The Hebrew way of thinking compared to our Greek inherited way.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17 & Mark 10:17-31

Last Sunday our Epistle reading gave the starter information about the book of Job. It’s an interesting story and an encouragement to anyone going through difficult times as you wonder where God is in your experiences. What is it about the passage in Job tonight that strikes you?

Let me quickly again summarise the story of Job. Job is a very righteous man, so righteous that God boasts about him in a conversation with the Satan. Satan is then given permission to test how faithful Job would be if he had to endure loss, grief, and pain. Job’s friends come to bring comfort to him but fail miserably. After an extended series of dialogues between Job and these friends, God speaks out of a whirlwind. Job answers God and then God restores Job’s good fortunes. Questions about why good people like Job suffer are left unanswered, but Job’s relationship with God is renewed. It's worth reading the book of Job and understanding that pain and suffering are sometimes in God’s plan to help us and or others to be strengthened in their faith.

SO WHAT?

The problem of human suffering and God’s involvement in the pain of the world is always with us. Efforts to find the cause of suffering often lead people (like Job and his counsellors) to try to put the blame somewhere – on self, others, God, or the Devil. The book of Job asks us to look beyond blame, accept ambiguity and uncertainty, and trust God for what we cannot understand or control.

Right now, God’s world is facing a crisis that may involve catastrophic results, we need to understand that the God we believe in understands everything that’s going on and knows the outcome. In fact He has predicted it. Let’s compare the story of Job with Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my Shepherd therefore I lack nothing”;

“I will fear no evil, his rod and staff comfort me”;

“He guides me in the way of righteousness” ;

“surely goodness and love will follow me all my days”;

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Hebrews in Jesus day had no problem regarding faith in God, a Hebrew child grew up believing in God as our children grow up believing in mum. There would never be any doubt in the mind of a Hebrew child. Just as we grow up now accepting the world is round the Hebrew child would accept God WAS and IS.

Anyone who didn't believe would be seen as silly. Quite the opposite to our western society. They believed because their fathers and mothers, who had been taught by their fathers and mothers, taught them the truths that had been handed down from the Old Testament we still have today. Hence the positive notes that ring out from Psalm 23. The Lord IS my shepherd, Therefore I lack nothing. GOD PROVIDES. He LEADS me beside still waters. GOD GUIDES. Even though I walk through the valley of death, I have NO fear. GOD CARES. It was engrained in the children’s upbringing, an important part of a child's education.

There was no talk about, what age could a child be seen to believe for themselves. There was such a positive attitude It was never a problem. Taking this absolute and positive attitude the child's belief would form as it learnt to think, and it would be a most natural part of its upbringing. Unfortunately, most of us do not come from Hebrew stock but rather from stock that developed the Greek way when it comes to philosophy and thought patterns. We require a reflection on cause and effect. For example, even after the world was discovered to be round it could not be fully believed in western culture until we had discovered how we can stand upside down in the southern hemisphere and not fall off. So, we learnt about the law of gravity, and the theory of a world that was round was accepted. Not however with the Hebrews, when the world was found to be round, they would simply have said, “We believe it because nothing is impossible for God”. God comes before human intellect. And the fact that the western world discovered the law of gravity, would make no difference. A Hebrew would probably say, “I told you so, have you tried to work out who put the law of gravity in place in the first place. We in the Greek thinking world have to say pass, we can't answer that one, unless may I suggest we slip out of our Greek habits and say nothing is impossible for God.

Bearing this in mind I want now to turn your thoughts back to the 23rd Psalm, to the idea of God as a shepherd. God as shepherd is one of the most common allegories or pictures that we have used of God in the whole of the Scriptures. For us in New Zealand to understand it we need to put aside our farming techniques and look at the way the Hebrews cared for their sheep. A sheep is very short sighted, it only sees a short distance in front. Interesting isn’t it how this biblical picture language depicts us humans like sheep. The Hebrew way of caring for sheep was for the shepherd to walk in front and the sheep would follow. It sounds incredible to us in New Zealand. If any of our farmers ever tried it, they wouldn’t get much response. But you can go some way to achieving it with pet lambs, can't you. Where you’ve spent time from birth caring for a lamb, you are doing what Christ will do for our children if we educate them from a young age that God loves them. Well, the Hebrew shepherd would have a smaller flock, and he would know every sheep by name.

