look out for grazing ground and water. Cows and horses have big lips and so when they eat grass, they can only eat so far. But sheep and goats will literally eat the grass to bare ground because their lips are much smaller. Sheep are—speaking plainly—stupid. When rain would fall from the sky, sheep will look up to see what is pelting them on the head and even drown from falling rain and not realize it. The role of the shepherd is a constant devotion to this flock. And this devotion, to be honest, is becoming more and more foreign in companies today. People would get hired with a company in their twenties or thirties and unless something happens remain at that company until retirement. Today there is no longer that devotion to employers. This devotion of the shepherd is a 365-day job. Vacation was back at the main ranch house so to speak for a day or so. One might even say that being a shepherd isn’t a vocation but a calling due to the amount of devotion the shepherd has toward the sheep.
So with the context of this word shepherd in mind, I want us to go back to 2 Samuel 24 to look carefully at what happened. David sinned against God by choosing to trust in numbers—the strength is found in numbers—rather than wholly depending on God to lead His people through whom He desires. And for a moment, I wish to draw a parallel of the word shepherd in the literal sense and David as a king or in a more simplistic term a leader to then align these words for a pastor, a teacher (biblically or in a school system), and a leader (in church, at a job, or in government). I could also include military in this context. The point being the rhetorical question based on everything I have said above to be this: what makes a good leader? Another question, what will a leader do or not do for its people (or shepherd for the sheep)? We would love to say that a leader always has our best interest to heart. But let us look at what David did to which I declare that many people (certainly not all, but definite enough to warrant this entire writing’s thought) would do what David did. He was given three choices as a punishment: seven years of famine, flee from your enemies for three months, or three days of a plague. At first brush and possibly why King David chose this option, three days is certainly the least number of days to live with a punishment. Give me my spanking and let’s get it over with rather than truly learning a lesson. Why did he not choose the first option, that is a long time. Also why not the first option and certainly not the second option: too costly against David personally. Now let’s go back to the hireling Jesus spoke about in John 10. The hireling doesn’t care about the flock and will leave it or abandon it when trouble comes. David abandoned his sheep (Israel) to preserve himself. And often when being a leader hasn’t been eyes of love and admiration or worse “the voice of a god and not of a king”, we leaders are willing to say “to hell with them, I’ll go do something else”. Crass and harsh? Perhaps then we just omit the person from our prayer list to let the Devil go after the straggler? Perhaps going on outreach with a burning passion to reach that one more person, to send out a church to a city or nation that perhaps won’t yield a large congregation or will be work literally every day (a hard fight against hell’s dominion), we casually choose somewhere else or “I’m not ready to go” or “let someone younger now go on outreach because I’ve already paid my dues” or “I’m too busy with family time or my job to pay for my toys…” And without realizing it, the outreach we choose to not attend, the city we choose to not go to, the nation we choose to forget, the person standing across from us at the grocery store or convenience store, the person in our classroom, the new Christian struggling with letting go of their old life we choose the least punishment for ourselves. We, from a shepherd willing to lay down our life for the sheep to a hireling who says “see ya”, we choose wrongly. With all Paul dealt with concerning long suffering, we remark back to God (even if under our breath) I’ve suffered long enough. Paul challenged to look out for the interest of others and Jesus challenged Peter to care for the lambs and sheep, but what happens when the flames get hotter, the pay is better, the recreation seems more deserving, the “I have the right to be angry at those people”, the “let someone else do it” and we let them go. Instead of the second net that held the large harvest of fish toward the end of the book of John, our nets become to those that break…if we even care at all. Consecration and sanctification, let that be for the new convert in his/her zeal. Time and wisdom has come upon me to see that life isn’t as black and white or isn’t about absolutes. And being a standard so that others may live toward that righteousness, let them figure it out themselves. I’m tired of contending.
