My hardest work as a pastor came when I was drafted to respond to a moral failure by a ministry leader. I knew the standard things to say: We all need the grace of God. We all have sinned. King David himself failed and still his Psalms are in our Bibles. These statements are true, but I soon saw that they are only half the story. There is much more to say. Most especially there are words that need to be said to vulnerable people who have been misused, manipulated, or abused by a person who should have been protecting them.

I knew this when I sat before a young woman broken by the abuse of this ministry leader. The Christian people around her understood neither the facts of the story nor how they should respond. They stayed back and said nothing to her. They kept their distance and added to her pain, shame, and isolation.

How should I respond? I wondered. What are the issues here? What does God say about this? What about the ministry leader whose actions had caused such harm and upheaval? Yes, he needed to be assured of God’s grace. But first, he needed to face the truth and tell the truth, the whole truth. Only then could the powerful grace and forgiveness of God begin to mend and do its work. The wound of sin needed to be cleaned out. Deep repentance is a painful blessing that opens the door to a flood of God’s great love and mercy.

I was not assigned to the ministry leader; I was assigned to the young woman, truly a victim, truly abused. What could I say to her? Should I say, “Hey, everyone has sinned. We all need grace.” Would those words not minimize the harm done to her? Such glib statements would be an indignity, a disrespect. So, what should I say? I read everything I could and talked with every expert I could find. I listened, I prayed, and I searched the Scripture.

And then I saw it: Ezekiel chapter 34. Tucked away in the middle of this Old Testament book, God tells the prophet in no uncertain terms what to say to those who harm vulnerable people under their care and how God feels towards those who have been harmed. That day I read these words:

Then this message came to me from the LORD:
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds…
Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD:
What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves
instead of your flocks… You let your flocks starve.
You have not taken care of the weak.
You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured.
You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost…
So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey…
(Ezekiel 34:1-5, NLT)

God sees all those who have been misused, abused, and left untended. He sees their lostness and their injuries. He sees their abandonment and soul hunger. He sees and He cares. The chapter continues:

“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
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 myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down…
I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.
I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…
I will shepherd the flock with justice…”
(Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-16, NIV)

So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused…
You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture.
You are my people, and I am your God.
I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”
(Ezekiel 34:22, 31, NLT)

Over and over the promises come: “I will… I myself will…” God can be trusted when others have broken our trust. God is there when people fail and when there is no comfort or consolation.

Many years have passed since I first met that young woman and I have talked with many others since. And still, every time, I count it a privilege to hear their experiences and to offer the clear and powerful advocacy of the Most High God who sees them, loves them, searches for them, rescues them, heals them, and leads them to a place of peace.

For all who know they are lost, both the sinner and the sinned against, God’s grace reaches out. He invites them to rest in green pastures. He leads them beside still waters. Because He is the Good Shepherd.

by Pastor June Barrow

‘Finding God in the Darkness’

“Instead of begging to get out, or trying desperately to silence the pain, I learned that people in crisis must embrace the journey, as difficult as that is. Rather than expend energy avoiding all suffering as evil, of little good, unloving or unfair, we must let the pain-filled path drive us to the God who is good in all He does. We will soon discover that in His hands, the object of deepest sorrow can become the source of our greatest blessing.
“This approach will not quickly alleviate the trial, nor will it answer all the questions suffering brings. But I know that God waits to be found in the midst of the darkness, so we must learn to embrace it. There God will cause us to see things we would never find in the light—truths, experiences of His love and faith-fulness, and new understanding about ourselves and the broken world in which we live.”

– Terry Wardle
Professor of Practical Theology, Ashland Theological Seminary

Excerpt from Draw Close to the Fire: Finding God in the Darkness, Abilene, TX: Leafwood Publishers, 2004, p. 17.