> Bill Peirson > Dani Scarratt Case #74 - Power

The power of shepherds

December 18, 2025

Bill Peirson & Dani Scarratt

Have you ever wondered why shepherds get such a good rap in the Bible? Take the Christmas story, for example. There is no doubt the angels could have picked much more impressive people to break the good news to that the Saviour of the world had been born: the local business council, night-watchmen, maybe the medical staff at the hospital or hard working consultants getting their projects wrapped up on Christmas eve?

But shepherds?

After all, shepherds are ordinary. Scruffy. Not impressive. Soldiers, now—strong, powerful men in uniform—surely they would have been a much more worthy audience for angels and as attendees at the birth of Jesus? Yet God evidently has a soft spot in His heart for shepherds. Some of the great ones of the Bible were shepherds: Abel, Abraham and most of his dysfunctional family, Moses, David. In God’s eyes, shepherds, not soldiers, are the hero pattern.

What is it about shepherds?

Shepherds have to be strong. As a shepherd, David fought lions and bears, putting himself in danger to do the job of protecting his flock, and would have had to carry sick or injured sheep back to safety.

They also have to be leaders. A good shepherd knows what sheep need, leading them to places of good pasture and water so they can thrive, and away from dangerous cliffs or poisonous plants.

These were qualities David possessed. They qualified him, in King Saul’s eyes, to protect Israel against the threatening Goliath (1 Samuel 17:33-37). They qualified him, in God’s eyes, to shepherd Israel as their king:

He chose David his servant
    and took him from the sheep pens;
from tending the sheep he brought him
    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
    of Israel his inheritance.

And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skilful hands he led them. (Psalm 78:70-72)

Not long after leaving the fields, David had taken out the honours as both the greatest warrior, and as king—the most powerful man in Israel. A few years of shepherding, it turns out, are better than a university degree, better than years of military training, and better than growing up in court when it comes to leadership training.

But it was not just the shepherd’s skillset that fitted David to lead Israel. It was also his integrity of heart, and his shepherd’s attitude of humility in recognising he himself was in need of a shepherd . Taking on Goliath, David didn’t rely solely on his predator-fighting skills, but on the knowledge that his ability to overcome any dangers ultimately came down to God’s protection:

The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. (1 Samuel 17:37)

And so, in the justly famous Psalm 23, David praises God for being the shepherd he, as king and warrior, trusts to lead and protect him:

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
  he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. (vv1-4)

Not all shepherds are good shepherds like David and his God, though. The prophet Ezekiel uses the image of a bad shepherd to highlight the failures of Israel’s leaders at that time:

Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, 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, 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. (34:2-6)

So poor is the leadership of these self-focused shepherds that God needs to step in and save the flock—not from predators, but from the bad shepherds:

I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. (34:10b)

The good shepherd who will replace them is identified first as God himself (34:11-16), and then a few verses later as David:

I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken. (34:23-24)

This tension is resolved when we recognise Jesus himself as the good shepherd who seeks and rescues the lost (John 10, Luke 15); the good shepherd who is both the new David who will shepherd Israel, and God incarnate come to seek and save the lost.

When the heavenly host of angels appear to the shepherds in the field they are appearing to good shepherds—shepherds keeping watch over their flocks at night—and announcing the birth of the good shepherd foretold by Ezekiel. They don’t appear to the religious leaders, who were still failing in their shepherding duties (Matthew 9:26).

Shepherds weren’t the people who would’ve sprung to mind as heroes in the 1^st Century Roman Empire, and neither are they today. Our contemporary visual popular culture is much more inclined to admire sportspeople, influencers, and entertainers. But as we watch the shepherds of Christmas worship the Good Shepherd (whether they are terracotta shepherds or four years old and dressed in tea towels), may we give thanks to God for his guidance and protection, and seek to be good shepherds ourselves to those we have under our care.

Bill Peirson is Master of the New College Communities, CASE director, and editor of Case Quarterly.

Dani Scarratt is Assistant CASE director and co-editor of Case Quarterly.

Image credits:

Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem (1620-1683) - The Annunciation to the Shepherds - K2402 - Bristol City Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Terracotta shepherd photo courtesy Bill Peirson