God Always Cares About His People: Numbers 27:15–23
There is evidence everywhere that God cares about His people. We see this as He cares for all His creation and as He provides for His people. We see how God answers prayer and how He gives us exactly what we need.
Scripture is filled with story after story of how God cares for His people. We see evidence of this in Numbers 27 as Moses’ leadership is coming to an end.
As Moses’ tenure of leadership of God’s people is ending, he asks the Lord to appoint a man who can go before the people and lead them. Moses does not want the people to be without a leader. In fact, we learn in Numbers 27:17 that Moses says that he is asking the Lord to do this so that, “the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd” (ESV). This is what the Lord wants for His people. The Lord tells Moses that he needs to invest his authority into Joshua so that the people of Israel would obey. God is caring for His people by calling Joshua to the be the man to lead and shepherd His people to the promised land.
We also see evidence of God’s care for His people as He gives clear direction of who this shepherd is to be and how to appoint him to this new role. God tells Moses that Joshua will lead the people. God tells Moses that Joshua must stand before Eleazar, the priest, and all the congregation. God tells Moses that he must have Joshua stand before the people in this way and that he would then be able to commission Joshua to be the shepherd of the people. We serve a God of order who has given His people clear direction on what He is calling them to do.
His Continual Care
God shows continual care for His people as we look at the local church. God cares about His church so much that He would not leave the local church without shepherds. He has called biblically qualified men to be the spiritual leaders of the local church who will oversee and pastor (shepherd) the flock.
We also see God’s continual care for His people with the clear direction He gives from His Word in regard to who these men of God are to be (1 Tim. 3:1–7, Titus 1:5–9) and what they are to do (Acts 20:17–32, 1 Peter 5:1–4).
First Peter 5 says that God has called the spiritual leaders of the church (the elders) to shepherd the flock. The pastors are to prayerfully and humbly follow what God has called them to do as shepherds of the local church.
Acts 20 and 1 Peter 5 are very clear on what they are to do. What we must do is prayerfully and humbly listen to His Word and seek to follow His clear direction. Praise God that He cares about His church so much that He gives us shepherds.
Let’s remember that God cares about us so much that He sent His Son Jesus, the true and perfect Shepherd, to be the one who would bear our sin on the cross so that we could have a right relationship with the one true God restored. Now followers of Jesus walk in newness of life and long for the day that Jesus, our chief Shepherd, will return.
The Bible tells us that God cares about His people. No matter where you are in your walk with the Lord and no matter what you are going through, remember and rejoice that God cares so much about His people.
Dan Conrades is the Associate Team Leader for Church and Leader Mobilization with the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana (SCBI). Before his new role with the SCBI, Dan served for 23 years as a pastor at churches in Maryland and Indiana. Dan has been married to his wife, Chris (WMU President of Indiana), for 23 years and they have four children.
