“The Under-Shepherd”

Who is really looking after the sheep? asks Jonathan Gainey

Apparently it is shocking to some non-believers when a Christian claims that God does not do everything for His children. An article I wrote, titled, “God Is Not a Babysitter” has brought about a wonderful and sometimes disturbing discussion on one particular website.         ( http://therubicon.org/2009/03/god-is-not-a-babysitter/)

One person commented, “Either God is active in the world, or he isn’t. And by active, I mean in people’s personal lives. That includes protection for the innocent. Or else … he’s not worth believing in.” And another said, “I am told everything that happens is “God’s will” part of “God’s master plan”. When I contemplate the world I see humans doing vast evil to other humans, animals and earth itself. Natural disasters, so called “Acts of God”, bring destruction and pain to thousands at a time. I see disease, molestation, rape, murder, etc. If God is omnipotent, then God must be the cause of these vile events. Worship a beast like this? I don’t think so.”

One of the major pictures that studying the Hebraic and Jewish roots of the New Testament has given me is that of the Shepherd.

To understand the role of a shepherd, one only has to spend a little time with the Bedouin shepherds of today in the Middle East. Bedouin shepherds still hold to the ancient practices of the Jewish shepherds of the time of Jesus. A Bedouin practice that is specifically important is the fact that it is not the responsibility of the shepherd to take care of the sheep; it is the under-shepherds who do the actual shepherding. The shepherd or owner of the sheep merely points the way, while the women, boys, and girls (under-shepherds) do the actual feeding and guiding.

This is the picture that Jesus is sharing with Peter when he says to Peter, “If you love me, then feed my sheep” (My paraphrase of John 21:15-17).

Unfortunately, many “Christians” have attempted to make God an under-shepherd, expecting him to give us parking places, pay for our groceries, stand in front of bullets, and babysit our kids. No matter how much those people claim that God has provided those things, the Scriptural and practical truth is that God offers guidance for how we can be better parents, providers, and planners, and live safe, productive lives. It is our responsibility to be effective under-shepherds and follow His direction.

In my opinion, God does not choose our college, our car, or our wife. That is our job. That does not mean that there is no God. It means that just like most parents, there comes a time when we expect our children to take care of themselves using the guidance that we have provided.

One mistake we can easily make about God is approaching him with a pragmatic philosophy. Another mistake is to assume that God is a staunch democratic provider. Either of these approaches makes God out to be what he isn’t, a provider of all for everyone whether we do for ourselves or not.

God provides through his teaching, not unlike a parent or any animal who bears young and sends them out to live what they’ve been taught.

I would not say that if my parents did not stand over my bed all night without sleeping to keep me safe, that they weren’t parents worth having. It is very silly to assume that God is supposed to be some kind of piggy bank for everyone or he’s not God. Over and over, the words of the Bible point to the words of the Bible as being the instructions of God. Nowhere does that instruction tell us that God does not require us to learn, grow, and provide for ourselves.

The mysteries of God will always boggle the finite mind. One person living and another person dying is the way of the world; it has very little to do with whether or not God is taking care of us. After all, we are the under-shepherds.

In His dust,
Johnny

Writer: Capt. Jonathan Gainey was born in Jacksonville, FL in June, 1969. He has been married to Staci, the daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, for twenty years and they have four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 4. Jonathan was commissioned as an officer in June of 2002, and is currently serving in his third appointment in New Bern, NC, USA. He is working on a Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the creator and manager of the Flocks Diner website, where his passion for learning and teaching is expressed and shared through writing and a weekly podcast.

9 Comments to “The Under-Shepherd”

1. Hi Johnny,

   Thanks for the article. Couldn’t have said it better myself. As always, I thought what you had to say was BRILLIANT!!!!!!

   Yours in Christ,
   Graeme
Graeme Randall on August 17th, 2009

2. The main point that God is not a helicopter parent is good.

   I’d like to augment this thinking…That is, it is easy to overpersonalize our relationship with God and forget that He loves us collectively as much as individually.Living out his will for our lives must necessarily incorporate our relationship with community and others. Wishlist praying doesn’t support these relationships.

