I think it is about time we pick up an old book called the Bible. I have no doubt that old Book will give us the perspective we desperately need.

C. S. Lewis once wrote an essay to a very old book wherein he commended the practice of reading old books. He, as a modern writer, did not want people to stop reading modern books but to generously sprinkle their reading of modern books with old ones.  However, and this gets his point across, he said, “But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old.” Now, he gave that advice because he didn’t want the reader being carried away unprotected into modern perspectives. So, Lewis went on to commend the reading of old books. It is an excellent essay and I highly commend it and the practice that Lewis commends in it, that is, intentionally reading old books.
There are a variety of reasons for this practice but I think Lewis sums up an important one in the essay. He writes, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.” I would like to illustrate this principle in this little essay.
But before I tell you about that experience let me give you some cultural background. Our present Western culture has not abandoned morality. It has changed morality. For example, homosexual practice was once viewed as sin (and even illegal).  But the orientation was something that was considered a psychological problem needing to be corrected. If a young man dressed up like a woman he too was considered a candidate for mental health services. In fact, even the church has capitulated to this new morality. Granted, some have not gone as far as mainline liberalism but there are even Reformed churches flirting with the idea of allowing candidates for ministry who identify as gay (as if it were a neutral orientation) but celibate. What is more, criticism of these practices and orientations is considered to be a sin of the worst kind.  Enter an old book.
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There will be times where we must lead our flocks through dark valleys and dangers. Perhaps that danger comes in the form of a cancer diagnosis. Maybe the dark, shadowed valley is the loss of a child – I have been through that valley. Perhaps leading the flock in dark valleys looks like (instead of placating the sheep) calling the comfortable, fat, and lazy sheep to greater investment, obedience, and engagement in Kingdom ministry. Leading in the valley might mean making decisions as leaders that might be hard or challenging for the flock to follow – decisions that might risk offending or upsetting the flock because it calls out their intolerance, arrogance, or disobedience.

The imagery of God as our heavenly Shepherd, contained in Psalm 23, has captivated, and comforted us for thousands of years. It has aided to comfort us through times of loss and has well-reminded us of God’s intimate presence with us in all seasons of life. For many of us, we can join with Jacob and confidently state that God, “has been my shepherd all my life long to this day” (Gen. 48:15).
However, as we consider the shepherding imagery of God’s care in Psalm 23, we often have missed the leadership imagery that is latent in the concept of shepherding. In Ancient Near Eastern cultures, shepherding was often associated with kingly responsibilities and duties. As Timothy S. Laniak explains, “Pastoral images conveyed notions of rulership – both divine and human – in a wide variety of historical periods, geographical regions, and literary contexts in the Ancient Near East. Shepherd language was used in stock titles and epithets to define a king’s role as just ruler, benevolent provider and/or powerful defender. Ancient sources describe a country’s citizenry (or army) as a flock and their experience of plenty as green pastures.”[1]
This shepherd/leadership imagery is found littered throughout the Scriptures. Often, in the OT, to shepherd is also to rule. When David was anointed as King, the tribes of Israel came to him at Hebron and said, “’In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.’” As well, Psalm 77:20 describes God’s leadership with shepherding language, “You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” In Isaiah 40:11, the prophet foretells of the perfect Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and describes Him in shepherding language, “He will tend His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
The Perfect Shepherd is also a Perfect King, and the Shepherd King leads His flock.
This means that biblical leadership shares similar principles with shepherding. It is no surprise, then, that the tasks of shepherding and leading are tied to the role of Pastor and Elder in the New Testament. Listen to what the Apostle Peter says to the elders in the churches of Asia, “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you…” (1 Pet. 5:1-2). To be an elder of a church is to also be a shepherd!
As elders, then, we ought to look at how the scriptures describe our Shepherd King for guidance on how we ought to be shepherd leaders. As Psalm 23 describes (in vivid detail) how the Good Shepherd leads us, we, as elders and shepherds, therefore ought to emulate His leadership.
If Psalm 23 presents a picture of how God shepherds His people, what might Psalm 23 teach elders how to shepherd the flock of Christ? I want to suggest a few key pastoral lessons that we might take away from this famous Psalm.
1. Elders Lead the Flock to Contentment in Christ
The Psalm begins by saying, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters. He restores my soul.”
Many commentators of this Psalm have suggested “I shall not want” might be also translated, “I lack nothing” or “I do not lack”.[2] The idea here is simple yet profound – if the Lord is my shepherd, all my needs are met. True contentment is found alone in the Shepherd King. This lack of wanting is not found simply in participating in the practices of Christianity – in bible reading, church attendance, prayer, family devotions or good deeds – but rather is found in and from the person, work, will, and fellowship of Christ. The Shepherd is the source of our satisfaction.
Our desires vanish in the face of the provision that being in Christ offer us. It leads the porn-addict to see how their deepest desires are met in the grace, forgiveness, Holy-Spirit-empowered-resistance, and affections-resetting power of the presence of Jesus. It leads the social-media scouring teenage girl – who looks for affirmation from peers, boys, and strangers – to understand that the world’s shallow definition of value only leaves her empty and hungry in comparison to the dignity and worth she has in Christ.
Elders and pastors lead in this way. They enjoy Christ in such as a way that there is powerful authority when they point to Jesus and say, “THERE is life! THERE is peace! THERE is contentment! Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Turn away from your sins and come find rest in Jesus!” Elders know this lack of want, and they call others to be satisfied and restored in Christ alone.
2. Elders Lead the Flock in Christ’s Paths
The Psalm continues, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness….”
As God leads us as our Shepherd, He directs us in good ways. The paths He leads us on lead to fruitfulness, to godliness, and shape us into the image of Christ along the ways. The paths of righteousness are not filled with jealousy, anger, lust, selfish ambition, greed but rather are filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. The paths lead us to the cross of Jesus Christ, where our sins were atoned for, and to the tomb of Jesus, where we died in His death and rose in His resurrection. The paths lead us to love God and love our neighbors. God leads us to Himself, on paths that conform us into His image.
There are other paths that we could go down, paths we think can lead to satisfaction or contentment. We could chase after satisfaction through individualism, indulgence, innovation, and immorality. There are some who claim to follow the Shepherd who seek the path of self-righteousness and think their own good deeds justify them. But our Shepherd says, and His under-shepherds both model and say, “Don’t forge new paths in the wilderness. Seek first the Kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”
As elders and pastors, we lead our people in these paths as those who have traversed them first, and the paths lead them to look more like Jesus (Eph. 4:11-13).
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Written by Jason S. DeRouchie |
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
God’s promises are often associated with life or death and conditioned on whether his covenant partner obeys….Representing Abraham and Israel, Jesus actively obeyed and secured Old Testament promises for all who are in him. 

