BEMA Episode Link: 26: Images of the Desert — Shepherd
Episode Length: 38:49
Published Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2017 01:00:00 -0700
Session 1
About this episode:

Marty Solomon, Brent Billings, and Elle Grover Fricks discuss the first in a series of images found in the desert—what it means to be a shepherd in the biblical world.

Images of the Desert — Shepherd Presentation (PDF)

Walking with God in the Desert — Ray Vander Laan (Amazon)

TTWMK Faith Lessons on DVD and Digital (Focus on the Family)

Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

The Good Shepherd by Kenneth Bailey

“Lawning and Gardening [with goats]”

Study Tools

Legacy Episode Content

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 26: Images of the Desert — Shepherd

Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: BEMA 26 (E26v24): Images of the Desert — Shepherd
Hosts: Marty Solomon, Brent Billings
Guest: Elle Grover Fricks
Topic: An exploration of shepherd imagery in biblical desert contexts, examining how the Hebrew understanding of shepherds and the wilderness transforms our reading of familiar passages like Psalm 23.

Key Takeaways
  • The Hebrew word for desert/wilderness (midbar) literally means “place of speaking” or “place of word,” connecting it to divine communication
  • Biblical shepherding occurred primarily in desert regions, not lush green fields as commonly imagined in Western contexts
  • Desert shepherding teaches lessons of provision (“just enough”), trust, and dependence on the shepherd’s voice
  • Shepherds typically led with voice commands, not physical force, staying behind or within the flock
  • Young women often served as primary shepherds in ancient Near Eastern culture, not just men
  • The desert experience was designed to teach God’s people to become “people of the ears” rather than “people of the eyes”
Main Concepts & Theories
Hebrew Word Study: Midbar (Desert/Wilderness)
  • Root system: Hebrew words built on three-consonant roots (DVR/DBR)
  • Core meaning: “To speak” (dabar = word, davar = weighty word/commandment)
  • Desert as midbar: “Place of speaking” - where God communicates with His people
  • Theological significance: The wilderness is fundamentally a place of divine revelation and instruction
Desert as Formative Space
  • Purpose: Experiential learning (yada) - moving from knowledge to embodied understanding
  • Bruce Feiler’s characterization: “Because the place is demanding, it builds character. Because it’s destructive, it builds interdependence. Because it’s isolating, it builds community. Because it’s the desert, it builds nations.”
  • Session 1 context: Following the “rescue and wedding” of Exodus, the desert serves as the “honeymoon period” where relationship is deepened
Biblical Shepherding Practices
  • Location: Primarily in desert regions after harvest when sheep couldn’t graze in agricultural fields
  • Voice leadership: Shepherds controlled flocks through vocal commands, not physical force
  • Positioning: Shepherds typically followed behind flocks, moving to the center only during dangerous nighttime travel
  • Flock composition: Mixed sheep and goats - sheep eating grass, goats eating bushes/shrubs
  • Family structure: Often led by teenage daughters with younger brothers assisting
Desert Provision Model
  • “Just enough” principle: Daily provision meeting immediate needs without excess
  • Green pastures: Small tufts of brown grass barely visible except when sunlight hits at twilight
  • Still waters: Muddy pools in desert wadis, not flowing streams
  • Paths of righteousness: Ancient shepherd paths worn into hillsides over millennia, leading to the shepherd
Examples & Applications
Psalm 23 Recontextualized
  • “Green pastures”: Desert grass tufts - one mouthful at a time teaching dependence
  • “Still waters”: Desert water sources - sufficient but not abundant
  • “Paths of righteousness”: Ancient shepherd trails that reliably lead to the shepherd
  • “Valley of shadow of death”: Dangerous nighttime desert travel requiring close proximity to shepherd
  • “Rod and staff”: Tools of guidance and protection, not punishment
Sheep vs. Goats Distinction
  • Sheep characteristics: Follow voice commands, stay together in cohesive groups, represent obedience
  • Goat characteristics: Independent, scattered, picky eaters, represent self-reliance
  • Hebrew insight: “Goat” (ez) means “strength” - contrasting self-reliance with shepherd-dependence
  • Parable application: Jesus’ sheep and goats parable reflects these behavioral differences
Biblical Shepherd Examples
  • David: Young shepherd boy likely working alongside sisters, developing skills with sling through daily rock-throwing
  • Christmas shepherds: Could have been women (culturally normal) managing temple sheep supply
  • Moses at the well: Encountering female shepherds was typical, not exceptional
  • Jacob’s well encounter: Female shepherds waiting for male assistance with heavy stones
Potential Areas for Further Exploration
Ancient Near Eastern Context
  • Bedouin shepherding practices and their continuity with biblical times
  • Archaeological evidence of ancient shepherd paths and desert settlements
  • Comparative studies of shepherding imagery across ancient Near Eastern literature
  • The role of hospitality in desert shepherd culture
Theological Development
  • How desert imagery evolved in Jewish thought between Old and New Testaments
  • Early Christian adoption of shepherd imagery before crucifixion symbolism
  • The development of pastoral theology and its connection to literal shepherding
  • Desert fathers and mothers: continuation of wilderness spirituality
Literary and Symbolic Analysis
  • Shepherd metaphors across biblical literature (Ezekiel, John 10, etc.)
  • The progression from literal to metaphorical shepherding language
  • Connections between shepherd imagery and royal/messianic expectations
  • Wisdom literature’s use of pastoral metaphors
Cultural Translation
  • How Western agricultural assumptions affect biblical interpretation
  • Modern applications of “desert seasons” in spiritual formation
  • Leadership principles derived from shepherd-flock dynamics
  • The challenge of translating nomadic concepts into settled society contexts
Comprehension Questions

