Te Hepara Pai: The Good Shepherd

“Ka rite ki tā te hēpara tāna whāngai i tāna kāhui, ka whakaminea ngā reme e tōna ringa, ka hikitia ki tōna uma, ka āta ārahina ngā mea e whakangote ana.”

Ihāia 40:11

“He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart;hegentlyleadsthose that have young.” Isaiah 40:11

For several years my husband was a hepara on farms around the Waikato. The hipi needed a lot of care - they needed to be moved regularly onto fresh pasture, to be checked for health, drenched for diseases, shorn twice a year and cared for during lambing.

Often he would bring sick or orphaned lambs home in the saddlebags on his hoiho and we would nurse them to health by warming them over the coal range until they could be mothered onto another ewe.

Most of the time the hipi stayed together, but occasionally one would go off on its own and get injured or lost in a swamp.

The Paipera Tapu has a lot to say about hipi. As far back as Abraham we read they had flocks of hipi and goats. Jacob, Joseph’s brothers, Moses and David were all hepara.

Many times the Paipera Tapu refers to people as hipi – hipi that have gone astray, are lost, helpless, and are without a hepara.

King David was a hepara when he was a tama. He knew his hipi intimately. He watched over them and with help from Ihowā, he killed a bear and a lion that had tried to attack them.

In his famous song, Ngā Waiata 23, David recognised he was like a hipi and Ihowā was his hepara pai.

Ko Ihowā tōku hēpara; e kore ahau e hapa. Ko ia hei mea kai takoto ahau ki ngā wāhi tarutaru hou: e ārahi ana ia i ahau ki te taha o ngā wai āta rere.” Ngā Waiata 23:1-2

Just as David knew each one of the hipi in his care, he also knew Ihowā was always with him. He had learned to trust Ihowā to provide his daily needs, lead him along paths that were straight, walk with him through paths that were threatening or difficult, protect him and correct him when he needed it. He acknowleged the goodness of Ihowā towards him and had faith that when his time had come, Ihowā would have a home for him in heaven.

Ngā Waiata 23 has been a great comfort and strength to believers through the ages.

Ihu Karaiti used illustrations about hipi and hepara pai to teach the people about the aroha Ihowā has for them. He spoke of the hepara who went searching for a lost hipi in order to show that Ihowā cares for each and every one of us and wants us to be safe as part of His flock - safe from the ravages and consequences of sin in our lives.

Ihu Karaiti described Himself as Te Hepara Pai who was willing to die in order to save His hipi. Ihu Karaiti came not only for those “trouble makers” which we all have in our whānau, but for each one of us. He knows us by name. He doesn’t want anyone to perish.

If we admit that we need Him to rescue us because there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, and if we trust Him to be our hepara, to follow Him each day, then we can know we belong to Him and He will never leave us.

Article by Liz Silcock