   Besides, the more open my prayers, even for myself, the happier the answers. My perspective is just too limited to make the right “ask”.

   Thanks

   Andrea
Andrea614Regent on August 18th, 2009

3. For me the main issues are around whether God actually does intervene at all in the circumstances of life - does prayer get a response from God, whether yes, no or wait? Because if He does respond and make a decision as to which way to respond, what do you make of Him saying yes to the trivial request and no to the important? If He has the ability to say yes to the prayer of the molested child begging Him to have the abuse stop, yet apparently says no, what do we make of that God?
Jack on August 18th, 2009

4. Jack,

   You ask the Tikkun Olam question. Your last question is what has caused me, on more than one occasion, to be like Moses on Mt. Sinai, who, as is taught by the Jews, took God by the shirt collar and screamed, “Show mercy to your people!!!!” (see Genesis 32:1ff).

   My final response to the article, “Whose All Wet” by Lt. Col. Ryan (see http://therubicon.org/2009/08/whos-all-wet/), adds some insights into answering your very troubling and faith-shaking question. The gist of the answer has to do with God putting us in charge of the world, as is stated in Genesis.

   “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen 1:28 ESV).

   Mostly, we want to hand our jobs back to God, it seems. But having dominion is representative of our roles as royalty. We have been given the power and authority of kings and queens in this kingdom, and too often we refuse to take responsibility for using that power.

   We may not be able to save every little girl, “There are casualties in this war,” as John Piper says, but with the power we have been given, we can do a lot more than we are to be Christ in our world.

   In His dust,
   Johnny
Johnny Gainey on August 19th, 2009

5. “An article I wrote, titled, “God Is Not a Babysitter” has brought about a wonderful and sometimes disturbing discussion on one particular website.”

   Could you provide a link to the site, so that we can see the quotes you cited in their context? Thanks.

   ED … http://therubicon.org/2009/03/god-is-not-a-babysitter/
sallyusa on August 19th, 2009

6. The article is published on my website a this link: (http://flocksdiner.com/?p=54.) You can scroll down the comments and find the atheist website.

   The woman who hosts the site is a bit argumentative, just to warn you before you attempt to dialogue with her.

   Blessings,
   Johnny
Johnny Gainey on August 19th, 2009

7. With respect Johnny, I don’t feel like I got a straight answer from you. Do you believe God does answer prayer and intervenes in our lives? If your answer is yes, how do you reconcile the idea that he would answer ‘yes’ to the trivial and ‘no’ to the important?
Jack on August 19th, 2009

8. Jack,

   You’re not going to get a straight answer from me. I don’t have any such answers; just questions like you. I, as the Jews, stand in awe of the decisions God makes. And unlike many Western Christians, I don’t assume that inconsistencies equal absence.

   I am in no position to answer for God on the subject of whether or not his seemingly absente performance is just that. I have been asked that question as much as I have asked it myself, and the same answer returns: “God is a mystery.”

   If we want God to be like math, and assume that 2 + 2 will always equal 4, then we are in for a life of frustration and God-judgment. I, for one, choose not to judge God, but only to recognize that he is as mysterious as the pattern of waves that hit the shore.

   And I will continue to trust in him, and pray to him as I have been told to do, trusting that, at the very least, my prayers are a form of recognition that I believe He is listening, whether he answers as I would desire or not.

   The answer you are seeking is only found in the mind of God. And I believe He has no intention of having to prove himself to any of us, no matter how much we want him to play according to our opinion of what is fair and right.

   Johnny
Johnny Gainey on August 19th, 2009

9. Thanks for your response Johnny. My main issue is with the fact that “God answers prayer” is a mantra repeated in the church all the time and is taken as being absolute fact, despite the lack of evidence that it makes the slightest difference to the outcome of anything. I can only believe in a non-interventionist God, because the idea of an interventionist God creates so many questions and problems about why He does or doesn’t act.
Jack on August 21st, 2009

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