Moses and David as Shepherds

[MoxleyJ]

Moses is such a central figure in the Old Testament, it could be considered a biography. Yet it is through Moses' story that we see God revealed. I did not grasp that Moses was the means by which God lead and fed his people in the wilderness. Moses stands for the people under his watch, even to the point of questioning God for his decision to destroy them after God brought them out of Egypt. Moses 'stood in the breach' and saved Israel from God's wrath. This characteristic of a shepherd is easy to see, when viewed with the lens of the metaphor of the shepherd.

David is literally a shepherd. He was chosen by God specifically because of who he was: a shepherd. And when David "shines" it is when he is leading with the heart of a shepherd. His courage is evident in fighting of the bear, lion, or Goliath. It is after he rejects Saul's armor that he succumbs to the temptation of power. I never thought how Nathan used what was basic in David's identity as a shepherd boy, to reveal his fall and abuse of power. Laniak reveals Nathan's success in revealing how far David had come from being the shepherd of God's people: from protecting them on the battlefield to being at home and sacrificing them for his own personal pleasure. This ties in with Psalm 23...that the king was dependent on God for personal nurture and guidance. Israel's kings had to understand that being a member of God's flock is more important than being a leader of the flock.