Four Ways Jesus Makes Every Promise “Yes”
When Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Law and Prophets, he is actualizing what Scripture anticipated and achieving what God promised and predicted (Matt. 5:17; 11:13; Luke 16:16; 24:44). Truly every promise in Scripture is “Yes” in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20), and in him God secures every blessing for believers (Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3).
Yet Jesus fulfills the Old Testament’s promises in more than one way, and this means Christians cannot approach Old Testament promises all in the same manner. Believers must claim Scripture’s promises using a salvation-historical framework that has Jesus at the center. Christ is the lens that clarifies and focuses the lasting significance of all God’s promises for us.
With a firm grasp of the progress of salvation history, this accessible guide helps Christians interpret the Old Testament, see how it testifies to Jesus, believe that Jesus secured every divine promise, and understand how Moses’s law still matters.
1. Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with no extension.
Christ maintains certain promises without extending them to further beneficiaries. Many of these are explicit restoration promises that include a vision of a global salvation after Israel’s exile. Consider, for example, Daniel’s prediction: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Alluding to this passage, Jesus associated this same resurrection with his second coming: “An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of Man’s] voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29; cf. John 11:11, 25; 1 Cor. 15:51–52).
Jesus noted that the Old Testament indicates that the Messiah’s resurrection would precede and generate our own: “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46–47; cf. 1 Cor 15:3–5).1
The resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment are two of “the elementary doctrine[s] of Christ” (Heb. 6:1–2). Christians should claim the promise of resurrection in Daniel 12:2 as our own. We do so, however, recognizing that we will only rise because Christ was first raised. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. . . . Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). As Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25; cf. Rom. 6:5). This resurrection has an already-but-not-yet dimension, as the redeemed saints from both the Old and New Testament epochs benefit from it. Jesus maintains the Old Testament promise without altering those profiting from it.
2. Christ maintains some Old Testament promises with extension.
When Christ fulfills some Old Testament promises, he extends the promise to all parties related to him. For example, consider how the Messiah’s promised mission gets extended to the church. Isaiah portrayed the coming royal deliverer as speaking in first person and declaring that Yahweh called him from the womb, named him “Israel,” and told him that his mission as God’s servant was to save some from the people of Israel and the rest of the nations:
It is too light a thing that you should be my servantto raise up the tribes of Jacoband to bring back the preserved of Israel;I will make you as a light for the nations,that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.(Isa. 49:6 cf. Isa. 49:1, 3)2
By this act God would fulfill his earlier promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; cf. Isa. 51:1–4; 54:1–3).
Paul saw Jesus as the most immediate referent to Isaiah’s servant-person, for he said he was “saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22–23). Yet Paul also saw the Old Testament promises reaching further to the mission of all who are in Christ:
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