  1. Hebrew Language: How does understanding the Hebrew root DVR/DBR change your perception of why biblical figures frequently went to the wilderness, and what does this suggest about the nature of divine communication?

  2. Desert Provision: Explain the “just enough” principle as demonstrated in desert shepherding and discuss how this challenges modern Western assumptions about divine blessing and abundance.

  3. Leadership Style: Compare and contrast the biblical shepherd’s leadership methods (voice commands, following behind the flock) with common modern leadership approaches. What theological implications does this have for understanding divine guidance?

  4. Cultural Context: How does learning that shepherds were often young women change your reading of biblical shepherd narratives, and why might this detail have been overlooked in traditional interpretations?

  5. Spiritual Formation: In what ways does the desert serve as an ideal environment for developing dependence on God’s voice rather than visual confirmation, and how might this principle apply to contemporary spiritual growth?

Personalized Summary

Episode 26 revolutionizes our understanding of one of Scripture’s most familiar metaphors by grounding it in its authentic desert context. The revelation that midbar (wilderness) literally means “place of speaking” transforms every biblical desert encounter into a potential divine conversation. Rather than the lush pastoral scenes we often imagine, biblical shepherding occurred in harsh desert environments where survival depended entirely on trusting the shepherd’s voice for direction to sparse resources.

This recontextualized understanding of Psalm 23 is particularly striking - “green pastures” become scarce tufts of barely visible grass, “still waters” are muddy desert pools, and the entire psalm shifts from a comfort passage about abundance to a trust passage about sufficient daily provision. The shepherd’s role as voice-leader rather than force-user, combined with the cultural reality that shepherds were often young women, challenges many traditional assumptions about biblical leadership and gender roles.

The episode’s core message centers on the formative power of desert experiences - both literal and metaphorical. The desert teaches us to become “people of the ears” who depend on divine guidance rather than “people of the eyes” who trust only what we can see. This principle applies not only to ancient Israelites learning to follow God through the wilderness but to contemporary believers navigating seasons of uncertainty, scarcity, or spiritual formation. The desert’s harsh conditions create the perfect laboratory for learning dependence, trust, and the sufficiency of God’s daily provision.

BEMA Episode 26 Study Notes: Images of the Desert — Shepherd

Title & Source Summary

Episode: BEMA 26: Images of the Desert — Shepherd (2017) Topic: An introduction to desert imagery in Scripture, focusing specifically on the biblical concept of shepherding as preparation for studying the book of Numbers and Israel’s 40-year wilderness journey.

Key Takeaways

  • The desert (Hebrew: midbar) is fundamentally connected to concepts of word, speaking, and listening in biblical Hebrew
  • Shepherding in the biblical world differs dramatically from Western pastoral imagery - it occurs in desert environments with scarce resources
  • The shepherd leads through voice, not force - sheep follow only their shepherd’s voice and will not follow strangers
  • Desert experiences teach lessons of “just enough” rather than abundance, fostering dependence on God
  • Biblical shepherds were typically young women, making Moses and David’s shepherding roles culturally unusual
  • Mixed flocks of sheep and goats illustrate different responses to the shepherd’s voice - sheep obey, goats follow their own way

Main Concepts & Theories

Hebrew Word Tree for Desert (midbar)

The root DBR connects multiple desert-related concepts:

  • Dabar - word
  • Diber - to speak
  • Midbar - desert
  • Madbir - shepherd
  • Dober - pasture
  • Divir - sheepfold

This linguistic connection reveals that the desert is understood as the place where one learns to speak, listen, and receive God’s word.

