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353. I Am the Promised Good Shepherd

Numbers 10:11-13, 33-36, Ezekiel 34, John 10:11-15
Key Verse:  “I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.”
John 10:14

Earlier in John 10, Jesus had described the false shepherds. “All who ever came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.”  (John 10:8)  In Ezekiel 34, the Lord describes exactly what those bad shepherds did. They behaved selfishly, caring little for the sheep, and as a result, the flock of Israel was ruined.

The Shepherd image that Jesus is referring to here has more than one meaning. First, we see God as a physical shepherd as He leads His people from one place to another in their wanderings in the wilderness during the Exodus. In fact, the journey to the Promised Land can be seen as the shepherd leading his flock to good pasture. This is how we usually see a shepherd, as a leader and protector of the sheep.

However, in Ezekiel, we also see the shepherd as a spiritual leader, such as a priest leading the people in the green pastures of worship and true devotion to God. As the spiritual leaders of Israel, the priests allowed the people to wander from the truth. The people paid a dear price for their folly. When Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” He was telling His listeners that He was the good shepherd, not just physically, but spiritually, that God promised to His people. “I will place over them one shepherd, My servant David, and He will tend them; He will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.”  (Eze. 34:24-25)

Jesus is both a physical and spiritual leader of His sheep. Physically, He has laid down His life for us to protect us from our enemy, satan. Spiritually, “He leads us in paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake,” (Psa. 23:3) to present us to His Father.

“He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.”  (John 10:4) Again, to hear His voice, we must stay physically and spiritually close. If we hang back, or allow ourselves to be distracted, we risk dangers that He knows better than we.

I like to think that in this way, Jesus adds a dark brown to the portrait we are filling in of what we have in Christ. Dark brown is the color of the garb of the shepherd and the monk.  The shepherd is devoted to His sheep physically. The monk is devoted to Christ for spiritual leading. We need the color brown in our lives to follow Him completely.

Hymn:  “The New 23rd Psalm”

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