Bible Characters – Part 24
Series – April 2025 – Grace & Truth Magazine
Bible Characters
Gleanings From The Old Testament
Part 24
Asaph And Divine Guidance
You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. —Psalm 77:20 NKJV
How To Shepherd The Flock
God led His people “like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” In this way Asaph ended this psalm in which he reflected on all God’s mighty deeds in the past and took comfort from this for the present. The conclusion of his reflections was that he could rest in God’s faithful care for His people. God led them like a caring Shepherd and delivered them with His arm. How did He do this? He did it by means of the men whom He had chosen: He led His people by the hand of Moses and Aaron. It was not only by the hand of Moses or just by the hand of Aaron, but God led His people by the hands of both spiritual leaders.
Moses was the great prophet and teacher through whom God gave laws to Israel. He told them all that the LORD had spoken to him. Aaron was the high priest of the people; he mediated between them and God. In that office Aaron would come to God with the sacrifices of the people and offer them to Him that they would be pleasing in His sight. From that wonderful place in God’s presence, Aaron would return to the people to bless them in the name of the Lord and to put His name on them (Num. 6:22-27).
Both of these types have their fulfillment in Christ, “the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). He is the “Great Shepherd of the sheep” (13:20). He is both “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1). Christ is the Apostle, the Teacher sent by God, who revealed the truth of God here on earth. He revealed the Father in words and deeds (Lk. 10:22; Jn. 14:7).
After His resurrection from the dead and His ascension, He continued this revelation by the Spirit whom He sent from on high. The Spirit brought to the disciples’ remembrance all things that the Lord said to them, the truth already revealed to His own. Moreover, the Spirit guided them into all truth, so they could write it down in the divine record: the Holy Scriptures (14:26, 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:10-13).
Christ is also the great High Priest (Heb. 4:14). He has accomplished the great work of redemption on earth once for all. Now He is acting as the Minister of the heavenly sanctuary in order to make intercession for His people (8:1-2). He knows our weaknesses. He knows about the temptations that come our way. He understands our cares because He went through all these things during His life on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ has perfect knowledge of our circumstances.
Note that Christ’s High Priesthood does not concern our sins but our weaknesses. “He died to sin once for all” (Rom. 6:10; see Heb. 7:27) and “bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12), but His priestly care in heaven concerns the weaknesses and shortcomings of His own. He prays for us that we would not yield to the temptations that we continually meet on our way (consider Lk. 22:32). If we fall and sin, He acts on our behalf as the “Advocate with the Father” to restore our fellowship with the Father (1 Jn. 2:1).
Christ’s work as our High Priest therefore concerns the difficulties we meet on our journey through the wilderness, our pilgrimage here on earth until we come to heaven. Christ continually pleads for us at the throne of God, which is no longer a throne of judgment for His people but “the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). He helps us reach the end of our journey because “He is also able to save to the uttermost” and “He always lives to make intercession” for us (Heb. 7:25). As to our position in Christ, it is true that “by grace [we] have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). But as to our walk on earth, we have not yet reached the end of the journey and need the support that Christ offers us as our great High Priest.
Just as the way God led the people of Israel by the hand of Moses and Aaron, He now leads His heavenly people – the believers – by the powerful hand of the risen Christ. He is both our great Teacher and our great Priest. We need the teaching of His Word and we also need His priestly activity in order to walk worthy of our calling. God fills both of these needs.
God’s Word and the High Priesthood of Christ are mentioned together in Hebrews 4 because they supplement each other. “The Word of God is living and powerful … and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (v.12). Beside this, we have the comfort of Christ’s priestly care to empower us to live according to God’s Word.
In this way, God leads us – and He leads us like a flock. God sees His people in the unity that He has formed. They need each other, and He leads them together in green pastures and beside the still waters (Ps. 23). Are we a flock of believers who listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd? Do we follow the path He shows us?
