-Okay, this is what you do to an unclean spirit (aka a demon)(Luke 8.29, Acts 16.18). This is literally delivering a message, yes, but it is giving a directive, an imperative. This is what the terminator says to the driver of the vehicle he is hijacking. Get out. A command which is expected to be obeyed. Sit down (Matthew 15.35). Be quiet. Do this-that-and-the-other (Luke 5.14; Acts 1.4, 4.18; 2Thessalonians 3.12). Paul apparently finds it necessary to repeatedly command his protege, timid Timothy, to do this very thing throughout this letter (1Timothy 1.3, 5.7, 6.17, as well as here). Even pastors need someone all up in their grill from time to time! Pastor Timothy needs to cowboy up and be willing to tell certain folks in this assembly (and maybe all of them) what time it is. Sheep can be that way, right? Generally speaking, sheep, being prone to wander and stray and overgraze and get upside-down and all kinds of sideways, also being maybe not the brightest bulbs on the tree at times (hey - Jesus said it - He called us all sheep...!), plus there’s the whole wolves thing, but yeah, sheep need to be told what to do, at least some of the time, certainly more than we human sheep may care to admit. Sheep need a shepherd, one who will protect them and lay his life down for them, yes, but they need to be led. Guided, instructed, at times against their instinctive judgment. Just like children and other juveniles and potential imbeciles. Now if you’re dealing with a supposedly mature adult, you obviously wouldn’t address them the way you would a child or a juvenile, but sheep are sheep. And yes, if you’re dealing with an imbecile, there are proverbs which suggest that perhaps we might be wasting our breath, as fools do despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1.7) and hate knowledge (Proverbs 1.22), but isn’t their soul just as precious and just as worthy of rescuing from error and destruction? Didn’t Paul just talk about that, about saving all men? Doesn’t Scripture remind us that it is good and desireable to help turn a sinner away from the error of their ways (James 5.19-20)? Safe to say that no one, not even pastors, are ever past the point of needing an occasional prod in the proverbial pants.
-And I do think that part of the point behind the present tense imperative(s) in this verse is that of repetition. What do the experts say, it takes how many exposures to get something? The rule of seven? Some researchers say it can take up to 17 exposures to learn a new vocabularly word. The point is, there is no one-and-done when it comes to teaching a dog new tricks. Or a sheep. You gotta tell it to them, and then you gotta tell it to them again, and then you gotta tell it to them again. You might get their attention with a clever 30-second commercial, or a fantastic 30-minute sermon, but like Madison Avenue you’re gonna need to come back to it and come back to it again, and again, and again, and again, and again. See what I did there? And you got tired of me doing it - but I think the point is, until folks are somewhat tired of hearing it, they maybe haven’t quite gotten the point of what it is they need to get. No doubt part of the art of teaching (both pastoring and parenting, to be sure) is how to fulfill the rule of seven without exasperating (Colossians 3.21) or otherwise losing your audience...!
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