Friday, July 25, 2014
John 10:11, 27 I am the good shepherd ... My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
SHEEP FOLLOW THEIR SHEPHERD
Vacation Bible School children today are taught how shepherds in Bible times had a special relationship with the sheep they cared for. Often these shepherds gave their sheep nicknames that reflected the different personalities of the animals. These shepherds did not drive their sheep, but led them. Their sheep in turn recognized the voice of their shepherd and followed him alone, often in single file.
The people to whom Jesus spoke His Father's word during His earthly ministry did not have to be taught about shepherds and their sheep. These things were sights they often viewed on the hillsides surrounding their cities and villages. They also knew that the LORD God through the prophets said that he was Israel's true shepherd. Their most famous king confessed this in his most famous Psalm, "The LORD is my shepherd."
So when Jesus said, "I AM the good shepherd." He was announcing that to follow him was to follow the LORD himself. In fact, he made this even plainer when he said:
"All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ... The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd" (John 10:8, 10-11).
The false shepherds in Jesus' day were the Pharisees. They were regarded as exemplary followers of the true God but instead they put their confidence in their own goodness and their own works. They insisted others had to come to God the same way. In this way they led the people who followed them away from the LORD and away from the free gift of salvation to be purchased by the Son of God -- the Shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep.
There still are many false shepherds calling people to put their confidence in their own good record -- and so leading them away from the LORD Christ. Give thanks to God if you are among those who will not follow this call and listen instead to the voice of Jesus, the true Shepherd of the sheep. The intimate relationship He creates between Himself and His Father's sheep is a wondrous gift for which we daily bring praise to God.
