Love in the Face of ISIS by Lorraine Marie Varela

Author:Lorraine Marie Varela
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012080;REL012110
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Releasing the Protection of God through Leadership

God spoke to Moses with a command and a grim prophetic word. The command was for Moses to climb a mountainous region in Jordan where he would be able to see the land God had given to the people of Israel. It was there he would die because of his one act of rebellion against God as he led the people through the wilderness (see Numbers 27:12–14). Moses would see the Promised Land, but he would not inherit the promise himself.

God holds leaders to a very high standard.

Rather than argue with God or beg for mercy, Moses accepted his fate and asked God to appoint another leader in his place after his death.

“Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”

Numbers 27:16–17 ESV

Moses embraced his role of leadership like a shepherd (see Psalm 77:20). He had been a shepherd for forty years for his father-in-law, Jethro, when he lived in Midian. It was while guarding the flock, with his shepherd’s staff in hand, that he encountered God in the burning bush (see Exodus 3; 4:2 NLT). Moses spent the next forty years shepherding the people of Israel out of captivity and into freedom.

Through Moses’ leadership in his role as a shepherd, the protection of God was released over the people.

This was providential, because the people of Israel had a tendency to scatter like sheep without a shepherd. It did not take long. Early in their journey, while Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days receiving the commandments of God, they turned away from God to worship the golden calf they had made. As their leader, Moses interceded for the people to be spared from death. God listened to Moses and relented from bringing disaster, releasing His protection in the face of certain tragedy (see Exodus 32:11–14).

The metaphor of a shepherd is used in Scripture to refer to kings, princes and religious leaders—those who hold authority (see Psalm 78:70–72; Jeremiah 23:2). The apostle Paul speaks to believers in 1 Timothy 2:1–4 to encourage prayer and intercession for leaders and all those who are in authority. This prayer is good and is “pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (verses 3–4 ESV).

When Paul wrote this prayer directive, the governing authorities were enemies of Christianity and persecutors of Christians. Paul had been beaten and imprisoned many times by leaders such as these. Yet he said not only to intercede for them but to give thanks for them.

This is perhaps the most difficult instruction of all in this passage. Is it really possible to give thanks for those who are enemies of the cross? From a human perspective, the answer is clearly no.

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