One of the great iconic moments in history, told and retold, in movies such as The Ten Commandments (1956), The Prince of Egypt, Moses, and parodied in Bruce Almighty, is Moses holding his staff up at the shores of the Red Sea, a crowd of 1 million or so Israelites behind them – this, the final part of the great and miraculous rescue from slavery to freedom.
The Exodus! God, hearing the cries of his people, and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. (Ex 2:24-25).
God demonstrates his awesome power, through ten plagues, successively worse, ending up in darkness over the whole land (the 9th plague, symbolising judgement), and then the death of the first-born son for every house that had rebelled against God. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who believed himself to be God, had to admit that he was not God, that God was God, and that he had to obey the word of the Lord to let the twelve Tribes of Israel go.
Off they go, leaving Egypt, laden with riches and gifts from the Egyptians, heading towards the Red Sea. When they get there, God commands Moses to raise his staff, and causes a great wind to blow, parting the waters. Moses leads the people, walking across the sea. He leads them towards Mt Sinai, where God meets with his people, the great “I am”, Yahweh the God of the covenant, teaching his people what it means to be his people. He saved them, but that’s not all – he saved them to be with him, to walk in the good works that he prepared beforehand. They belong to him and He to them, now they need to know how to act like the people of the Holy and Majestic God of Hosts!
Keep the Exodus story in mind as we study tonight’s passage – you’ll notice many, many connections!
1. Jesus is the true Shepherd
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Jesus is the good shepherd because, despite his weariness, he has compassion on the people. He is their leader, and so he leads, no matter the cost to himself. He is a selfless leader – the kind of leader we want. He’s the Nelson Mandela of the 1st century!
But it’s more than that – the phrase “sheep without a shepherd” would have been a familiar one to any Jew, or indeed anyone who knew the Old Testament at all. For Israel’s leaders were frequently said to be shepherds (either good or bad!) for God’s people (the “sheep”). In 1 Kings 22:17 Micaiah prophesies death of the King of Israel – says that then Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd. The King of Israel is the shepherd. And in contrast to Herod, the titular King (he has the title “king”) who has abused his people, killed the prophet John, fears men (and women!) and not God, and doesn’t have a clue who Jesus is – Jesus is the true King, the good King, who has compassion on his people and leads them.
Israel’s spiritual leaders (the Pharisees, scribes, and teachers of the law) have failed Israel. Israel’s king has failed Israel. But Jesus – Jesus is the better priest, the better prophet, the better king. He is the true King, the true Shepherd, the Good Shepherd.
And did you notice how this Good Shepherd shepherds his people? And he began to teach them many things. Through his Word.
Today, the Good Shepherd teaches us many things through his word. And what he teaches is good, because he has our best interests at heart. And he is the King, speaking with authority,. His words are True, true truth. Do you believe it? Do you believe in the words of Jesus against the words of society, or your friends, or the media, or your teachers, or your co-workers, or psychologists or scientists, or even your religion. Don’t be fools! Their words are empty of wisdom because they are tainted by, affected by, sin. There is always self-interest in every word uttered by human beings.
Do not trust to some human institution, some person – not even the church, not the Pope, not your pastor – only Jesus. Only his words in the Bible are infallible truth.
So what do you struggle with? Maybe, for example, it’s Jesus’ views on sex that you want to re-think? Too prudish, too narrow. If people love each other, why shouldn’t they have sex? The Good Shepherd says: because it hurts them. It is destructive.
Look around – what has the sexual revolution cost us? Broken marriages, lonely people. Children living in two, three, even four different homes. Women being continually used and abused, selling their bodies for “love” at age 16, 15, 14 even. Nude pictures circulating cellphones at junior school. Men addicted to pornography, their minds warped so they can’t even think of women and women but only as sex objects – and, ironically, unable to have real sexual intercourse.
Never mind the huge epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, women finding themselves sterile because of sexual encounters at high school, and, of course, our unwanted products of sexual intercourse being discarded like so much trash: unborn babies, made in the image of God, inifinitely precious in his sight – being tossed on the garbage pile.
So, how’s that working for you? Sexual revolution? Sexual freedom? Nope. It’s sexual rebellion. Sexual bondage. A destructive spiral of self-harm and loneliness.
The point of all this is twofold:
1. We are sinners, rebels against God, breakers of God’s law, cut off from relationship with our Creator. We are NOT able to fix things ourselves. We are dumb, like sheep, and need a Good Shepherd to lead us out of the mess we’ve got ourselves into. Praise God that he is that good shepherd, and in his mercy offers us that rescue – and more than that, shows us how to live now that we ARE rescued.
2. Jesus’ words are good. Because we are evil (that is rebels against God), his words sound harsh and wrong to our ears. But imagine for example, if everyone honoured God in the marriage bed. Imagine a world with no sexual sin, where men and women loved their spouse and only their spouse. No pornography. No affairs. No sex at schools. No rape. Only husbands and wives committed to each other for life sharing the joys of God’s good gift of sex with each other. Ugh, sounds awful doesn’t it?! How can the church be so stoopid! (sarcasm!)
