Where Is The Shepherd?

The long-expected day came at last when the might and ingenuity of men were matched in deadly and sanguinary combat. Again the fair fields of France are being watered with human blood. Those at home are exhorted from throne and presidential chair to pray, both young and old. Many will have read the prayer written by the President of U.S.A. with feelings of a quiet confidence at such a public acknowledgement of the Almighty. But, for myself, I looked in vain for one brief reference to the one Mediator who is between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus. I felt disappointed! Why was He forgotten?

The Lord's words make this plain, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14. 6). - Here is THE WAY to God, and besides this there is no other. The claim made is most emphatic; but it is true. The Speaker claims to be THE TRUTH, not simply that He says what is true, but that He is the embodiment of truth. It is as true of Him as of the Deity-" It is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6.18). Hence it must be a vain and foolish endeavour to pray to God without coming to Him through Jesus Christ.

The two Hebrew words in the Old Testament most frequently used in connexion with prayer are Palal and Tephillah. Palal, according to Dr. Young, means, "to judge self, pray habitually," and Tephillah, "Prayer, song of praise." Palal is used in 1 Samuel 2.25 ; Ezekiel 18. 52 where it is translated "judge" and "judgement." It is also translated "judgement" in Psalm 106. 30. Palal means "a judge" or "a sifter." See Exodus 21. 22; Deuteronomy 32. 31; Job 31.11.

Palal is used frequently in the sense of intercession, and the first use of the word is in Genesis 20.7, 17. In this chapter Abraham is in the south of the land of the Philistines, in Gerar. - In his fear and weakness of faith he described his wife Sarah as his sister, which was but half the truth. Abimelech king of Gerar took Sarah; but God restrained him from further wrongdoing in a dream of the night. He was commanded to restore the man's wife and to go to the man, Abraham, who was a prophet and he would pray for him, and, in consequence, Abimelech would live. It is said, "And Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech."

What self-judgement was necessary in such a scene ! We are not told what words Abraham used concerning Abimelech, but could we suppose that he would pray for Abimelech without much self-judgement as he thought of hi own conduct? He would see clearly how his own fault had brought a nation to the verge of judgement, as Abimelech said, "Lord, wilt Thou slay even a righteous nation?"

No stronger case for this thought of self-judgement being an integral part of prayer can be found than in the case of Daniel in Babylon. The aged prophet wrote thus of his experience, "I prayed (Palal) unto the LORD my God, and made confession and aid ... we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly ... And whiles I was speaking, and praying (Palal), and confessing my

sin and the sin of my people Israel ... the man Gabriel instructed me, and talked with me" (Daniel 9.4-22).

Will God hear if His Son, who is the Sin-offering, and the only way to God, is forgotten, and if there is no self-judgement and confession of sin? Can it be expected that He will hear? There are queues for almost everything to-day-Pictures, Football, Horse Racing, Dog Racing, Food queues, and even queues at Roman Catholic Churches, but there are no queues where the Word of God is faithfully preached and the Gospel of God proclaimed.

Do we not all need to read again the parable of the two men who went into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican? In the Pharisee's case there was no self-judgement. He was not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, nor yet as the publican. But what self-judgement is seen in the publican! He would not lift up his eyes to heaven, but smiting upon his breast, he said, " God, be merciful to me a (the) ". "Be merciful here means "be propitiated," that is, through a sin-offering, for God's mercy ever reaches men through the shedding of blood. The all-availing Sacrifice is that of Christ on Calvary, and His blood alone atones for sin. This man who judged himself and was humbled in the thought of his sin before God went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee, in whom there was no self-judgement or humiliation. The Lord added, "For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 15. 9-14).

Christ can no more be by-passed than David could when Israel went out to fight the Philistines at the vale of Elah (1 Samuel 17.). With the holy oil he had been anointed king over Israel in the room of Saul. But Saul was still king, though a rejected one. David's brothers had gone to the battle, and he was at home tending the sheep. His prowess was not yet known and acknowledged. His father made him his messenger to run to the army and come again, but when he came to the ranks of armed men he found them confronted with a danger that none could face. Goliath with his gigantic strength and heavy armour blocked the way to any victory by Israel, and there was no one to take up the challenge. "Is there not a cause? " was David's question. What was the root cause of the weakness of Saul and of Israel? Was it not in the fact that they had disobeyed the word of God and the LORD had rejected their leader (1 Samuel. 15.11, 20-26)? The result was that Saul had lost his hold upon God. He was weak as other men instead of being God's victorious king.

It was such a scene of weakness that David entered. From slaying a lion and a bear he had come to face a greater foe, but not in Saul's armour. The armour of a defeated man would never do for God's champion. Down into the vale of Elah he went to teach men that there was a God in Israel, and that all there assembled might know that" the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S " (1 Samuel 17.47).

As David, the shepherd, was the true king and deliverer of Israel, so the Man of Calvary is King of kings. We would that it were proclaimed from the housetops the word which He spoke in Galilee after His resurrection-" All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth "(Matthew 28.18). Can He with such authority vested in Him be by-passed? Should He be forgotten ?. Ought He to be treated as a dead man out of mind? Where is the Shepherd, we say-the Good, Great and Chief Shepherd? He alone is able to say in the midst of human storms and turbulence, "Peace, be still," which is not the peace of the stricken field when the battle has rolled past-the quiet of death, but peace in life. Only Christ can speak peace, for He made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1.20).

unknown | Aug 1944
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