Waiting for a Bus?
Occasionally sheep wander away, but they normally don’t use public transportation! Perhaps these ewes were just seeking shelter from the rain.
Sheep Always Need the Shepherd’s Care
Sheep are helpless creatures. Left untended, they eat poisonous plants, drink from polluted pools become infested with parasites or tangle their wool coat in thorn bushes so badly that they can’t get free. Sheep also sometimes become “cast.” A cast sheep accidentally ends up on its back, with four feet in the air. Without human aid, a ewe or ram is unable to turn over. Only three things can happen to a cast sheep. It either dies because of a build-up of internal gas, a hungry predator enjoys an easy meal or the shepherd finds his missing sheep in time to save it.
The human shepherd is the flock’s provider, protector, healer and guide. Unlike his woolly charges, he knows snow is coming. So he takes care to move the flock away from the mountain meadows before the first winter storm. To the sheep, the shepherd’s actions make no sense. Suddenly they are pulled away from clear, cool mountain streams and wonderful juicy grass. The downward path the shepherd leads his flock onto may be dry, barren, rocky ground.
But when life becomes confusing, smart sheep keep following their shepherd.
Believers make up the Lord’s Flock
In both the Old and New Testaments, God repeatedly likens His people to sheep. It’s a good analogy. Left to ourselves, we are often foolish and self-destructive, just like the shepherd’s woolly charges.
Christian, when your life’s path becomes a confusing, despair-filled, agonizing mess, don’t stop following the Shepherd.
Instead, draw closer to Him.
52 Then he led forth his people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.(Psalm 78:52-53 RSV)
During your life, what “rocky paths” has Jesus guided you safely over?
Resources:
My knowledge about the behavior of sheep came from a wonderful book called “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23” by W. Phillip Keller. Keller raised sheep as a young man and later became a pastor. His insights into this Psalm are profound.
There are so many Scripture passages likening God’s people to sheep, I’ve decided to list only a few: Ezekiel 34, Revelation 7:16-17, John 10:1-16, I Kings 22:17 and Zechariah 11:15-17.
