Good Shepherd

Isa.40:¹¹ “He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.”

Being spiritual does not mean that you cannot get any value from earthly things. Jesus needed Philip’s local knowledge because they were in Philip’s hometown Bethsaida. Yesterday, we spoke briefly about a time when David also needed to rely on local intelligence even though God had given him a powerful Word, “Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail, recover all.” 1 Sam.30:8 (KJV]. David found a little Egyptian boy on the way; he needed that local knowledge to recover what God had told him he will recover. God sometimes hides answers to our prayers in somebody that is local. It is your responsibility to identify him or her by the Holy Spirit and get the information you need.

We must pay attention to intelligence and we must gather intelligence. We must ask questions of people that know the terrains more than us. Jesus was God but He still had to ask Phillip, “Where can we get bread?’ In other words, this is where you come from Phillip, so where can we get bread? If they were in Galilee, Jesus would not need to ask Phillip because He would know where to get bread. That is one of the reasons why Jesus had a team. Jesus was God, but He knew He could not achieve His destiny by Himself. Jesus needed a team. When they got to  Bethsaida Phillip was relevant. When they get to Samaria, the woman by the well was relevant. She was part of Jesus’ team; she was the one that went to gather everybody. When they get to Jerusalem, James and John were relevant. None of us is as strong as all of us. None of us is as smart as all of us. None of us is as intelligent as all of us. If Jesus could rely on people, you need people.

John 6:⁷ “Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” What was Jesus’ question? What was Phillip’s answer? Jesus asked, “Where can we find bread?” Like Phillip, has God asked you to do something that is “out of this world”? Something that made you wonder if such a thing were even possible? Jesus saw a multitude of people coming and He was asking Phillip where they could get bread to feed all the people. John 6:⁵ “…Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (emphasis added). Did Jesus ask these people to come? No. Was Jesus expecting them to come? No. But Jesus saw them coming and the first thing Jesus thought about was, where can we get food to feed all these people? What does that tell you about Jesus? Jesus is unbelievably caring.

In another account, one of the disciples proposed that the people go into the villages and find food for themselves. In other words, what is our business with that? We relate easily with Jesus as our King, but we do not relate easily with the kindness of Jesus. Jesus is not only King, Jesus is kind, kind-hearted. He did not have to worry about feeding these people. Shouldn’t they have taken care of their own feeding before coming to Jesus? But Jesus chose to play host to His guests.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are my Shepherd, guide me, and provide for me, in Jesus Name. Amen!