Natalie Turner
Benjamin Field Study
During the months after the wheat and barley harvest in Israel, farmers allow shepherds to bring their sheep and goats to graze in their fields. This time of year is right around the festival of Succot, in the months of September and early October. As we were traveling through the Valley of Aijalon up the Beth Horon Ridge Route, we met a boy named Joseph who had come all the way from Arad in the Negev (south) with his flock of sheep and goats. There are so many biblical truths that come from the image of a shepherd and his sheep. The Bible is deeply enriched if we understand who the shepherd is and how he keeps watch over his sheep. The first is from John 10: 27, it says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” I watched this biblical image unfold right before my eyes. The young shepherd boy, Joseph, called to his sheep, they heard his voice and began to move in his direction. I once heard it said, through one of my professors, that if I would have tried to call the sheep, just like the boy had, the sheep wouldn’t have even listened, because they know the difference between the voice of a stranger and the voice of their shepherd calling them. Shepherds are also professional “rock-throwers.” They direct their sheep by taking a stone and throwing it out in front of the flock, indicating to their sheep in what direction they want to move. Again I watched as the boy Joseph took a stone from the ground and threw it out in front of his sheep, herding them. 1 Samuel 16:11 reminds us of David a young shepherd boy received God’s calling, “…now the youngest (David) is tending the sheep.” Later, God used David’s skill of “rock-throwing” to defeat the Philistine giant, Goliath. “Reaching into his (David’s) bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine (Goliath) on the forehead, and he fell face down on the ground” (1 Samuel 17: 49). Just like David, God doesn’t ask us to do something that he hasn’t already prepared us for.
Benjamin Field Study
During the months after the wheat and barley harvest in Israel, farmers allow shepherds to bring their sheep and goats to graze in their fields. This time of year is right around the festival of Succot, in the months of September and early October. As we were traveling through the Valley of Aijalon up the Beth Horon Ridge Route, we met a boy named Joseph who had come all the way from Arad in the Negev (south) with his flock of sheep and goats. There are so many biblical truths that come from the image of a shepherd and his sheep. The Bible is deeply enriched if we understand who the shepherd is and how he keeps watch over his sheep. The first is from John 10: 27, it says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” I watched this biblical image unfold right before my eyes. The young shepherd boy, Joseph, called to his sheep, they heard his voice and began to move in his direction. I once heard it said, through one of my professors, that if I would have tried to call the sheep, just like the boy had, the sheep wouldn’t have even listened, because they know the difference between the voice of a stranger and the voice of their shepherd calling them. Shepherds are also professional “rock-throwers.” They direct their sheep by taking a stone and throwing it out in front of the flock, indicating to their sheep in what direction they want to move. Again I watched as the boy Joseph took a stone from the ground and threw it out in front of his sheep, herding them. 1 Samuel 16:11 reminds us of David a young shepherd boy received God’s calling, “…now the youngest (David) is tending the sheep.” Later, God used David’s skill of “rock-throwing” to defeat the Philistine giant, Goliath. “Reaching into his (David’s) bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine (Goliath) on the forehead, and he fell face down on the ground” (1 Samuel 17: 49). Just like David, God doesn’t ask us to do something that he hasn’t already prepared us for.
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