Tell Old Pharaoh!

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2-3

Americans don’t think much of public school teachers who go on strike to get bigger salaries and leave their students without adequate education. People look down on parents who neglect their children to give in to their own pleasures and addictions. Employees have little respect for bosses who take advantage of them and overwork them in order to line their own pockets.

I’ve been thinking about Pharaoh in the Bible story of the Exodus. He was a leader of a great country. He seemed to realize the benefits of the hardworking Hebrews among the Egyptians, but cared nothing about their plight or their well-being. They already worked at the back-breaking job of making bricks. In Exodus chapter five, we read that after Moses first asked to have them released to go “home” to Canaan, Pharaoh ordered that the slave drivers make the work harder for them, but to require the same quota of bricks.

Well, you say, the Hebrews worked as slaves, not as Pharaoh’s own people. He didn’t have to treat them in the same way he would treat the Egyptians.

But, as the story progresses, because of Pharaoh’s stubborn heart, God brings ten increasingly horrific plagues on the Egyptians. Did Pharaoh at all have his people in his heart? It appears he considered only his own selfish reasons when deciding to put up a fight to keep the slaves in his country, thus making his own people pay the price.

Unfortunately, there exist leaders like this wherever we look. Especially when we hear of pastors, church elders, priests, bishops who rule with only their own agendas in mind, we react to the unfairness. God gave us the picture of “shepherds” over His people in Jeremiah 23 and other places in the Old Testament. The picture of “shepherds” continues in the New Testament. Even Jesus, the great example of the Good Shepherd, showed us how Christian leaders should treat the people in their care.

Pray for church leaders everywhere, that first of all, like Paul, they might have their people “in their hearts.” Paul calls it “the affection of Christ Jesus.