Shepherd Leadership Model

Unlike Egyptian pharaonic leadership (rule by the stick), shepherds lead through:

  • Voice commands that sheep recognize and follow
  • Providing “just enough” - finding small tufts of grass and still water pools
  • Leading from behind the flock normally, but moving to the center during danger
  • Building trust through consistent provision rather than force
Desert as Spiritual Formation

Bruce Feiler’s observation: “Because the place is demanding, it builds character. Because it’s destructive, it builds interdependence. Because it’s isolating, it builds community. And because it’s a desert, it builds nations.”

The desert teaches:

  • Dependence on God’s daily provision
  • How to be “people of the ears” rather than “people of the eyes”
  • Trust in God’s faithfulness despite circumstances
  • Living with “just enough” rather than abundance
Psalm 23 Reinterpreted

Through desert lens, familiar phrases gain new meaning:

  • “Green pastures” = small tufts of grass between desert rocks
  • “Still waters” = rare pools of water collected in wadis after rain
  • “Paths of righteousness” = actual paths worn by thousands of years of sheep following the same routes
  • “Valley of the shadow of death” = dangerous terrain where shepherd moves to center of flock

Examples & Applications

Biblical Shepherds
  • Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph - all desert people
  • Moses - shepherded for 40 years before leading Israel
  • David - likely helped his sisters tend flocks as a young boy
  • Many prophets had shepherding backgrounds
Modern Desert Lessons

Personal “desert” experiences in life serve similar formative purposes:

  • Teaching dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency
  • Developing trust in God’s provision
  • Learning to listen for God’s voice amid difficulties
  • Building character through challenging circumstances
Sheep vs. Goats Distinction

In Jesus’ parables, this reflects different responses to God’s voice:

  • Sheep: Follow the shepherd’s commands (feed hungry, visit prisoners, care for sick)
  • Goats: Know a “better way,” follow their own path while still claiming to follow the shepherd

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

  • Ray Vander Laan’s “Walking with God in the Desert” series (Volume 12 of That the World May Know)
  • Kenneth Bailey’s work The Good Shepherd for deeper understanding of Middle Eastern shepherding
  • Connection between desert experiences and the Exodus narrative
  • How desert imagery appears throughout biblical prophecy and Jesus’ teachings
  • The role of hospitality in desert culture and its connection to Abraham’s example
  • Comparison of Empire leadership (Egyptian pharaoh’s stick) versus Kingdom leadership (shepherd’s voice)

Comprehension Questions

  1. Linguistic Analysis: How does the Hebrew word tree based on the root DBR (word/speak) connect the concepts of desert, shepherd, and divine communication?

  2. Cultural Context: In what ways does understanding that biblical shepherds were typically young women change our interpretation of stories about Moses, David, and the Christmas shepherds?

  3. Leadership Contrast: How does the shepherd’s method of leading through voice rather than force contrast with pharaoh’s leadership model, and what does this teach about God’s approach to leadership?

  4. Resource Perspective: What is the significance of the desert teaching lessons of “just enough” rather than abundance, and how might this apply to modern spiritual formation?

  5. Spiritual Application: Using the sheep and goats imagery from mixed flocks, how can we evaluate whether we are truly following the shepherd’s voice or following our own preferred path?

Personal Summary

Episode 26 fundamentally reframes our understanding of biblical imagery by grounding it in the harsh realities of Middle Eastern desert life. Rather than the lush green pastures of Western imagination, biblical shepherding occurs in an environment of scarcity where survival depends entirely on the shepherd’s knowledge and voice. This imagery becomes a powerful metaphor for spiritual formation - God takes His people into “desert” experiences not to harm them, but to teach them dependence, trust, and how to recognize His voice above all others. The episode challenges us to examine whether we respond to God’s guidance like sheep (obediently following the known voice) or like goats (thinking we know a better way). As Israel prepares to enter their 40-year wilderness journey in Numbers, understanding these desert dynamics becomes essential for grasping how God shapes His people through seasons of apparent scarcity and dependence.

