He tends his flock like a shepherd:
Isaiah 40:11
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
It was a very full and very fun weekend. I am falling in love with this land all over again. I’m hearing old lessons that I thought I understood, yet I am seeing them in a fresh light.
If you stand in Jerusalem and look to the east, the Mount of Olives dominates the close, eastern horizon, rising above the city and blocking the view to what lay beyond. What is over there? We began Saturday morning atop that mount, looking to the east (from the same point we watched the sunrise a week earlier). Jerusalem receives about 22 inches of rain per year, which incidentally is about the same as London. The only difference is Jerusalem gets nearly all of it from November to April. Just passed the Mount of Olives, the rainfall drops off dramatically to just a couple inches annually fifteen miles to the east in Jericho. As you look to the east from the top of the Mount of Olives, most of the trees quickly disappear to scrub bushes and brown grasses and eventually to barrenness. This is the Judean Wilderness. This is a place of death to the unprepared. This is also the land of the shepherd.
We journeyed south that morning to Bethlehem and the surrounding area. The Herodion, a large volcano-like hill sits several miles southeast of Bethlehem. It was here that Herod the Great (same guy who improved the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) moved a mountain and built a palace/fortress on top. It is also where he was buried.
As we stood on top and overlooked the surrounding landscape, we reflected on the shepherd country around us. Passages like Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) were reflected upon. The land of the shepherd isn’t an easy one. They live in fairly dry country, continually moving the flock from one patch of grass to the next. This is the land of which the Psalmist calls “green pastures” (Psalm 23:2). I think the point is that God gives us enough to get by. It is not belly-deep alfalfa (as Ray VanderLaan likes to contrast it with), but just enough to get by. However, when the sheep follow the shepherd, they will be taken care of because the shepherd is looking out for the sheep.
As Saturday ended, I was very tired, having been on the move for almost 12 hours, but very satisfied with the day. It is days like this that I live for. I bless God greatly for bringing me here. And I thank those of you who have supported me and are praying for me.
