God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Sheep are defenseless, liable to stray, pitiful when lost, scattered, stubborn and unintelligent. Clearly, they are desperate for a shepherd. They are dependent on someone to feed protect and lead them to safe green pastures. In the Bible the church leader is called a pastor, a shepherd. The transfer is applicable. It is His charge to “shepherd the flock of God among you (1 Peter 5:2). That means he must feed them on the nutrients of God’s Word, protect them from false teachers (spiritual wolves), warn them about potential dangers, lead them to the fields of holiness and grace and correct them when they stray. Ultimately, Jesus Christ does this through them.
The aesthetic experience of God, the encounter of the human soul with divine beauty, is more than merely enjoyable, it is profoundly transforming. There is within it the power to persuade and to convince the inquiring mind of truth. This may well be the Spirit’s greatest catalyst for change. Paul alluded to this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he said, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another.” The point is that what we see is what we be! We do not simply behold beauty: beauty takes hold of us and challenges the allegiance of our hearts. Beauty calls us to reshape our lives and exposes the shabbiness of our conduct. It awakens us to the reality of a transcendent Being to whose likeness of beauty we are being called and conformed by His gracious initiative. Beauty has the power to dislodge from our hearts the grip of moral and spiritual ugliness. The soul’s engagement with beauty elicits love and forges in us a new affection that no earthly power can overcome.
