and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:10-11 ESV)
She forgot the rings.
Our trip to Kauai had two key purposes: a celebration in advance of our 30th anniversary, and being present for our friends at their wedding on the shores of the island.
It was a beautiful Friday morning – our first on the island. We had driven half-way around Kauai, it seemed, with plenty of time to reach the beach where the officiant, photographer, and florist would be waiting. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were almost there, when we received a text from our friends driving in a separate vehicle ahead of us that they forgot the rings. They were going to drive back to the hotel, get the rings and make some calls to make sure that everyone would wait. Meanwhile, as they rushed back, that’s just what we did – we waited.
We had quite providentially stopped at a scenic overview of the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge. And we soaked it in. Kauai is one of the world’s wettest locations (the wettest point on earth, Mt. Waialeale, is located on Kauai, and receives an astounding 460 inches of rainfall each year). And it shows. So many shades of green! Deep, vibrant, verdent green! Everywhere. We soaked in the view as we waited for our frenzied friends (everything turned out fine, the officiant was still waiting along with the photographer and the florist, and the wedding went on as they had planned and dreamt).
Quite fittingly, Kauai was where I read Isaiah 40-52 as part of the ongoing Project 1189 (reading through all 1,189 chapters of the Bible in two years). And even as the island lingers in my heart and soul, so does Isaiah with its many scenic overviews, beginning with the passage quoted above.
Isaiah 40:10-11 immediately seized my attention with its seeming incongruity of strength and might in verse 10 and the tenderness and soft touch of verse 11. But what strikes me as I take in this rich scenic overview – for me starting in Isaiah 40 – is that there is no incongruity here at all, except in our own minds and cultural perspective. Typically (or should I say stereotypically) tenderness is regarded as feminine and weak (at least by men). We men are all over “his arm rules for him” leading us to a crescendo of testosterone by the end of verse 10, while, for us, verse 11 sputters out, an ignominious dud (it has to be a female nursery worker’s verse!).
But connecting both verses is the statement, “he will lead his flock like a shepherd.”
Shepherd is the crucial link.
It would seem there is something of “masculine” might and the ruling arm in a biblical shepherd. You need go no further than David, seeing a precious lamb about to be snatched away by a ravenous bear or lion. Does he drop the predator, Goliath-like, with a well-aimed stone? No, he gets up close and personal in a very hands-on approach, grabbing each intruder in turn “by the beard” and then beating its bloody brains out with a club. Now that’s a ruling arm. But as I observe the picture more closely, there’s really not much here of the (again, stereotypical) masculine western man out to provide food for his family or a trophy for his wall. It’s more like a momma bear being robbed of her cubs. David is furious at the predator’s intrusion, but not because of potential financial or numerical loss or even trespassing on his domain. It’s because of the lamb – the one he gathers in his arms and carries “in his bosom.” The shepherd knows the sheep by name – and can recongize and distinguish them by touch and even by smell. And the sheep know his voice – because he is constantly among them using it, calling them by name, singing over them, laughing, warning, lecturing, cajoling.
He would lay down his life for any of them and he would leave all of them to go find one that was missing (the needs of the one outweighing at that moment the needs of the many).
It was only later in David’s life that he lost this shepherd’s heart when he as king stood on the balcony of his accomplishments enjoying his own scenic overview of Bathsheba’s courtyard – and then became the prowling predator himself, singling out and pursuing another’s lamb and ruthlessly making the kill.
As it was in Hanalei, there is so much to be seen here in this Isaianic inspired view. Much of God as our Shepherd; much concerning myself as one called “pastor/shepherd” following his lead and walking in his pastoring ways.
It’s quite a view.
It’s going to take a few posts to unpack and explore what I’m seeing…and what I’m saying every time I introduce myself as “pastor.”
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