Isaiah 40:11 "He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young"
Psalm 23 is a personal psalm of believers through the ages. It contains just six verses that pictures our relationship with God. It describes an intimate relationship of a shepherd with the sheep. It promises comfort, protection and victory over evil. The author of the psalm is believed to be David.
In the Hebrew literature, the prophets and the psalmists have compared God as a shepherd and people as the sheep. You have heard the term “black sheep” of the family. <<<Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane. Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full>>>> Families don’t want them, societies may avoid them. You don’t like them to be in the family tree. But God loves all sheep, black, white and brown and any others.
The sheep are such a weak and fearful bunch of animals. They can get lost very easily. They can be threatened by the sound of a bird. They can lose direction because they don't have one. Someone has said, the sheep are: "Dumb, Directionless and Defenseless" They are only into one thing and one thing only- to satisfy their hunger and thirst. Sheep will only eat what is in front of them. They generally follow the one in front of them, and sometimes go in circles or jump out of cliffs. There was a reported incident in Turkey that close to 1500 sheep jumped off a cliff because they followed the one in front of them. The good news was that the only 400 were killed because they became a woolly pile of cushion for the rest.
They have no sense of danger and act foolishly when confronted by enemies. Sheep have no instinct to warn them of snakes, wolves, bears, parasites, etc. They are defenseless. Sheep have no weapons to defend themselves, no claws, teeth or fangs. “The wolf catches them” (John 10:12). Sometimes you see them fight each other, but never against a wolf or a lion or another enemy. They just run when threatened or just freeze up. They are not very smart in defending themselves as the prophet describes, “As a sheep before a shearer is dumb” (Isaiah. 53:7).
We can all relate to the life of sheep when we find ourselves lost without direction, putting ourselves in danger and without knowing what we are getting into. The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa. 53:6). Jesus had this in mind when he taught the parable of the sheep. “What man having a hundred sheep, if he lost one . . . will go after that which was lost” (Luke 15:4). This particular word is used in Isaiah 40: 11 and Psalm 23: 2, both portray the helpless state of the sheep. The need the providence and the care of a Shepherd.
We are all lost like the sheep. We tend to follow the crowd, the wrong people or the commercials that invade us on media and elsewhere. With all our information explosion we follow the crowd mindlessly. The commercials and the politicians use the numbers to pull us into them. Products used by millions and leaders who have followers with millions on Twitter and Facebook are the news today.
Many of us are living with no direction in life and do not know where we are going. There was a time when Albert Einstein was going on a train to an out-of-town engagement. The conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. The great scientist, preoccupied with his work, with great embarrassment rummaged through his coat pockets and briefcase to no avail. He could not find his ticket. The conductor said, "We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it. Everything is okay." The conductor walked on down the aisle punching other tickets. Before he moved to the next car, he looked back and saw Dr. Einstein down on his hands and knees looking under his seat trying to find his ticket. He came back and gently said, "Dr. Einstein, please don’t worry about it. I know who you are." Einstein looked up and said, "I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going!" I am sure we can remember some instances like that in our lives where we thought we knew where we were goinig, but found out that we were really lost. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way."
The sheep is only interested in the green pastures. Thinking that grass looks better over the other side, they begin to work their way to the greener pasture. We all have experienced this process to one degree or another. Having no clear conviction of where lives are headed we begin to graze here and there, we find ourselves being lost. Finally, having gone so far that we don’t know how to get back home or we do not want to return home because we feel guilty over what we have done in the process of straying away. So being lost is living life without a central purpose and a tendency to wander aimlessly away from the God who made us. We have this propensity toward evil called sin that can slowly and periodically creep in and dominate our lives. This is the core of our problem.
The sheep don’t know that they are lost. The most tragic sense of lostness is perhaps when we have no clue that we are lost. Because we can go on an on and get farther away. People are lost because of their misconceptions. People are lost because of their preoccupations with other things and lost direction and don’t realize that they are lost. Jesus came to this world as a good shepherd. John 10:11, 12 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees.”