Failure And Restoration
God led Israel like a flock by the hand of Moses, whose life can be divided into three segments of 40 years each. As an experienced shepherd, Moses was, in a sense, learning in God’s school for 40 years as he tended to the flock of Jethro his father-in-law (see Acts 7:22-34; Ex. 2:11-22). In that second period of his life, between the ages of 40 and 80, he led his flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God (Ex. 3:1).
Moses visited the same mountain during the last 40 years of his life, when he led God’s people Israel through the wilderness to the mountain of God (v.12, 18:5, 19:1-6). God’s people stayed there in His presence and listened to His voice. Then called “Mount Sinai,” God spoke to the Israelites through Moses, and during the rest of the journey to Canaan He revealed to them His will through the mouth of this faithful servant.
But very soon it became clear that this most important means was not sufficient to keep the people in the straight and narrow path. Israel immediately failed at Mount Sinai. They disobeyed the divine command and worshiped idols at the foot of the mountain while Moses was still on the mountain to receive God’s commandments! Priestly intercession was the only means that remained in this serious situation to save the people from God’s wrath. We see this in Exodus 32–34. Moses ascended the mountain again to intercede for the people, and it was only because of this that they found mercy.
The priesthood therefore was the second means which God used to lead His people. In the story at Mount Sinai, Moses really took the place of Aaron the priest, who for the time had become incapable of fulfilling his role because of his responsibility in making the golden calf and misleading the people. Here Moses was both lawgiver and priest, uniting the two functions in one person. This would find its ultimate fulfillment in Christ Himself.
Later in the history of God’s people, Aaron did fulfill his priestly duties, although Israel failed again and again and refused to listen to God’s voice. Consider for a moment the revolt of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Numbers 16. Israel would have been consumed if Aaron had not offered incense to stop the plague. It is remarkable that after this incident the meaning and the place of Aaron’s priesthood are clearly accentuated and affirmed (see Num. 17–18).
The priesthood is the necessary supplement to the first means which God has given to lead His people. The teachings of the Word are supported by the activities of the priesthood. This is necessary to keep God’s flock in the straight and narrow path, and this is also an important lesson for those who in our day take care of the flock of God: the elders and shepherds who tend the sheep (1 Pet. 5:1-4). They must realize that they cannot act as owners of the flock. It is the flock of God, and it should be led to “the mountain of God,” brought into God’s presence. Yet, this is not enough. These shepherds of the flock should also act as intercessors, interceding for His flock in a priestly way.
God’s Shepherd Care
Now let us go back for a moment to Psalm 77, written by Asaph when he pondered God’s ways with His people. Asaph did not understand God’s guidance, but there were two things about which he felt sure. First, he realized that God’s way was “in the sanctuary” (v.13). God leads us in keeping with the demands of His own holiness, and therefore it can please Him to lead us along difficult paths. This chastening, however, is “for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10).
Second, Asaph understood that God’s “way was in the sea, and [His] path in the great waters, [so that His] footsteps were not known” (Ps. 77:19). God’s guidance is often in secret, and His ways are not always clear. Despite this, we cannot call God to account for His deeds, as Job once did. Even through circumstances which threatened His people, God led them to the other side of the sea, where Moses and the Israelites then sang God’s praises (v.20; Ex. 14–15).
In Psalm 77 Asaph took comfort from this, and we should do the same when we think of God’s ways and call upon Him because of the pitiful condition of His Church on earth. God’s way is perfect, and He still has the necessary means to lead us on. We should ask ourselves the question as to whether we really want to be guided as His flock by the Word and the priesthood of our glorious Lord. All other resources will fail.
By Hugo Bouter (adapted)
Look for Part 25 of this Series next month.
Lead on, Almighty Lord, Lead on to victory: Encouraged by Thy blessed word, With joy we follow Thee.
We follow Thee, our Guide, Who did’st salvation bring: We follow Thee, through grace supplied From heaven’s eternal spring:
Till of the prize possessed, We hear of war no more, And, oh, sweet thought! forever rest On yonder peaceful shore. –Thomas Kelly (1769–1854)