God-appointed Shepherds - Numbers 27:12-23

Sermon Series: Great Leader, Exceptional Follower

Have you ever noticed someone doing their job and thought to yourself, “That’s a strange job?”  I have done that before.  I remember taking my kids to see Seasame Street Live one year and while I was watching the life-size Seasame Street characters dance across the stage I began to wonder, “How do you get a job as a dancing Cookie Monster?”  Seriously, how in the world does an individual find out about a job opening as a dancing Seasame Street character?  Do they post job openings on Monster.com?  And then I also began to wonder about the aspirations of those individuals.  Did they grow up aspiring to be a dancing Elmo?  I’m not criticizing them if they did – to be honest it looked like a lot of fun (maybe something to fall back on if things don’t work out as a pastor – but then there’s the problem with the first question again, how do you get that job).  Just some things I found myself thinking about one night.  But there are also other odd jobs.  Think about Vanna White.  Twenty years ago they needed her position because she actually had to turn the letters of the puzzle that was being solved on “Wheel of Fortune.”  But with advancements in technology she doesn’t have to turn the letters any more.  Now all Vanna does is walk from one end of the puzzle to the other, lightly touching the blocks with the right letter along the way.  It makes you wonder why in the world they still have her there.  There doesn’t appear to be a real need for what she is doing.  All throughout our society there are jobs that have obvious purposes and serve great causes, but every once in a while you’ll run across one that will just make you scratch your head.  That has been the case throughout all of history.  Now of course in Moses day there wasn’t a need for dancing Seasame Street characters, and Vanna White probably wouldn’t have had her job.  But one of the jobs that there was a need for and which God appointed men to fill beginning with Moses and continuing throughout history is that of ‘shepherd.’  Not a shepherd of sheep, but a shepherd of people.  From the time of Moses until now, God has appointed an individual over His people to help shepherd them.  The obvious question is, ‘why?’  Why did God appoint men to fill a shepherding role for His people?  There are several good answers to this question, but in this particular passage we will see two reasons why God gives God-appointed shepherds to His people.

Verse 12 of Numbers 27 begins with God commanding Moses to “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel.”  We discover in the next two verses (vs. 13-14) that this is the closest that Moses was going to get to inheriting the promise land – that he would never actually set foot in the promise land but would only see it from a distance.  For some of you this week that comes as a big surprise.  You’re wondering to yourself, “Why wasn’t Moses permitted to go into the promise land?  Wasn’t he the greatest leader in the OT?  And besides, I don’t remember him being one of the faithless ones after ten of the spies returned from spying out the promise land and brought back a bad report.  So why wouldn’t Moses be permitted to enter the promise land?”  Those are great questions.  And fortunately God provides an answer for us in the text.  God says to Moses in verses 13 and 14, “When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.”  So let’s briefly pause from our examination of this text to go back and look at the account to which God is referring and to consider what transpired that became so offensive to God.

The moment in history to which God is referring in verses 13 and 14 can be found in narrative form in Numbers 20:2-13.  As the narrative details for us, the Israelite nation was at a place called Meribah and there was no water there for the congregation.  So all of the people assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron and began to argue and quarrel with them.  They believed that they and their livestock would die at that place because there was no produce growing and no water for them to drink.  Having heard the complaints of the Israelites and tired of their constant complaining and grumbling, the text says that Moses and Aaron left the people to go to the tabernacle to bring the people’s complaint before God and to inquire from Him what He would have them to do.  The narrative tells us that God, in all of His glory, showed up and spoke to both Moses and Aaron.  The narrative tells us that God instructed Moses to “take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.  So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”  God had met with Moses and Aaron and clearly instructed them on what to do – unfortunately the next couple of verses show Moses and Aaron failing to carry out God’s instructions in the manner that He had laid out.  Although Moses began well in verse 9, taking the staff as God had commanded him, it appears that Moses was growing frustrated with God’s patience.  Perhaps Moses was hoping that in bringing the report of the people’s complaints against God that God would bring judgment upon such a stiff-necked and rebellious people.  But no where do we see God suggesting that He is going to deal harshly with the Israelites.  So with Moses’ own personal frustration mounting and God’s great mercy and patience taking it in stride, Moses appears to take the matter of rebuking into his own hands.  Look at what Numbers 20:10-11 say, “Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’  And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice . . .”  Now make sure you’re paying attention to the details.  First, Moses speaks very harshly to the Israelites – something God had not commanded Moses to do.  Second, Moses struck the rock twice instead of speaking to the rock, which is what God had commanded him to do.  So for one of the first recorded times in history Moses fell short of exceptional following, not doing all that God had commanded, but taking the initiative to do things his way.

