Treasures in the Wilderness 4: A Shepherd’s Delight, episode 72

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at when you love a prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey. Today is our fourth and final look at treasures in the wilderness. We will discover things about our shepherd and his sheep that will encourage us. Be sure to listen for two more treasures. I have a painting of a sheep on a narrow mountain ledge with a shepherd, in this case supposedly Jesus, reaching down to pull him up to safety, to rescue him.

0:47 This picture of Jesus rescuing the lost sheep is a perfect image for those of us who love a prodigal. Sometimes too often, someone we love becomes the lost sheep wandering on a precarious path. We do our best to guide, protect, and rescue, but we don't always succeed. That's when we turn in desperation to the good shepherd, to Jesus himself. Now, sheep wander. If one makes a turn, the others will follow, even if it's a wrong turn.

1:28 A wrong turn in the wilderness can lead to disaster. So the sheep have a shepherd. That shepherd never leaves them. He or she leads them to green grass, to clear still water, to a place for rest, and the shepherd protects them from wild animals and from precarious paths. Dave Adamson, known as Aussie Dave on Instagram, gives beautiful explanations of Hebrew words, enabling us to better understand Scripture and apply it in our lives. Here are some insight he shares on Psalm 23, the shepherd's Psalm.

2:12 There are a lot of shepherd images throughout the Bible, but the most well-known is found in Psalm 23. This poem, he says, has deepened my faith more than any other, but only after I learned what it meant to be a shepherd in Israel. During the day, a shepherd in Israel walks in front of the flock, leading them with the sound of his voice, just like in the opening of Psalm 23, which reads, he leads me beside quiet water. But when the sun goes down in the desert, a shepherd moves into the middle of the flock.

2:53 He stands among the sheep to guide them, just as the psalmist writes, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. When life is darkest, God is closest. So in the light, he just walked ahead and they followed. But when it was dark, he was right there with them. And Dave concludes, the Hebrew word we translate as staff in this verse is mishana, which means a support. See, when life is darkest, God is beside us to support us.

3:36 And in verse 4 of the 23rd Psalm, it says, I will not be afraid for you are close beside me. So another treasure from the wilderness, a shepherd who is always with us, guiding, providing, protecting, rescuing. And our final treasure is that that shepherd delights in us and our prodigals. Now, I have 10 grandchildren and I'm pretty crazy about them. I pray for them. I love to talk with them, listen to them, play with them, snuggle with them, encourage them.

4:22 And I love to give them gifts, especially ones I know they will delight in. We had a three-year-old birthday not too long ago, and her mom said a sand and water table would be perfect. The one I gave her cousins five years before was still in delighted use by the younger children there. And I'm sure through the hot Florida summer that she found great delight in splashing, pouring, throwing water everywhere. Our God takes such delight in us as well. He loves to spend time with us. To splash blessings on us.

5:04 To listen to our hearts and our hearts. To pour grace all over us. And he feels the same way about our prodigals. It was really important for me to understand that as much as God loved and cared for me, that's how he felt about this kid who was making my life challenging or miserable. He loves them. No, he doesn't love some of their choices. He is deeply saddened by the danger they place themselves in. His heart, like yours, is broken by the chains that bind them.

5:47 But he loves them and he delights in them. Listen to some of the assurances of his delight. He brought me out to a spacious place. He rescued me because he delighted in me. Second Samuel and in Micah 7, who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the moment of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. And Zephaniah, which we read last week as well.

6:29 The Lord your God is with you. The mighty warrior who saves, he will take great delight in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing. In the show notes, or the episode notes, I have included a link to a very short video called Delight. It's like one minute. It's a dad who is a pastry chef, apparently, makes a beautiful little cake for his daughter's first birthday. So much love went into every detail to make this perfect little cake.

7:15 And then he put it in front of her. And what did that baby do? What almost all babies do to their first birthday cake? Smash it. Now the dad could have become sad, annoyed, hurt, even angry. But no, he was delighted because his child was so delighted in his gift. But even more, he just took great delight in that child. Do you see it? Even when we fail or make mistakes or sin greatly, our God of grace and mercy forgives, he redeems, he restores, and he delights in us as he does our loved ones.

8:04 He is crazy about you and your prodigal. Then this, the most likely way God will express his grace, mercy, and delight to our wanderers will be through us. Even as they know we don't like, approve of, agree with some of their choices and activities, when we extend love, mercy, and grace to them, they can see God in us. As we allow the love and grace and mercy that God has given to us to flow through us, our prodigals will begin to understand God's great delight in them.

8:53 Can we do this? Can we be the conduit of God's love and delight toward our loved ones? I pray we can do it. A couple of questions. In what ways have you seen our good shepherd protect and even rescue your prodigal? Something you didn't do that it was clearly of God. And can you delight in your wanderer even as Jesus does, even as they continue to wander, as they make bad choices, as they cost you a fortune, as they hurt you?

9:35 Even then, can you let the love of God come through you and show the delight that he has for us and for those we love? God bless you. And I just want to let you know that we're going to take a three-week break. I'm going to be gone a lot. So this will be the last episode for three weeks, but any that you missed are still available. So you won't miss me at all. You can go back and listen to other ones. Have a wonderful summer.