Led astray

July 3, 2007

By Greg Ebie

As a boy staying at my grandfather’s farm, I joined him each afternoon for the walk down to the pasture to bring the cows up to the barn for milking (sometimes they would be in the back pasture and the walk lasted a mile or more). Once the first cows started the walk toward the barn the others quickly followed. Moving up the road and into the barn, each cow made its way to her own stall to be milked and fed. I was always amazed how they knew exactly where to go.

From what I understand, sheep are different from cows. Once we got the cows started toward the barn they would just go and we followed them back (watching where you stepped). Sheep, on the other hand, must be led by a shepherd; you can’t herd sheep like you can cattle.

Throughout the Bible God’s people are often referred to as sheep. People resist being forced to do anything; instead of being “herded” and pushed to do something, people respond better to being led. We like to follow.

“My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their true pasture, the Lord, the hope of their fathers’ ” (Jeremiah 50:6,7, NIV).

God’s people did not just wander from the way God had prepared for them; their shepherds led them astray. Kings, priests and false prophets took paths God had forbidden, and the great majority of God’s people just followed them.

As a pastor I take these verses very personally. What I say and how I live my life is not just a personal matter but affects those God has called me to lead. But it is not just the people who attend the church; my influence is even greater for my family. As a father, the choices I make have a more immediate and dramatic effect on my children.

How about you? You may not be a pastor, but whom do you lead or have influence over? God will hold us accountable for how we lead. Let’s be a good example and not just leave others to wander aimlessly and lose their way home.

D. Greg Ebie is senior pastor of Praise Assembly of God in Garrettsville, Ohio, and an author of Daily Bread devotionals.