Isaiah 40:11,29  . . . He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. . . . He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

How, then, does the divine Shepherd feel when pastors do not tenderly and selflessly tend their flocks or do not seek to refresh and empower them? To understand, I should first state a basic truth that not everyone finds obvious and the rest of us might sometimes be tempted to let slip from our focus:

Don’t for a moment imagine that because God allows people to do atrocious things in his church or elsewhere, that he is not enraged by it. The God who is love and goodness personified cares so passionately about the spiritual welfare of his children that, as James was divinely moved to warn, to assume the role of instructing other Christians is to expose oneself to harsher judgment from God (James 3:1). We are all liable to slip up and, as serious as it is to stray, to take anyone with us renders us even more culpable.

Hebrews 10:30-31 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Even when the Almighty furiously disapproves of our actions, God mercifully gives us much leeway so that we might come to our senses and start proving ourselves faithful before it is too late:

Romans 2:3-4  . . . do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

2 Peter 3:3-10  . . . in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago  . . . the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are . . . being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord . . . a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. . . .

The divine dilemma is that graciously giving us desperately-needed time to repent and accumulate our eternal reward is giving some of us extra time to break God’s heart even more by hurting his loved ones.

In parable after parable, Jesus told us it is as though God had gone away and left us to our own devises. As the parables unfold it becomes evident that, despite appearances, the Lord remains so vitally concerned that when we least expect it he will return and richly reward or terrifyingly punish us according to how we have used our God-given opportunities to prove faithful. In the meantime, however, we are by no means left alone. Whether we feel it or not, our Lord continually gives us his sweet presence, divine encouragement, inspiration and wisdom. He empowers us, guides us and teaches us. But he is like a coach who believes in us; taking us through intensive training sessions so that we can become champions. Sadly, not everyone makes the most of these priceless opportunities:

Matthew 24:45-51 Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
            But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

With this truth firmly established, let’s return to the critical question: how does God feel about spiritual leaders who fail to display the holy, tender heart of God toward those they influence? What will become of pastors who are not Christlike; leaders who fail to live up to the following standards of sensitive care?

Isaiah 42:3 A bruised reed [something of no apparent use] he will not break, and a smoldering wick [not only apparently useless but a source of irritation] he will not snuff out.

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me . . . to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve . . .

Psalms 103:14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.

Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Jeremiah 30:17 ‘But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

John 10:11-12 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.

Titus 1:7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless – not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

1 Peter 5:2-3 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (Comments mine.)

To answer, I cannot do better than bring to your attention what God said through Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 34:2-31 . . . ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds [from the sheep’s milk], clothe yourselves with the [sheep’s] wool and slaughter the choice animals [to eat], but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd [no one who selflessly and gently tended the flock as a shepherd should], and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. . . .
            As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a [good] shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore . . . I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. . . .
            I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and . . . bring them into their own land. . . . There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
            I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
            As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Therefore . . . I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered.
            I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David [Jesus, the Messianic descendent of David], and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the LORD will be their God, and my servant [the prophesied descendent of] David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.
            I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land.
            They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD. (Comments mine.)

There will be a day of reckoning; when everything is put right; a day when integrity and purity will be restored; when the exquisite beauty of God’s ways is manifest in all its perfection. That will be the day when love and justice finally meet; a day of extravagantly generous and terrifying rewards, when the exalted will be brought down and the downtrodden exalted; when those who have been self-seeking will be exposed and selfless Christ-seekers will be forever extolled as heroes.

Until everything is put right, life can be tough, but it is our chance to win for ourselves eternal glory by being Christlike; blessing those who curse us and praying for those who hurt us; heroically persisting in the face of adversity; following in the steps of the Lord of lords who suffered unspeakably at the hands of supposedly God-loving, Bible-believing spiritual leaders. This is the path to glory.

Let me close with quotes from other writings of mine. They refer to trials in general but when our trial is spiritual abuse from revered leaders, it has a special affinity to what our Lord endured:

Consider Scott and his team, who struggled to the South Pole only to discover their honor of being the first to reach the Pole was lost forever. Amundsen had beaten them by about a month. To add to the futility, they endured further blizzards, illness, frostbite and starvation only to perish; the last three dying just a few miles from safety. Yet today their miserable defeat ending with death in frozen isolation, witnessed by not a living soul, is hailed as one of the greatest ever epics of human exploration and endurance.

Every fiber of my being is convinced that their glory is just a shadow of what you can achieve. Though you suffer in isolation and apparent futility, with the depths of your trial known to no one on earth, your name could be blazed in heaven’s lights, honored forever by heaven’s throngs for your epic struggle with illness, bereavement, or whatever. The day is coming when what is endured in secret will be shouted from the housetops. Look at Job: bewildered, maligned, misunderstood; battling not some epic foe but essentially common things – a financial reversal, bereavement, illness – not cheered on by screaming fans, just booed by some one-time friends. If even on this crazy planet Job is honored today, I can’t imagine the acclaim awaiting you when all is revealed. Your battle with life’s miseries can be as daring as David’s encounter with Goliath. Don’t worry that others don’t understand this at present. One day they will. And that day will never end.


Although we will have many thrilling things to do in heaven, we’ll be rather like former football champions who have retired and gone into sports administration. Life will be easier. There will be no more injuries, no more tedious, grueling training sessions, no more agonizing over mistakes made on the field, but the opportunity to gain more glory and become a greater hero will have forever passed.

So life is exciting. And the greatest thrills it offers are the pain and dangers and challenges. Forget about a soft life. Leave that to your heavenly retirement. Now’s your time for glory. You’re a champion in the making; someone increasingly bearing the likeness of God himself; someone the Almighty will forever smile upon with Fatherly pride.

If you have suffered at the hands of spiritual leaders who did not treat you with the integrity, gentleness and/or respect worthy of a child of the King, God’s heart breaks for you. You deserve much comfort, encouragement and healing. For help, I urge you to read What is Spiritual Abuse? Spiritual Abusers Identified.

Not to be sold. © Copyright, Grantley Morris, 2014. For much more by the same author, see www.net-burst.com   No part of these writings may be copied without citing this entire paragraph.