By Terry Bowman
David did it…and Moses too. They both spent a significant portion of their lives tending sheep. How about you? Are you tending sheep?
It was a despicable occupation. This dirty profession required that shepherds live in the wilderness among their sheep. It was a nomadic vocation as they were often forced to move from location to location in search of new grazing areas for their herds. Because of their physical uncleanness and nomadic lifestyle, shepherds were viewed as spiritually unclean and untrustworthy. They were considered social outcasts and the lowest members of Jewish society. Even their testimonies were prohibited in a Jewish court of law.
I’m sure David asked why he was given such a menial task. Why couldn’t he, like his three oldest brothers, be given the privilege and honor of fighting in King Saul’s army? Why did he have to stay behind and tend to these blasted sheep when he could be heroically killing Philistines?
Moses challenged his circumstances as well. Why would a man, who had been educated in the finest universities of the known world, be forced to converse with the dumbest creatures in the animal kingdom? Why would an Egyptian officer, who had led a successful military campaign against Ethiopia, be cursed with an army of sheep? Why would an Egyptian prince, who had been raised in the finest palatial luxuries, be reduced to a life of primitive living and dining with the most repulsive creatures in Egyptian culture?
Perhaps you have asked the question as well. Why have you been diagnosed with a terminal illness? Why, after twenty years of marriage, has the term “divorce” crept into your vocabulary? Why did God allow your spouse, child, or parent to die without warning? Why are you faced with trying to pick up the pieces from a shattered relationship? Why are you confronted with a lawsuit? Why did you lose your job, your family’s sole source of income?
For Moses’ and David’s circumstances the Bible provides an answer. That which appeared to David and Moses as wasted time was actually a productive season that yielded much fruit. David’s stint in the wilderness with the sheep taught him to totally depend on God. It was a period when he could hone his skills with a sling and develop his courage as he battled bears and lions. It was the occasion when he became a man and received the inspiration to write many of the great praise Psalms. This season of testing and difficulty molded David into a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). It prepared him to confront the mighty Goliath, to be a great military leader, and to lead the nation of Israel.
Forty years in the wilderness tending sheep had a similar impact on Moses. It’s what made a proud, arrogant, and hot-headed Egyptian prince the humblest man on earth (Numbers 12:3). It was during this low point in his life that he saw and heard God (Exodus 3) and learned to completely rely on God. This forty-year adversity equipped him to lead a nation of lost sheep out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
We often learn the most when we are forced to tend sheep—when our backs are against the wall, when everything is stacked against us, and when all seems hopeless. It’s at these moments that we are molded and perfected by God into usable instruments. James 1:2-4 states it this way: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Could it be that God has given you the present task of tending sheep because He is preparing you to face some great Goliath or accomplish some God-sized assignment?
BIO:
Terry Bowman is a full-time electrical engineer and part-time writer. He and his family live near Wilmington, NC.