We're All Just Sheep

Isaiah 53:6 "All ye like sheep have gone astray. . ."

Along with my devotional reading, I caught a glimpse of Philip Keller's writings on sheep and shepherding. As many of you know, Jesus is called, among things:

* the Lamb of God

* the Great Shepherd

We are then called the sheep of His pasture and, as above, sheep that have gone astray.

Philip Keller was/is a Christian who actually has also been a shepherd. So he knows sheep. he says we often get a romantic, idealized image in our minds of sheep sort of dotting the hillsides with their fluffy white coat and baa-ing gently and sweetly. Nothing is further from the truth! He says sheep are dirty, mangy and very, very stupid! How quickly they run away from their flock. How often they need to be herded back into line. They desperately need their shepherd. They need to be prodded and disciplined and kept in line.

Now that our fantasies have been disabused, then God has the nerve to say that WE are sheep! We are the people of his pasture! So now take the above paragraph and insert "people" for "sheep": "People are dirty, mangy and very, very stupid! How quickly they run away from the flock. How often people need to be herded back into line. People desperately need their shepherd. They need to be prodded and disciplined and kept in line."

This is just so humbling. To look at the metaphors in the Bible - particularly the metaphors of animals and how we are like them and/or how we can learn from them -- is so revealing. God wants us to fly on eagle's wings....to look at the ant (in Proverbs) to see how to plan ahead .... to see Him as the Great Shepherd ..... to see Christ as the Lamb of God ..... the Lion of Judah.... so many more metaphors are there.

Well, anyway, if we are sheep, that is just not a very flattering picture. But it indicates that we are dirty, filthy and prone to wandering. And that we need a Savior. I don't like the picture but I sure do agree with it and identify with it. I am prone to wandering and I desperately need my Savior. Once you get past the frosty, cozy image of those sheep grazing peacefully on the hillside and zoom in for a closer look, you see how close we are to the nature of sheep and why that metaphor was used in the Bible.

Prayer for the Day: Dear Lord, thank you for showing me that I am one of your sheep. I know that the Great Shepherd would come looking for me if the 90-and-9 were accounted for but I, the 100th sheep, were lost. That is how closely He watches over me. Thank you for that. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.