They would hear his voice, and they would follow him, because they knew he was there to protect them. At night the sheep would go into a stone pen and the shepherd would sleep across the entrance to keep the wild animals at bay. And often more than one shepherd would bring their sheep to the one pen, but in the morning each shepherd would call their sheep, and their flock would follow them, no drafting needed. A little like tupping time, when the lambs get separated from mum and you here all the ewes bleating and wonder how they recognise their mum. During World War One Turkish soldiers tried to steal a flock of sheep from a hillside near Jerusalem. The shepherd who had been sleeping suddenly wakened and saw his sheep being herded away on the other side of the ravine, He could not hope to recapture his flock single-handedly by force, but suddenly he had a thought. This is a true story, he put his hands to his mouth and gave his own peculiar call the call he used each day to gather his sheep. For a moment the sheep stopped and listened then hearing it again they took off across the ravine to their shepherd, to the utter amazement of the soldiers. The shepherd was away to a place of safety for his sheep before the soldiers had time to think of following.

No, the Hebrew shepherd put great value on his sheep he would count them going into the sheepfold at night and if one was missing, he would backtrack where he had been that day and find the missing sheep. There were many dangers, and wild beasts were just one danger. They weren't in paddocks like our sheep they were free to roam, just as we are. I want to use now, simply as a comparative illustration and not to run down today's farming methods, the way the New Zealand farmer does it today. The New Zealand farmer directs operations from the rear, the sheep are moved in much larger mobs, coloured sheep are often kept in different mobs to white sheep, we separate them into paddocks. The farmer is concerned for their welfare if they are producing a profit and as long as they are healthy. Can't afford to keep sheep that are not paying their way. A healthy sheep is a good sheep good for the economic stability. Let’s call this way sheep are looked after the Greek way.

If you were a sheep which mob, would you prefer to be in. The Greek mob, or the Hebrew mob. You can be part of a huge crowd, being manipulated and directed from behind, looked after as long as you are useful. Put into a particular mould, convinced there is no such thing as a shepherd who really cares. How you wish you were in the Hebrew mob. It may be a smaller group, It may mean sometimes going down a path you would prefer not to go. But you will never ever have a doubt about the fact, that there is a shepherd up front who has your wellbeing as a major concern, keeping you safe. Even if you wander, he will come seeking you out, as you call out to him, he will come and help you. He will bring you back to where you should be, He will protect you from danger during the dark times, but if you are determined to stray into the big mob, you have no marking to distinguish you, He will seek you out, but he will not find you unless you hear his call and come to him.

Phillip Keller an American Christian minister, who had once been a sheep farmer says this in his book entitled "A shepherd looks at psalm 23". “With sheep he says, because of their very make up it is almost impossible to get them to lie down unless four requirements are met. First due to their timid nature, THEY MUST BE FREE FROM FEAR. Secondly because of their social nature with other sheep, THEY MUST BE FREE FROM FRICTION WITH OTHER SHEEP. Thirdly if they are going to be relaxed enough to lie down, THEY NEED TO BE FREE FROM FLIES OR PARASITES. Fourthly, they will not lie down, UNLESS THEY ARE WELL FED. It is only the shepherd that can find release from all these.”

As our "Good Shepherd" the Lord meets all these needs for us, so that we can "Lie down in green pastures" with our souls truly in his care. To close, there is a story told of a young girl who was desperately ill and dying. She had been taught the 23rd Psalm and she would recite it touching a finger on the hand with each word she said and on the word shepherd she would clasp her thumb. One morning after a long and hard fight against death she was found dead with one hand clasping her thumb. "The Lord is still her shepherd, He has made her lie down in green pastures, he has led her to quiet waters.

Surely she dwells in the house of the Lord forever."