A Shepherd's Insights: Part I

Kathy and I recently witnessed an educational performance on shepherding by a shepherd from Ireland. He mainly highlighted his sheep dogs and their amazing talents, but he did share some interesting insights about the sheep themselves.

He highlighted three qualities about sheep that I found instructive. The first quality this shepherd highlighted was their defenselessness.

Without a shepherd, sheep do not have the means to protect themselves against predators. A few varieties have horns but for the most part they have no natural defenses. They are easy prey. In Ezekiel 34:5, God condemns Israel’s leaders for not protecting the people when He said, “They scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every animal of the field and scattered.”

The sheep were devoured by any larger animal that came prowling through the fields. In real life, the leadership of the southern kingdom of Judah was disobedient to the Lord and eventually the whole nation was enslaved by the Babylonians.

As shepherds over our teams at work, it is our job to keep our flock from being metaphorically devoured. We are called by God to be their defender against abusive customers and other attacks.

Questions for Reflection

• Though in reality, your employees are not completely defenseless nor necessarily weak, how can you still help to protect or at least shield them?
• What can you do, specifically to defend them? You cannot always be there so what protective procedures could be put in place?