Just like the sheep, we need a shepherd to care for and to defend us from danger. Not knowing what is important in life can lead us to dangerous places. We see that a lot in this world, where people try many different things to be happy. The shepherd realized that the dangers of the world would kill his sheep. Ezekiel 34:5-6 presents some of the evils that the sheep will face in the world. These verses say, “ . . . they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth . . .” Sheep are subject to being killed by ravenous animals such as wolves. They wander on high mountains and could fall into deep crevices and die, never to be found again. "All have turned away, all fall short of the glory of God." ("Romans 3:23).
Jesus taught the love of God using a parable of the sheep. A man had one hundred sheep and one was missing. He would leave the 99 and went and looked for that one until he found it. Why would the shepherd go look for that one sheep? Is one percent worth going after? To this shepherd, there are no big sheep and little sheep. Every soul is precious in his eyes. In Isaiah 43:4,5 we read, "Because you are precious in my eyes,and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.Fear not, for I am with you." 1 Peter 1 : 18-19 ”For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
You and I can never begin to understand the value of the human soul. Jesus said, “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26). God willingly gave up His Son Jesus as the Great Shepherd who became the lamb of God to die on the cross for our sins. Had I been the only one who was a sinner in this world, I believe that Jesus would still have come to die for me! Our soul is very precisous, Jesus said, it is more valuable than the whole world.
The Great Shepherd knows that the sheep will never find its way back home by its own efforts. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)
Jesus Christ came to save all who are lost. He will go beyond any risk of life to search for the lost one. Ultimately there are only two groups - the saved and the lost. Jesus Christ came to save all who are lost. He will go beyond any risk of life to search for the lost one. Ultimately there are only two groups - the saved and the lost. John 10:11 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Jesus continued, “I am the Good Shepherd . . . . My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:14,27).
There is a museum that has an exhibit of relics from the infamous Titanic voyage. Exhibit visitors are given a replica ticket with the name of an actual passenger or crew member who, decades earlier, had embarked on the trip of a lifetime. After the tour group walked through the exhibit viewing pieces of silver dinnerware and other artifacts, the tour ends with an unforgettable twist. A large board listed the names of all the passengers, including their status—first class, second class, crew. A passenger who looked for the name of the person whose ticket he/she was holding, will see a line across the board dividing the names. Above the line were the names of those who were “saved” and below the line all those who were “lost.” The parallel to our life on earth is profound. It really doesn’t make any difference how the world ranks your status. The only thing that ultimately matters is whether you are “saved” or “lost.” As Jesus said, “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).The great ship Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. It was a ship that was supposed to be unsinkable. When it took off from England, all kinds of passengers were on board: millionaires, celebrities, middle income people and perhaps even some lower class income people. But a few hours later it only carried two categories of people: LOST AND SAVED. Out on life’s sea there are all kinds of classifications. But when the voyage is over it won’t matter whether you were a rich man, poor man, beggar, or thief, or whether you drove a and expensive car or lived in a big home. All such distinctions will disappean and only two lists will remain: "The Lost and the Saved".
At the cross, Jesus embodied the ultimate symbol of a man under the punishment for sin. His testimony there was not of abundant food and green grass but starvation and thirst, so that His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth. "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth."(Isaiah 53:7). His experience on the cross was of forsakenness and abandonment as His life slowly ebbed away. There was no rod and staff at Calvary to comfort and protect Him from all harm; instead, He was turned over to the mocking grasp of His enemies to be tormented and tortured. Instead of dwelling in the Lord’s house, He was left abandoned in the darkness to die alone, forsaken.
“Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8 )
Yet, His forsakenness is the foundation of our hope. We have far more reason than David did for confidently declaring, “I shall not want” and “I will fear no evil.” Our Shepherd has laid down His life for us and has been raised from the dead, putting to shame our last, greatest enemy—death itself. Now Jesus stands as the host of the great feast, the king who has gone before us to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house. Whether our present path takes us through green pastures and by still waters or winds its way through the darkness of the valley of deep shadow, we can be confident in this: Jesus has promised to welcome us into His kingdom on the last day, there to feast at His table, along with all His saints from many nations, vindicated in the presence of all our foes. The Lord is indeed our Good Shepherd. "For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd, an overseer of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:25)
Now may the God of peace and the great Shepherd of the sheep, who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back his sheep home, equip you with everything good, for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20,21)
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