And it would be so easy to vilify David and minimize ourselves when our decisions don’t literally (or so openly) kill off people. Haunting words that Jesus spoke isn’t about the millstone being hung around an elder or leader’s neck, but it is the words “he who causes these little ones to stumble”. I choose to only give in the offering plate once a month, good enough. And so others see that and perhaps give less often. I pick and choose my outreaches to attend, so then others may choose to do even less. Or alternatively he/she chose less, I keep being faithful, but that person keeps leading and being promoted while I get a “spanking” for being five minutes late to an outreach. Certain people whom the Lord anointed could teach new converts but when it is decided against, then the new Christian suffers to the only thing that matters is church attendance, money to give, and perhaps go to outreach and yet never learn why we should do any or all of that at all. During a recent El Paso Bible conference, they held a Q&A session and a question was asked to Pastor Greg Mitchell. And it was noticeable that people (pastors) have said “this is the rule” when something was not a rule and further no reason to understand why. We, as Christians, sadly do our walk with God a disservice when it all becomes following rules, behaving well enough to not get a rebuke from our pastor in his office, and hopefully we’re tithing or giving enough to appear to be tithing to keep questions at bay. And as such, those of us who’ve served in leadership positions see “the microphone” to become the preacher or worse (even if we don’t audibly declare it) “I cannot wait to become a pastor so I can treat my church _____ like my pastor treated me” or worse “the Bible is wrong, the Fellowship is wrong, I have a better method because I watch 20 different preachers (including women preachers) on YouTube and TikTok, so I am ready to show the world what I can say”.
Seems far fetched? Seems like I have ran away with the rabbits down holes that are not there? Perhaps the landscape of the American churches is completely disproving everything I’ve just written? And perhaps the hearts of every preacher and leader is noble to never choose the path of less suffering? Fortunately for us, there is a detail missing between the judgment of Israel by the sword-drawn angel and the offering made at Ornan in 2 Samuel 24. In a recent reading of the Bible, I came across hope…the heart of the shepherd came back to David. 1 Chronicles 21:17 says, “…’Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O LORD my God, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.’” This singular verse is the true heart of a shepherd. The heart is the one whom Jesus spoke of in John 10, the centurion who pleaded for the life of his servant, and the heart of every pastor and leader and teacher, etc. Leadership in a Bible study, an outreach team, a concert/drama team, children’s ministry, etc. isn’t about us (the leader). It isn’t about dues paid. It isn’t about “the microphone”. The leader is the one who goes back to the door of an arguer who contests the zeal of the new Christian on their first outreach by protecting that sheep. It is also that person who redirects argument to being about hope on that doorstep. It is that person who gets that phone call at 1:30am when all hell just broke loose in a marriage, the hospital phone call, or the new convert is about to quit on God. It is that leader who sees as God sees in new Christians: hope, chance, the next ___, the catalyst for breakthrough in the church. It is that leader who invests heart, asks questions to teach the new Christian, and uses the Bible—not the newest YouTube preacher’s theme or stale and unbiblical church’s/denomination’s doctrine—as the standard. It is the shepherd who will take a cut to the chin or a bop on the nose while the sheep continue grazing in the green pastures beside the still waters. It is that shepherd when challenged to drink from a cup of suffering during a short time while in the long time we tend those sheep and feed those lambs. It is the heart of the shepherd, like the mother hen, who will protect the brood from the weather—the storms unleashed by Satan—while getting pelted.
And this further solidifies, a shepherd is not a vocation but a calling. Jesus is calling. Who will feed the lambs, tend the sheep, and feed the sheep? Who will lead all day every day? Who will take the punishment for our poor choice to save His flock? Who will declare His Word even when we may be guilty of the very thing we preach/teach (in hopeful repentance of all)? Who will deny the passing pleasures—sin or not—for what Abrham, Isaac, and Jacob desired, “for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10) to then in Hebrews 11:13 and 16, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them…a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
What have we numbered in our lives? May whatever that cost or that fleshly affirmation be, be repented of and laid aside to take on the heart of a shepherd.