How is the Lord My Shepherd? #108 #Psalm23

04/15/20 • 23 min

Happy Four Weeks in Quarantine, everybody - maybe your quarantine has been less than ours? Our Bible readings today are Leviticus 19, Psalms 23 and 24, Ecclesiastes 2 and 1 Timothy 4.

For many people in the past, Psalm 23 was almost as popular and well-known as John 3:16. I am not quite sure that is the case for younger generations, but my generation of church kids was frequently exposed to this Psalm, and for good reason - it is one of the most comforting passages in Scripture! Let's read it and then come back and discuss it. (We'll add Psalms 24 in the reading too, but mostly focus our discussion on 23):

The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Psalm 23

The Shepherd metaphor is abundantly used in Scripture. In modern society, it is considered an insult to call people 'sheep,' or 'sheeple,' but it does not appear to have had the same connotation in Bible times. Human shepherds could be men or women (Rachel, wife of Jacob, was a shepherdess), and though it was not necessarily a high-level job in society, many of the Old Testament's prominent people (Abraham, Moses, King David, Jacob, Abel, the prophet Amos) were shepherds at some point. As we see above, God is a shepherd of his people, and Jesus, in John 10, identifies Himself as 'The Good Shepherd.'

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. 13 This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:11-15

In Ezekiel 34, God calls to account the leaders of His people, chastizing them as bad shepherds:

34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? 3 You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty. 5 They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered. 6 My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or seeking for them. 7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. 8 As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal, and because my shepherds do not search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord!10 “‘This is what the Lord God says: Look, I am against the shepherds. I will demand my flock from them and prevent them from shepherding the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves, for I will rescue my flock from their mouths so that they will not be food for them.

Ezekiel 34:1-10

This gives us great insight into HOW the Lord is our shepherd. He had appointed human leaders and priests to take care of His people, but they were neglecting their 'sheep,' and only taking care of themselves. So God says He is going to do their job, which includes: strengthening the weak, healing the sick, bandaging the injured, bringing back the strays and seeking the lost. Charles Spurgeon has some great insight into this passage, so let's turn to him and read his verse-by verse commentary:

I hope we all know this Psalm by heart; may we also know it by heart-experience! It is a sweet pastoral song just suited to our Sabbath evening worship. There is here no din of arms, no noise of war; but there is a delicious hush, only broken by the gentle tinkling of the sheep bell. God give us that sweet rest to-night! Verse 1. The LORD is my shepherd; All true rest begins with Jesus, as all the comfort of the sheep is provided for them by their shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd.” ...

Happy Four Weeks in Quarantine, everybody - maybe your quarantine has been less than ours? Our Bible readings today are Leviticus 19, Psalms 23 and 24, Ecclesiastes 2 and 1 Timothy 4.

Psalm 23

John 10:11-15

In Ezekiel 34, God calls to account the leaders of His people, chastizing them as bad shepherds:

Ezekiel 34:1-10

Previous Episode

What is a Deacon? Does the Bible Allow for Women to Serve as Deacons? #107

Happy Tuesday, friends! Tomorrow will mark our 4th week in quarantine here in California, a sentence I never thought I would write for a variety of reasons. Hope you guys are holding tight out there - holding tight to Jesus and His promises, holding tight to each other in love and humble service, and holding tight to the inner-workings and leadings of the Holy Spirit of God! Today, we are continuing in our pursuit of a biblical gender studies degree in discussing a topic that is somewhat controversial, but probably not as much as yesterday's topic. Here is our big Bible questions: What is a deacon, and does the Bible allow women to serve as deacons? Today's Bible passages are: Leviticus 18, Psalms 22, Ecclesiastes 1 and 1 Timothy 3.

So, when I was a kid, I went to church, and I remember two important things about deacons. #1 Deacons were the guys who were most likely to wear a suit to church. #2 I remember going to more than one church service where deacons were ordained, and that was a fascinating thing. The deacon being ordained would sit in a chair - or kneel on the ground - and the other deacons would come and lay hands on him, and whisper in his ear. I think that they were probably praying for him, but young Chase thought they were sharing secrets that were for deacons only, and that was pretty interesting. I'd have given up a pretty hefty amount of my childhood treasures to hear some of those secrets. So - what are deacons, anyway? Are they besuited men that are solemn and tell each other secrets a few times a year? Not really. Let's go to the Bible:

Acts 6:1 6 In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. 2 The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch. 6 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.7 So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 6:1-7

A couple of translations of verse 2:

HCSB: “It would not be right for us to give up preaching about God to handle financial matters. NLT: teaching the word of God, not running a food program.

Wycliffe: we leave the word of God, and minister to boards.

MAYBE THE BEST and MOST ACCURATE: International Children’s Bible stop our work of teaching God’s word in order to serve tables.

