Shallow Pools

[pastorsbru]

In a smaller, aging congregation I have struggled to get the few men of my church engaged in faithful Bible Study. This past year we began a Men’s Bible Study & Breakfast. The focus of our study was on the life and leadership of Moses. An older gentleman in my church, who has a particularly loud voice and influence in the congregation questioned me privately and then before others. “Why should we study Moses? Why not the New Testament? Why not Jesus or love? Why should we study the Old Testament?”
He had been part of a church his whole life. He was an elder for more than 40 years and in this church for close to 25, but he did not know how or why to drink from the well of the Old Testament. The younger men were eager to learn, but had very little understanding and no experience studying the Bible for themselves.
It is tempting to lead sheep like these to the shallow pools they seem to prefer, when it seems they are lost on the way to better waters. It is tempting to use the “tricks” alluded to in Laniak’s description of Moses striking the rock in Numbers 20. Instead, we must be reminded that it is not sheep who lead shepherd’s to water, but shepherd’s who must lead.
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Sean