a change is coming...

i have now switched my blog over to wordpress, so the address is....

benjaminwood.wordpress.com

Needless to say i will stop posting on this wordcast.

The Shepard's Rod and Staff

Like posted previously, our team is working through Psalm 23, on my journey of discovery through the Psalm I have found out the difference between the rod and the staff in verse 4. The question that made me think about this is as follows...

Why would David describe one object with two different words unless he was meaning two different things? Here are my thoughts on these two words.

The Shepard's rod was used as a weapon to defend his flock in case a foe would come to harm them. This foe could be anything from another animal to human, or it can read as Satan. I say Satan because we see in John 10:11 that Jesus is the Good Shepard, and He protects His sheep (us) and Satan comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy those who put their faith in Jesus. So Jesus uses His rod to protect the sheep from the evil one who has come to try to destroy the sheep. In proverbs the same rod is mentioned but this time it is a rod of correction and not a rod of protection. I guess that you could make the case that they are the same rod due to the fact that correction is considered a form of protection. I think that this rod is the rod of protection from the enemies that would try to destroy the sheep and not a rod of correction.

The Shepard's staff has a similar function of the rod, but it was not only used as a weapon like a rod but it was more often a sign of the significance of the person holding on to it. In this case it shows that Jesus is the man with all the authority and power. It is also a staff to steady yourself while walking through tough places. It is the assurance that the Man that we are walking with will keep us safe, He would not bring us through a hard place that He could not get through, and the thing is that He can get through any situation. If He can conquer death than He can help me get through the tough times in our lives.

We know that He can help us through the situation we are in because of the statement that follows, the rod and the staff. David writes, "they comfort me." Meaning that because of these distinctions of the rod and the staff we know that we are safe in the leadership and the protection of the Lord. When we get that as a reality in our souls then many issues will be taken care of. No longer will we try to pursue in our own strength the way out of our situation. As we all know every time we try figure out our hard place on our own, we fall flat on our face. We need the Lord's help always! This is something we should always be striving for day after day, the help of the Lord (as well as, and by no means lesser, the love of the Lord.)

These are just a few meager thoughts on the rod and the staff of the Lord.

It is said...

It is said that you learn something new everyday. Well if that is the case then here is my new tid bit of knowledge for the day.

We as a team have started to do, again, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepard... So I took it upon myself to learn about sheep. Well it turns out that sheep are a type of animal that is the family that is raised in a type of farming known as pastoralism. This is a farming that requires a leader to maintain constant care of where the heard goes.

That was something i found extreamly enlightening considering that Jesus calls Himself in John 10:11 the Good Shepard. Saying that we are the sheep that need direction from Him constantly. This realization takes Psalm 23 to a new light. I know that this is something that others would look at as elementary in the Kingdom, but to me this is a new idea.

Not so much as Jesus is the Shepard and we are the sheep, but that the act of raising sheep is called pastoralism. That just seemed really cool to me.

Dead Sea Scolls

Sarah and I finally had a date after a very hectic past couple of months. With schedules not working out too well to do much of anything to just being so tired that the thought of getting off the comfort of the couch would bring us to our knees. Still we managed to get ourselves ready to go on this particular day and get out of the house.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are in town at Union Station, Sarah has been asking to go and see them so i deiced to take her. We both had a blast. It was so cool to, one - spend the whole day with her, and two - see the scrolls. It was such an awesome experience to see the oldest know manuscripts of the Bible, right there in front of my face. It was moving.

I have changed so much, never before would i have cried at the sight of an ancient writing of the Bible, but this exhibit brought me to tears. Knowing that the same words that i look at today for teaching are the same words that people centuries before me looked at for their teachings. To see an excerpt of the Psalms, and Genesis, and Isaiah was awesome. The words seemed to come alive and no longer were they just something that i purchased from a massive Christian book retail store. They had weight and meaning. Someone took the time to write these words out so that i can have them today. This was truly an eye opening experience for me and Sarah both. It was so good.