Original Notes

Review

  • The nature of G-d
  • The nature of the World
  • G-d tells us that we’re ok
    • If we trust that, good things happen. If we don’t trust that, bad things happen.
  • Avraham, Jacob, and Moses show us what can happen when we trust the story and partner with G-d.
  • We learn about the Kingdoms of Empire and Shalom.
  • We went through the Exodus story.
  • We learned about the Tabernacle and its purpose.
  • In the last episode, we learned about the book of Leviticus and how it’s really an owner’s manual to the Tabernacle which ends up being the Honeymoon suite, a retelling of Genesis 1, and finally an introduction to priesthood.
    • G-d has to explain to his people what he means when he says “kingdom of priests”.
    • We discussed atonement.
    • We talked about the priest sandwich
    • On either end of the sandwich we found a lot of laws about how to live and dress and interact with others and who to marry, etc.
    • In the middle we found that Israelites were invited to become a kingdom of priests.
      • They will live differently
      • They will eat differently
      • etc.
    • We learned how to party
    • We learned how to take care of the oppressed.
  • The Israelites now sit on the bank after coming out of Egypt and they’re now about to spend 40 years, the honeymoon, in the desert with G-d.
    • They’ve now gotten their marching orders, their ketubah, they’ve defined the relationship, but now they have to learn and they have to be shaped.
  • Now we learn about the desert which is hard to teach from a microphone.
    • Ray’s time with Marty in the desert in 2008 and 2010 really shaped Marty and is something he now loves teaching to others.
    • Over the next few podcasts, most of what Marty teaches has come from Ray and his teachings.
    • We can find more in Ray’s DVD series, That The World May Know. Specifically volume Walking With God In The Desert.

Desert

Timestamp

  • One of Marty’s favorite quotes speaking about the desert:

    Because the place is demanding, it builds character. Because it’s destructive, it builds interdependence. Because it’s isolating, it builds community. And because it’s the desert, it builds nations.
    Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

  • Desert is the word mid-bar
    • Hebrew words are made up of consonants and the meaning of the word changes based on the vowels that are used.
    • This is known as a word tree.
    • The Hebrew language is also built on imagery so words for them are not just definitions, they are pictures.
    • There are 8,000 words in Biblical Hebrew. To compare, there are 4,000 words in the English language.
    • This means there is a lot more packed into a Hebrew word than in English and they do that by relying so heavily of imagery.
    • You’ll always have a root word and the root word for desert (mid-bar) is duh-bar which means word.
      • The Ten Commandments are also known as the Ten Words or the Ten duh-bars.
      • דבר duh-bar Word
        • מדבר mid-bar Desert
        • דבבר dib-ber To Speak
        • mad-bir Shepherd
        • doh-ber pasture
        • duh-vir sheep fold
      • What does to speak and word have to do with the desert?
        • You go to the desert to learn how to speak and to learn how to listen to word. Desert is where you finally learn how to become a people of the ears.

Shepherd of mad-bir

Timestamp

  • During a trip with Ray, Ray has the bus pull over on the side of the road and instructs everyone to get out of the bus because there was a shepherd on the side of the road.
    • They crossed the road and walked up a hill and were able to watch an amazing flock walk around them.
    • For the next 45 minutes they got to watch the flock.
    • There was a lot that Marty learned from watching the shepherd.
  • Shepherds lead with their voice.
    • All of the words mentioned above begin to word together and you start to realize why the desert is the place where you go to learn because the shepherd leads the sheep in the desert.
    • The desert is the place of the shepherd.
    • In our culture, pastures are green and lush. In their culture, pasture is the desert.
    • In the desert is where you find “Paths of Righteousness”.
      • The paths are created over thousands of years of shepherds taking their flocks along these paths to graze.
      • Flocks to not graze in the farmland because it’s too scarce and valuable to waste on livestock.
      • Flocks are taken to the desert which is the place of the shepherd. Not the farmland or the shephelah.
    • Shepherds lead with their voice and never leads with the stick.
      • Shepherds have a staff for practical reasons, like defense, fighting off predators, or for walking, but none of those reasons are to lead or prod or beat the sheep.
      • Examples of leading with their voice:
        • There are occasional headlines where a shepherd is tragically lost and if the tradition has not been past down, the entire flock can be lost as well because they will ONLY listen to the voice of the shepherd.
        • Multiple flocks can get pinned together and a single shepherd can wake up in the morning to call his flock and only HIS sheep will leave the pen.
      • There are so many things that Jesus said about sheep that these details put into perspective for us.
      • This is imagery we would expect from the people of the Bible. Not only are they going to be shaped here in the Torah, but Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses (40 years as a shepherd before leading the people out of Egypt), David (a shepherd) were all shaped by the desert.

Psalm 23

Timestamp

  • Green pastures

    23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.

