Just how does “thy rod and thy staff” comfort us? You may be surprised! 

<p>Just how does “thy rod and thy staff” comfort us? You may be surprised! </p>

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Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

The Good Shepherd

Well, good morning everyone, and welcome to morning worship.

Before we begin, let's open with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, I pray that you will guide here, that you'll make everything very simple and give us something precious to consider throughout the day and the rest of this week.

Today we're going to look at the word God in the Bible.

You may know that the Hebrew word for God is Elohim.

There is also a shorter version that's simply El.

Now, in Hebrew that two-letter word is another two-letter word.

The aleph would give you the sound, the lamed would give you the el sound.

Well, in ancient Hebrew each letter was represented by a picture, sort of like Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The letter Aleph is a bull's head and it can designate a bull or by extension it can represent whoever's in charge.

And so when you put those 2 letters together, a picture of a bull's head and a shepherd's staff, then you can conclude that the word El, what we normally think of as God, really shows God to be the lead shepherd.

Turn with me to 1 Peter 5 verse 4, if you would.

1 Peter 5 verse 4, and there we read, "...and when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." Now, who is it talking about there?

Jesus is indeed the chief shepherd, and that matches with our conclusion.

Notice in a very familiar passage to us, John chapter 10, what it says about Jesus and the idea of being a shepherd.

In verse 11 he says, I am the good shepherd.

Well the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

He is the lead shepherd, that does not mean that he lords it over everyone else, rather He's the 1 in charge of them.

He is 1 who's responsible for them, responsible to the point that He would even give His life for them.

And in verse 14, He says, I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.

Now, what is the most famous passage in all the Bible that depicts God as a shepherd?

Now, you know this, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.

And in verse 2, He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

But please notice I would like to direct our attention especially to verse 4.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, and the reason given is, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." That's very interesting.

The idea of him being with us and his rod and his staff comforting me, they seem to be parallel ideas.

And why would the shepherd's rod and the shepherd's staff comfort him?

Well, you realize the shepherd's staff has 2 ends to it.

Now, the 1 end that you normally picture is sort of walking on the ground, that's the sharp hard end, and if need be, he could beat off, say, a wolf that might come to attack the sheep.

But the other hand, the other end that has the crook in it, this is the 1 so that if the sheep goes astray, maybe it tumbles over a small cliff or gets stuck in briars or a bush or something, he can hook that around the shepherd's neck, the sheep's neck, and draw it forth.

And so you can see how, oh yes, the shepherd's staff would indeed comfort infidel sheep.

But David, as he's writing this, this is more of a metaphor.

Well, I think we can understand it when we realize again that, remember, there were 2 Hebrew letters for the word God.

That's the 1 that's the shepherd's staff.

But it turns out not only is there a letter in the Hebrew alphabet that is Lamed and it's pictured by a shepherd's staff, there is also a word in Hebrew that uses the same characters.

It's Lamad, but it doesn't mean a shepherd's staff.

Those of you in the Hebrew class don't give it away.

Lamad is the Hebrew word that means to teach.

Have you ever thought of teaching as being particularly comforting?

Notice here Mark 6 34 it says that Jesus looked upon the people, they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and the very next words are, And he began to teach them many things.

His compassion for them was to teach them.

So apparently the idea of a shepherd and teaching do go together just as suggested by the Hebrew word El.

He's the chief shepherd and he comforts people, but apparently he comforts them with his teaching.

So the question is, are you allowing God to comfort you by his teachings?

Or, on the flip side, if you have to teach Sabbath school, or give a sermon, or you're called upon to teach, whether in a religious setting or maybe out in a completely secular setting.

Does your teaching, does it really instruct people on how to do something, to share knowledge with them, or does it comfort?

If we want to be like Jesus, our teaching is to comfort.

Jesus said, they were as sheep not having a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.

Now today Jesus is not with us, how does he teach us today?

In John chapter 14 in verse 26, please notice what it says, "...but the Comforter, ah Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said to you." Well, the Comforter is the Holy Spirit that Jesus sends in His place.

And that word Comforter there is parakletos.

Now you might ask, is that the same word back in Psalm 23 4?

If we were to look there in the the Greek version, in fact it is.

When it says thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, well in Greek it says they parakaleo me, they comfort me.

So Jesus will teach us all things by his Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Comforter, just as his staff and his rod, they comfort us.

Have you ever considered the idea that perhaps Jesus' rod and his staff, for us living at the end of earth's history, is in fact his Holy Spirit?

When we need promises brought back to our memory, it's the Holy Spirit who does it.

When we are facing grave perils, who will comfort us?

He's the 1 that's going to write the law in our hearts, and we're going to need that on our hearts to be faithful to Him.

Jesus says, I will pray the Father and He will give you another comforter.

In other words, the Holy Spirit is the comforter.

It said in verse 26, Jesus himself is the other comforter.

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The Good Shepherd

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