That's just an example - whatever it is that you struggle with, that you doubt God's word, give it up, and listen to the Shepherd.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who shepherds through his powerful, life-giving word.
2. Jesus is the better Moses
The phrase “sheep without a shepherd” was not just used of the king, but was first used of Israel’s greatest leader: Moses. In Numbers 27:15–18 Moses said to the LORD, 16 “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”
Moses asks for a new leader for Israel, a new leader of God’s people – a new Moses. Although Joshua followed Moses and lead the conquest of the promised land, he was not like Moses. He did not receive direct revelation from God. He did not speak to him face to face. In fact, he was called to remember the book of the Law that Moses had written on Mt Sinai, dictated to him by God.
At this point we are still waiting for the promised “prophet like Moses”: in Dueteronomy 18:15 it says (Moses speaking) “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.
And we waited - until now.
For suddenly here is one who shepherds the people with the word of God. Who teaches with authority. Who commands the wind and the waves. Who calls the 12 to him on the mountainside. Who feeds the people, sitting in groups of 100, 50, in the wilderness, miraculously. And, if we hadn’t understood about the loaves, like the disciples, we are told “they picked up 12 baskets”. 12 = 12 tribes = Israel => Israel being miraculously fed in the wilderness = the new Exodus of the new Israel. Or rather the true Exodus (salvation from sin) of the true Israel (those who belong to Jesus).
35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
Jesus is the better Moses, teaching the words of God, feeding the people miraculously, establishing the new people of God.
He is the fulfilment of the promise of the new Exodus in Isaiah. He is the warrior king, the suffering servant, the one afflicted in order to save his people. Jesus is the better Moses, because he does what Moses could not – he offers his perfect life in order to save his people. He is the Passover lamb, the lamb that was slain on the night before the Exodus. Instead of darkness covering the Israelites on that night, the darkness covered Jesus on the cross. And instead of their firstborn sons dying, God the Son, the firstborn, the heir of all Creation, tastes death upon the cross. His death shouts out a message of hope to the whole world, a message that the heart that beats at the centre of the universe is one of undeserved mercy and love.
Do you know him?
3. Jesus leads the true Exodus
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
Again, we see the Exodus motif. Just as Israel walked over the sea, so too Jesus walks over the sea. But there is more: Jesus is not just the Son of God as Israel was called, but he is also God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
In Ex 33:19 after Israel’s rebellion with the Golden Calf, Moses asks God not to abandon them but to be with his people, and to reveal himself to Moses, to show his glory, to reveal his name. And in chapter 34 God does that, placing Moses in cave in a rock and passing by him, and declares that he will be in the midst of his people.
Jesus, too, passes by in the boat, then, when they cry out, he steps into the boat, into the midst of them. And announces his name: I am. Literally he says “Do not be afraid, I am” ἐγώ (ego = I) εἰμι (eimi = exist). (NLT gets closest with “I am here”). “I am” was the name God proclaimed when he met Moses at the burning bush. “Say to Pharaoh “I am” sent you”.
So this is no mere Moses, no mere Exodus – this is the true Exodus, lead by the true Moses which the other Exodus and other Moses merely foreshadowed. And great as that Exodus was, it pales into nothingness when we see who leads this Exodus: the great “I am” himself, Israel’s covenant-keeping God Yahweh.
Jesus is no mere man, not just gentle Jesus meek and mild. He is the warrior God, the covenant keeper, the one who raises kings up and brings them down, the one who holds stars in his hands, the one who sits on his throne and laughs at those who would rebel against him (Ps 2).
Do you see his glory? Do you see why this is no cheap grace, to be accepted and then to go on sinning? Do you see why once you meet Jesus your life cannot be the same again?
He is the Holy, Awesome, Almighty, Other, God, perfect in his glory and goodness. And yet says “come to me, for I have paid the price”.
Like the Israelites crying out for help in slavery to the Egyptians, we cry out in our slavery to sin, death, and Satan. And God hears, and knows.
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
And here is fulfilment of the Exodus promised in Isaiah 61 – the lame walk, the deaf hear, the sick made well. Is 61:1 (ESV) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.
Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s promises, he is the YES! to every promise made (2 Cor 1:20). The whole Bible is centred on Jesus. He is the grace behind forgiveness – his death is what makes it possible for God who is Just to forgive sinners. Repeatedly we see people sinning against God, and repeatedly we see God show mercy and forgiveness? How? Only through Jesus – his death on the cross took sin from all of time from all those who belong to God, and absorbed it. He was the Passover lamb whose blood covered the elect of God and so death and judgement passed over.
Praise Him with great praise!
He is the true shepherd, the true Moses, leading the true Exodus, paying himself the penalty to lead that Exodus, and opening the door to freedom to anyone who will listen.
Praise Him with great praise!
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