    • There is no such things has lush patches of grass in the desert.
    • Because of how the rain falls in the desert, there are tiny tufts of grass that grow around the rocks. It is these tufts of grass that the sheep graze on.
    • It’s these mostly barren areas with small tufts of grass that the Psalmist refers to as green pastures.
  • Just enough
    • The desert teaches the lesson, the desert is not a place of abundance and it’s a place fo just enough.
      • Do I have enough right now, yes. Will I have enough in ten minutes? I don’t know. I need to trust the shepherd.
      • I have what I need for RIGHT NOW.
      • The is no shade, there is no abundance.

        23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Deut 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every WORD that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

    • The desert is where they learn the lessons they’re supposed to learn during their testing.
    • Put your head down and wait for the next tuft of grass.
  • Quiet Waters

    23:2 he leads me beside quiet waters

    • There are no babbling brooks in the desert.
    • Still waters is the water that’s left over after the rainy season that gathers together in muddy pools at the bottom of the wadi. They are rare but you occassionaly run across a small watering hole.
    • This is not about abundance, it’s about just enough.
  • Paths of righteousness

    23:3 He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

    • These are the paths mentioned above that were worn down over thousands of years of shepherding.
    • The shepherds, both biblical and Bedouin, literally refer to these paths as paths of righteousness.
  • Valley of the Shadow of Death

    23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley

    • This is another shepherd term.
    • You get stuck in the valley of the shadow of death if you don’t get your flock back by nightfall.
    • Everything can be incredibly dark depending on the moon and weather.
    • The flock will always follow the voice of the shepherd.
    • In this scenario, the shepherd leads the flock from the CENTER and not from behind like normal.
    • Story from 2006.
      • A shepherd got ahead of the flock just on the other side of a chasm.
      • Without thinking, he turned around and called to the flock and the sheep all walked off the edge of cliff and died because they trust him so much.
  • Preparing a table

    23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

    • The psalm shifts. We discussed Avraham and his hospitality. This is a desert image. They lived in tents in the middle of the desert.
  • Lots and lots of desert images in this psalm.
    • The deserts if where I’m going to learn to trust and to listen.
    • Maybe more than anything else, G-d is going to use our deserts to teach us how to become people of the ears and not people of the eyes.
    • This life becomes pretty difficult if we become people of the eyes because it looks like there are lots of things to be worried about and afraid of.
    • However, G-d says:
      • Do not fear, take heart, I have overcome the world.
      • To trust him.
      • He’ll take care of us.
      • Be people of the ears and not people of the eyes.
  • Hopefully, listeners realize that this is about literal deserts but is also very much about our figurative deserts that we all go through.
    • G-d will take us though these deserts to teach us these very same lessons.
    • While we may not ever ask for our deserts, many of us likely look fondly of our times in the desert when we’re on the other side.

Goats

Timestamp

  • Almost every desert flock will have sheet AND goats.
    • This is because they produce two different things:
      • Sheep produce wool and goats produce milk.
      • Additionally, sheep will eat the tufts of grass and the goats eat ANYTHING but the tufts of grass that the sheep need to eat.
    • This is interesting because when Jesus calls on scriptures about sheep and goats, like the parable of the sheep and goats, he relied heavily on this imagery because you always have sheep and goats in the same flock.
    • One of the things that you see when you have the two in the same flock is you have a blob of sheep huddle together following the word and the command and the voice of the shepherd all moving together with the shepherd 60 or 70 yards behind the flock. Finally, after the shepherd, there is a random smattering of goats scattered around the mountain.
    • The goats DO NOT LISTEN to the shepherd. They will get where they need to go but goats are goats and will do what they want.
    • Sheep however, do what the sheep ask.
    • Which am I? Which are you? Both are a part of the same flock but to which part of the flock do you belong? The part of the flock that knows how to listen and hear (i.e. shema: to listen and to obey) the voice of the shepherd.

Who is the shepherd?

Timestamp

  • The shepherds in this culture are almost always female.
  • One of the roles of the younger girls in the family is to tend the flocks.
  • In all of Marty’s years, he has never seen a male shepherd.
  • It would have been quite uncommon for Moses and David to be shepherds.
  • David as a shepherd:
    • David is likely out helping his older sisters shepherd the flock.
    • David does leave the flock but he isn’t leaving the flock alone.
    • It’s not uncommon for shepherd girls to watch their younger siblings so David may have been being babysat.
  • Shepherds also throw rocks to help guide the sheep.
    • Rocks are not thrown AT the sheep but to the side of the sheep to get them to migrate from one place to the next.
    • In fact, this is what David’s sling was likely for.
    • They get very good at throwing and launching rocks accurately and precisely.

Edit | Previous | Next