Now note how God’s grace and mercy abound even in the midst of grumbling and disobedience.  The rest of verse 11 says, “and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.”  Even though the Israelites were complaining about God’s plan and Moses was acting in disobedience, God still met the needs of His chosen people.  He still provided water in great abundance so that the entire nation and their livestock could have the water necessary for life.  But there were also consequences for Moses’ disobedience.  Listen first to the charges that God brings against Moses and Aaron.  God first tells Moses and Aaron that that they did not believe in Him.  It’s hard to tell for sure exactly where their disbelief was, but many scholars suggest that it was in taking the initiative to rebuke the people themselves.  Perhaps Moses and Aaron believed that God was going to let the people’s grumbling go unpunished.  As a result they took it upon themselves to rebuke and scold the people for their ungrateful and rebellious hearts.  This isn’t the action God calls us to though.  Consider Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”  Moses and Aaron, failing to believe God would rebuke the people, took it upon themselves to rebuke the Israelites and in so doing put their unbelief to action.  Not only did God charge Moses and Aaron with unbelief, but He also charged them with not upholding His holiness.  “Because you did not believe in Me, to uphold Me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel.”  Again, it’s hard to be clear on exactly how Moses and Aaron were failing to uphold the holiness of God, but we can look to the NT for clues.  Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food [i.e. manna], and all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”  Paul suggests that the rock which provided water to the Israelites in the wilderness was symbolic of Jesus, the coming Messiah.  In the same way that Jesus would become a physical embodiment of God’s grace, the rock was presently a physical embodiment of God’s grace towards Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites.  And rather than speaking to the rock, Moses lashed out against the rock and struck it twice.  Moses failed to treat respectfully the gracious gift of God and the testimony of His provision for the people, and in so doing made an assault on the holiness of God.  God says to Moses and Aaron that because they have acted in unbelief and because they have not upheld Him as holy among the Israelite nation, that they would not bring the Israelites into the land that God had given to them.

Before we resume with our examination of the text in Numbers 27 I want to ask you to recall Moses’ former occupation and what God had appointed Moses to do while working in the midst of that occupation.  You’ll recall that after fleeing Egypt for killing an Egyptian Moses resided in the wilderness working as a shepherd.  Then one day God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and spoke to Moses.  God told Moses that He was sending him back to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  God was appointing Moses to fill a shepherd’s role in which he would both care for and lead the Israelite nation on God’s behalf.  Throughout the next several centuries God-appointed shepherds, like Moses, would play an important role in the life of the Israelite nation.  God would choose to work in and through them to do and accomplish several things.  But one of the reasons that God gave these God-appointed shepherds to His people which we can extract from Numbers 27:12-14 was to help uphold His holiness in a sinful world.  Moses was a great leader!  And in almost every aspect of His life he was faithful and obedient to God.  But when we look at these verses we see that Moses was still not permitted to enter the promise land.  All around him sin was abounding.  Sin had marred creation making the wilderness a very difficult place to survive.  Sin was evident in the every day attitudes of the Israelites as they grumbled against God and complained about their circumstances.  But reigning over this sin stained world was one incredibly holy God.  And God began to appoint shepherd-type leaders over His chosen people to keep before them the holiness of God.  Moses failed to do that though, and as a result he wasn’t permitted to inherit the promise land which he was leading the people to.

