Weep For The Sheep

“Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where [is] their God?” (Joe 2:17 AV)

I don’t think we weep enough for the sheep under our care.  The priests of Israel and Judah were tasked with the office of intercession.  They were to stand in the gap between the people and God.  They were to offer sacrifice and prayers for the people of God.  In this passage, the prayer was specifically for revival that the people not go into captivity.  The priests were tasked with weeping.  Serious prayers offered for a people bent on rebellion.  A people who would rather walk contrary to the scriptures than with them.  I must make a confession.  Sometimes this is hard.

What helps is to muse on the consequences of apathy or rebellion.  There are consequences for choices.  As a man of God, we sometimes allow frustration to trump compassion.  We wish the sheep were more faithful.  We are frustrated when the ignore instruction.  We are discouraged when their priorities are of this world and not of the world to come.  We are short of patience when time and again, pleasure is more important that duty.  Sometimes it is easier to be more compassionate on the drug user than the semi-faithful.  It is difficult to be constantly stirred to compassion for the lukewarm.  Maybe this is what the LORD meant in Revelation three.

Nonetheless, the duty of the priest (and the man of God) is to intercede with tears of sorrow and concern.  Prayers after prayers for the people who seem to be the hardest to turn.  Rather than frustration, intercession is the better course of action.  It is our responsibility.  It is our duty.  It is our calling.  It is our life.