The life of a Shepherd has always intrigued me and caused me to write many times about him and the relationship that he has with his sheep. I love to read about them as well. I read once that a Shepherd of sheep should never get married, because they don’t really go with a house. What that statement means, is that a true Shepherd loves his sheep, and knows that they need his constant attention and that it is very hard to devote all his time to the sheep and still have the kind of time that a family requires.
For some Shepherds, their family lives and travels with him wherever he may go. Actually, Shepherds do have a home! It is the land and fields in which their flock feeds and rest. Their contentment is in the simple things of life, like the comfort and warmth of their campfire, as they eagerly attend it for both themselves and their sheep as the light of the day diminishes and the darkness of the night surrounds them. The simmer of the coffee pot on the hot coals after a long day of walking and worrying over the sheep, defending them from whatever prey may have been about them. His bed is always close to the sheep and often times are made of soft leaves and branches. His comforts are set aside because his priority is for his sheep.
Most Shepherds have a quite dignity and privacy about them that comes from spending so much time alone. His physical appearance is often rugged, rough and even at times hard looking. For the most part they live in solitude with only the friendship of the sheep to keep them company. They are men of the mountains, valleys and often times wilderness. They go wherever their sheep can feed on good pasture. His sheep follow him and know his voice when he calls them. The Shepherd knows each one by name and is tender to his sheep no matter how rough and tough he himself may be. The sheep love him and are comforted by His soothing voice and gentle spirit.
The scriptures tell us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16) to the sheep that hear His voice. When I think about it, I realize just how wise God was when He decided to liken His own children to sheep on so many levels. His plan was a great one. You see the Bible says that we will know Jesus by His voice, when He speaks if we are His sheep we will know it is Him and not a false shepherd. It was not to be his appearance that we recognize but His voice. The only description of Jesus’ physical appearance that we have in the scripture is found in Isaiah 53:2 and says this….“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” This verse blows every picture I have ever seen out the window concerning what I thought that He look like. Who else but God would have conceived a philosophy where salvation would come through believing that God would come to us as a helpless baby, born in a stinking stable, a peasant among a despised, subjugated people in an obscure land, and would later be nailed up to die like the worst of criminals.
You see God knew that there would be times of darkness in our lives and that only His soothing voice would give us the comfort that we would need during those scary cold dark times of our lives. When I think of my own Daddy, it has never been his face that I long to see, for I have many pictures of that….but oh how I would love once again to hear his voice and him say to me, “honey, I love you, and I am here….it will be alright”! Somehow just knowing that Jesus is around me, gives me the greatest of comfort. I hear His voice every time the faith in me says….you can trust Him Bren….though you may not be able to see Him…He is not absent in His silence ….He may just be seeing if He can trust me to stay in the fold or wonder out because I think that He is not watching.
John 10:11-16 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd. "
“As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them. There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”
Sometimes sheep can be very stubborn and equally unwise if they decide to venture out on their own, apart from the Shepherd’s fold. For the most part, the Shepard’s keen eye is ever on the sheep. But unlike Jesus, the Shepard is not all knowing and is limited to seeing all his sheep at all times. In order to maintain and watch over them properly, he places them in folds. These folds are man made circles that have boundaries that protect the sheep from their ever present enemies and limits them to where they can go. This keeps the sheep from wondering off to places that they have no business wondering off to.
A good shepherd will even leave the fold trusting only the keen eyes of his dogs (angles) to keep an eye on the flock while he is away to find a lost sheep… as some are known to wonder off. But, it is he that goes and finds the sheep….he never ask a friend or one of his trusty dogs….but he goes himself to retrieve that which is lost. Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:4-7
I love my Good Shepherd, I hear His voice and I know Him. He comforts me when I am afraid and rescues me when I wonder….oh the love of the Shepherds!
Praying that Jesus is your Good Shepherd and that you graze on the good pasture that He leads you to and you are nourished and satisfied!
Loving you today,
Bren
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