God hasn’t given any of us a shepherding role like He did to Moses.  It’s true that some of us are to act as shepherds in leading our families.  Others of us may be given somewhat larger shepherding roles in which we give oversight and care to a small group of believers.  But none of us have the save kind of shepherding role as Moses – so it’s not up to us to uphold His holiness for the nations (someone else has been given that task – we’ll talk about that more later).  So our job as believers in Christ is simply to recognize God’s holiness and then to respond appropriately.  And what is an appropriate response to the holiness of God – it’s our worship!  And make sure you pay attention to this – our greatest act of worship is not singing songs and raising our hands – our greatest act of worship is our obedience!  When we live lives of exceptional obedience to God we offer to Him the most pleasing and acceptable sacrifice of praise and worship that can be offered.  The shepherds job is to uphold the holiness of God in a sinful world.  And if God is really a holy God, then He is a God worth following in exceptional obedience.

After being reminded that he won’t actually be permitted to lead the Israelites into the promise land, Moses speaks to God and makes a request of Him.  He says to God in verse 16, “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”  Moses knew well the people that he was trying to lead.  He knew well that they were sinful people who were prone to wander and chase after their own desires.  He knew well that their tendency was to move away from God and away from His plans.  And so Moses asked God to appoint another ‘shepherd’ over His people.

Moses’ request here foreshadows an on-going need that God’s people would have for the rest of time – a need for a ‘good shepherd.’  Israel had a few ‘shepherds’ that performed better than most.  Men like Moses and David stand out as perhaps the two best in the OT (and ironically they were both real ‘shepherds’ before God appointed them as shepherds over His people).  But Israel was also plagued with really bad shepherds.  Listen to the words God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 34:2,6-10, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves!  Should not shepherds feed the sheep? . . . My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.  My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.  Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep.  No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves.  I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.”  Unfortunately, the Israelites had few ‘shepherds’ who took seriously the task that they had been given: to care for, protect, and lead them for His glory.  Often times these ‘shepherds’ would only look after their own needs and wants.  But Moses asks God to provide the Israelites with a leader who would help this sinful nation follow and carry out God’s plans completely.  And he asks God for a leader who would do this by leading and modeling this kind of lifestyle for the people.  Listen again to Moses’ request, “appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in . . .”

In verse 18 God appoints Joshua to fill the role of Israel’s new shepherd, telling Moses that Joshua is a man who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within Him.  It seems that this indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the most significant character trait in God’s selection of Joshua since it is the only character trait mentioned by God.  God tells Moses, himself, to take possession of Joshua, and to begin the process of transferring leadership power to him.  Moses is to do this in a very formal and a very public fashion so that there will be no questions regarding the legitimacy of their new leader.  Moses, himself, is to first lay his own hands upon Joshua as a symbol of transfer of power and authority from Moses to Joshua.  Then Moses is to take Joshua before Eleazar, the priest, to both commission Joshua and to have Eleazar inquire of the Lord and to confirm that Joshua is indeed the man that God has chosen to lead the Israelite nation. 

Perhaps the most interesting and insightful phrase in this section comes at the beginning of verse 20 which says, “You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.”  God doesn’t tell Moses to bestow all of his authority on this new ‘shepherd,’ only some of it.  While Joshua will end up being a ‘good’ shepherd for the people of Israel, God is also making it clear that Joshua is only foreshadowing ‘the’ Good Shepherd.  Understand this – according to God’s plan there was no other leader in the OT that compared to Moses.  Moses was the leader that brought salvation to the nation of Israel.  He delivered them from their oppression.  He rescued them from their captor.  And He had a relationship with God like no other leader in the OT.  Listen to Deuteronomy 34:10-12, “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”  This was all part of God’s plan.  Moses’ life and leadership was to serve as a faint picture of what the coming Messiah would look like.  Moses prophesies the coming Messiah in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers . . .”  The One who would come and who would be like Moses would also be greater than Moses, because He would be more than a prophet – He would be the coming Rescuer and Savior of men.  So it is important that God distinguish Joshua from Moses.  Joshua would ‘shepherd’ God’s people like Moses had.  But in order to make certain that he was not the coming Messiah, God tells Moses to only invest him with some of his authority.  If Moses had placed all of his authority on Joshua some might have mistaken him for the coming Messiah.  But while Joshua was not the coming Messiah, his life still served as a foreshadowing, because he would share the name of the coming Messiah.