All of these are attempting to translate this phrase: Διακονέn Diakoneōn τράπεζαis trapezais, which means to serve/minister to 4 foots. Deacons were called to bring unity to the early church - to take care of the people’s needs and SERVE. A deacon, therefore, is a leader servant who ministers, or a minister who serves in a leading way, or a minister-servant, who leads the rest of the church in ministry/service. Deacons have a lead role in churches as ministers and as servants. Servant is a bad word to many people, but we must remember that Jesus came as a servant, exalted servanthood in His teaching, and proclaimed that - if anybody on earth wanted to be great, they MUST be a servant. Deacons get a head start on that. Let's go to 1 Timothy 3 and read about the qualifications for deacons, and then return and discuss them.

There are a few named deacons in the Bible, and they didn't just help out the church with table-waiting type things. Stephen was a deacon who preached the Word of God powerfully - with SIGNS and WONDERS accompanying his message (see Acts 6:8.) Some teach that only the apostles taught with signs and wonders, but this is not the case. Philip was also a deacon, and he also proclaimed the message of God accompanied by signs/miracles and wonders. So - deacons were and are important in the church and carry out practical and spiritual acts of ministry/service.

What about women? Are women allowed, according to the Bible, to serve as deacons? As I explained in yesterday's show, I am theologically what is known as a Complementarian, which means that I believe men and women have equal value and worth, but different roles in the Kingdom of God and the family. Paul wrote yesterday in 1 Timothy 2, that he did not allow a woman to have authority over a man, and in 1 Timothy 3, and Titus, he is going lay out two major offices in the church: Elders/overseers and deacon...

Next Episode

Can Christians Drink Wine? Should Christians Drink Wine? #109

Hello everybody and happy Thursday to you. Today brings us to a controversial topic among modern Christians that is not very controversial in terms of the Bible - at least from a grammatical place. You'll notice that the question we are covering is phrased in two different ways: CAN Christians drink wine, and SHOULD Christians drink wine. There is a reason for this, because each of the questions has a slightly different answer from the Bible. Today's Bible passages are Leviticus 20, Psalms 25, Ecclesiastes 3 and 1 Timothy 5. The reason the topic of wine is coming up today is from our focus passage in 1st Timothy 5, where Paul gives this word of advice to Timothy:

23 Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

1 Timothy 5:23

This is an interesting passage, and it brings up a large amount of questions. First - is this a command to us, or to Timothy or BOTH? And that is an excellent question to consider from the Word of God. At the beginning of this chapter, Paul writes to Timothy, "Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters with all purity." Is that a command to Timothy, or to Christians, or both? I think almost all Bible teachers would say both for 1 Timothy 5:1-2. We generally consider commands in the Word spoken authoritatively to individuals or churches (for instance, a command of Jesus to Peter, a letter from Paul to the Ephesians, a letter from Peter, etc) to apply to all of us. However, there are some cases where commands in the Scripture do not apply to ALL who read them. For instance, I don't believe 1st Timothy 4:12 is very applicable to senior saints, "Don’t let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. " Likewise, 1 Peter 3:7 is a powerful and important passage, but it is not binding or applicable to my 8 year old daughter. "Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered." Ultimately, I don't believe that our focus passage is a COMMAND for ALL that they MUST drink wine. That's our first issue to discuss. Our second is a little more complex.

What does the Greek word for wine (οἶνος oînos) actually mean? Does this word refer to intoxicating wine, or new/unfermented wine. There are three basic views on this subject. I'm not going to go very deep into them, but they are worth recounting at a basic level.

View #1 - Oinos is usually or often unfermented/sweet wine. In other words, the wine that Paul is telling Timothy to drink and the wine that Jesus made at the Wedding in Cana were what we would call grape juice - perhaps with a trace of alcohol, but not nearly enough to become intoxicated. This view has been held by many people throughout church history, and you can find some very long arguments on the internet that seem to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the correct view, until you actually research some of the other views. I recall that Donald C. Stamps, the author of the study notes in one of my first ever study Bibles, bought for me by my wife when we were dating, was very much in favor of this view. I loved Mr. Stamps and his notes, and I recall that he argued vociferously and uncompromisingly that oinos always meant unfermented wine, and that Jesus would NEVER ever make wine that could make somebody intoxicated. This view is generally called the two-wine view, and it asserts that when the Bible says something positive about wine (such as this passage, The Last Supper, the wedding at Cana, etc) that unfermented grape juice is in view. But when the Bible says something negative about wine - fermented wine is being discussed.

View #2 Oinos can indeed contain alcohol, but not in the same proportion as current wines, and certainly nowhere near as much of an ABV as stronger drinks of modern times like vodka, whisky, scotch, etc. Currently our modern wine is usually around 12-14 percent ABV, but can be as low as around 5 percent, and get a little higher. Though there is no way to be certain, I've read some research that seems to indicate that first century and Old Testament wine would be of a lower ABV than modern wine. If this is the case - and it is hard to be definitive if it is - then Paul's advice to Timothy would be about a very weak wine compared to what is called wine today. Charles Spurgeon - and many others - were strong proponents of this view:

YOU know the narrative. Jesus was at a wedding feast, and when the wine ran short, he provided for it right bountifully. I do not think that I should do any good if I were to enter upon the discussion as to what sort of wine our Lord Jesus made on this occasion. It wa...