What was a shepherd in the Bible?

A shepherd is a keeper of sheep, not a loser of them. And if we may say "The Lord is my Shepherd, my Keeper," He is also the good Shepherd, and we may draw from that word every meaning which it is capable of yielding, yet not exhaust all that can be said of Him. He is no hireling who flees when the wolf comes, but the Good Shepherd who stakes His all, yea, gives His life, in the defence of and for the salvation of His sheep. So good is He; so loved are they! He is good in the sense of being capable also. If He were constantly losing His sheep, He would not be a good keeper of sheep. He could not in this case be said to be a keeper of sheep at all, but a loser of them, and then where would His glory be?

Abel, the first shepherd of the Book of Genesis, was called “a keeper of sheep.” Then Joseph follows in the same calling and of him it is written that he was “feeding the flock” (Gen. 37:1). Of Moses it is also written that he kept and led his father-in-law’s stock (Ex. 3:1). David who penned this Psalm was a special shepherd in the midst of the flock of Jesse, his father, and amid strong enemies he defended and saved the lambs and sheep. Psalm 23, and all New Testament teaching, show us how perfectly the Lord Jesus keeps, feeds, leads and saves the whole flock which He has purchased by His own blood, but He does it with an individual care; each member of the flock is an object of deepest interest to Him.

PASTORS, shepherds, feeders of sheep. A shepherd brings before one’s mind the thought of one, who knows each sheep individually, one who loves and cares for the flock of God. Psalm 23 is a fine example of this. There we have the example of Jehovah, keeping the sheep from straying, guarding them from their enemies, caring for them by leading them to green pastures and beside still waters. How good it is that the Lord in glory, the chief Shepherd, puts it into the hearts of one and another of His own to care for the sheep. When He appears He will give to such “a crown of glory that fades not away” (1 Peter 5:4). What is done for Christ abides for ever.

In the eightieth Psalm Asaph addresses God as the Shepherd of Israel, and likens His people to a flock. In the one hundredth Psalm Israel takes the ground of being Jehovah's people and "the sheep of His pasture." Jeremiah, too, in the same strain, speaks of God's ancient people as a "beautiful flock" (Jer. 13:20). But while God ever remained the Great Shepherd of Israel, He also delegated authority to under-shepherds who were responsible to care for the flock.

The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. The prophet Jeremiah had received a similar message (Jer. 23:1-2). These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the deplorable condition of the flock. Utterly selfish, they cared not for the sheep of His pasture; they feared not God nor did they have a heart for God's people. The flock was scattered and spoiled.

The Jews were taught of old to regard their kings as "shepherds"; but for the most part these were ungodly and selfish, as the prophet Ezekiel describes their sordid ways. "Woe to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed; ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up the broken, nor have ye brought again that which was driven away, nor have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered without a shepherd; and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek."

When however we turn to Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15, we have a context that admits of no ambiguity. To rule with a rod of iron, and that even to the extent of dashing in pieces like a potter's vessel, has no connection with feeding or with ministering the word, though it corresponds well with that part of a shepherd's duties which pertains to the governance of the flock; the keeping it together and in order, and the defending it from harm; more needed in an unfenced pastoral country than among our well-fenced fields, where a flock may be left for hours or days without inspection. I have myself seen, in my youth, the very instrument named in the text, in use on a farm in Scotland: a two-feet iron rod on a wooden handle of some four to five feet, the iron head bent into the orthodox curve of a "shepherd's crook," only less open than usually represented, formed to seize a sheep by the shank, and hold it so that it could not draw the foot through, and might thus be brought to the shepherd's hand and under his power; and one need hardly say it would have proved quite equal to the breaking the head or back of a refractory sheep-worrying dog, or other such disturber of the peace. Only one passage there is (Jude 12) where "feeding" seems really the thought, though even there it is not the shepherd feeding the flock, but the flock feeding itself, which is quite another matter; so that the preponderance of evidence shows that rule is the thing intended by the Holy Ghost in His employment of the word poimaino. And this corresponds most accurately with the facts of a shepherd's charge. No shepherd in a pastoral country can be said properly to feed the flock, as might rightly be said where modern cut-turnip or hay-feeding is practised, He leads them where they may find pasture; he guides, controls, defends them when in health, and tends them when sickly; but he does not feed them in the proper sense. And here again we find confirmation of the Spirit's accuracy in the use of terms; for if we turn to John 21:15-17, we have the blessed Master employing this word, along with another, in a connection that marks clearly an intended distinction. In verse 15, "feed my lambs" is boske, to tend while feeding; whereas in verse 16 we have poimaine, "feed my sheep;" and then, in verse 17, boske, "feed my sheep." Did the "Wisdom of God" employ these terms thus at random? Is verse 17 a mere repetition of verse 16 as to sense? or does the Lord's employment of two distinct words imply two distinct and separate ideas? Surely no reverential mind will hesitate to discern the beautiful propriety and force of the whole, when to each expression its due weight is allowed. The little lamb has no need of the iron rod to control its movements and bring it into subjection; hence to watch over it while it feeds or is suckled by the dam, is enough to enjoin on the shepherd; but the sheep needs both nurture and control, and so the double functions are assigned to the shepherd apostle.

Let us think for a moment of a flock of sheep without a shepherd. They are needy, foolish, weak and timid creatures. If left to themselves to take their way through a wilderness scene, what would happen? Being hungry creatures they would soon starve; being foolish, they would wander and lose their way; being weak, they would grow weary and fall by the way; and being timid, they would flee before the wolf and be scattered.

In contrast, let us ask, What will happen if the sheep take their journey under the guidance of the shepherd? Now, if the sheep are hungry, the shepherd is there to guide them into green pastures; are they foolish, he is there to keep their wandering feet; are they weak, the shepherd is present to gently lead his sheep and carry the lambs; are they timid, he is in front to lead them through the rough valleys, and defend them from every foe.

The shepherd is the fitting type of the divine Deliverer and King. So, afterward, God "chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes great with young He brought him, to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance." (Ps. 78:70-71.) So the beautiful expression in the second chapter of the gospel of Matthew, which speaks of Christ as the Governor who shall "rule" God's people Israel, is literally "shall be a Shepherd" to them. This is God's thought. Thus He trains up Moses, after all that he had learned in the palace in Egypt, forty years in the desert in simple shepherd work, until he is fit for the power to be entrusted to him — the meekest man on earth (Num. 12:3). And such is the Shepherd God has appointed us (Matt. 11:29).

Such was certainly the case with the bishops or elders. That bishops and elders were the same is clear from Paul's language to Titus, whom, he says, he left in Crete, to set things in order, and to "ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee; if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God" (Titus 1:5-7). So Peter exhorts the elders to "feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof" (literally, "bishopping them"), "not by constraint, but willingly" (1 Peter 5:2). In like manner we read that when Paul from Miletus "sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the Church," he beseeches them — "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers," — or "bishops," which is the same word in the original (Acts 20:17, 28).