Our passage for this week ends with verses 22 and 23 which say, “And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.  He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.”  As the God-appointed shepherd of Israel, Moses helped lead a sinful people to follow God.  And as the God-appointed shepherd of Israel, he also labored to carry out God’s plans completely.  On occasion he failed – the incident at Meribah served as an example.  But with only a few exceptions Moses always did as the Lord commanded and did his best to lead the Israelites to do the same thing.  Before his death Moses asks God to appoint another ‘shepherd,’ another leader who would help sinful people follow God and carry out His plans completely.  And God is faithful to do this by appointing Joshua, who we will see in the coming weeks is faithful to lead the Israelites to follow God and who is nearly always faithful to carry out God’s plans completely.

After many centuries God finally provided a new ‘shepherd’ for all the people of the world and for all of history.  God sent His Son, Jesus, to be our shepherd and our Savior.  Listen to John 10:11-15, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  When God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world, Jesus became our good and perfect shepherd.  He is the one who now cares for, protects, and leads God’s people.  Listen also to Hebrews 3:1-6, “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.  For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses – as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.  (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)  Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son.  And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our basting in our hope.”

From the time of Moses on, God gave God-appointed shepherds (1) to help uphold His holiness in a sinful world, and (2) to help lead a sinful people to follow Him and carry out His plans completely.  In the past, these shepherds were still sinful men who struggled to do perfectly the tasks that God had assigned them.  Some of these shepherds failed miserably as we saw in the passage from Ezekiel 34.  Others did a very good job, men like Moses, Joshua, and David.  But now, we have a good and perfect shepherd, whose name is Jesus.  He came to earth and lived in complete and perfect righteousness.  He upheld then and continues to uphold now the holiness of God because He lives without sin.  Colossians 1:15 says, “He is the image of the invisible God . . .”  Jesus demonstrated to us perfectly the holiness of God and continues today to do the same thing.  Jesus also serves as our shepherd leading us by example to follow God and to carry out His plans completely.  Jesus did not leave anything that God had given Him to do undone, but carried out God’s plan for Him – which involved dying on the cross so that the payment for sin might be made and humanity might have the opportunity to be reconciled to God. 

So because Jesus is our God-appointed shepherd and we are His sheep, we need to follow Him as He leads us to carry out God’s plans completely.  We need to be laboring to fix our eyes on our good shepherd.  We need to strive to know His voice and to recognize His commands and His leadings.  And then we need to be exceptional in our following.

Small Group Questions for Discussion

1. In Numbers 27:12-17 we see the heart of a shepherd in Moses when he humbly puts the future of the Israelites before his disqualification of entering the promise land.  Was it important that Moses put God's plan before his failure to honor God by striking the rock instead of speaking to it?  Why or why not?

2. John 10:11-15 tells us that Jesus is now the shepherd of God's people.  What are some key examples that He lived out for us to follow?  How well are we following those examples as individuals?  As a church?  As a small group?

3. In Numbers 27:18-23 God immediately calls Joshua and gives Moses instructions on how to inaugurate him.  What are some of Joshua's character traits that enabled him to be effectively used by God?

4. If our worship of God can be defined as obedience in following, what are some examples of how we are doing this well?  What are some wrong ideas of worhsip that we need to throw out?