This is the third of a three part series on the role of God as our shepherd and we as His sheep. So far I’ve presented two aspects:
1) That sheep are dependent, defenseless, and directionless—and we are like sheep [1 Peter 2:25].
2) That when we understand what shepherding was like in biblical times, our trust of & intimacy with our Shepherd God will change.
In this post I will share two final passages and concepts about biblical shepherding that hopefully will shed further light on our “sheepish-ness” and God’s goodness as our Shepherd.*
The first has often brought me hope when I’ve needed it most: our Shepherd is a passionate healer. God reveals His attitude toward our pain in Lamentations 3:32-33:
“Though He brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”
God does not want to cause pain, but He will if it is the way to save us. Consider the following:
If a sheep strays habitually, she is a danger to herself and all those who follow her (remember, sheep seek a leader). The shepherd could just let her go, but he is fiercely protective [1 Samuel 17:34-35]. He doesn’t want her or any of the others to suffer fatal harm by wandering into danger. So instead, he breaks her leg.
Wait a minute.
He breaks her leg? What kind of sadistic shepherd does that? Isn’t there another, less extreme way? And don’t we often wonder the same thing about God? I have spent so many nights crying out to God, asking if He sees my pain, asking how He could ever allow it, accusing Him of caring only for His own agenda and not my good. It is in these moments that understanding God’s Shepherding has brought me comfort:
Hopefully it is evident by now that a shepherd has meaningful relationships with his sheep. If you have ever owned an animal, you understand the torment of seeing it suffer. The decision to allow or even cause pain in the life of a precious sheep must be agonizing for the shepherd. Yet he is compassionate in the midst of her pain and healing.
The shepherd will carry his injured sheep on his shoulders while she heals. This is not easy: often these are big, heavy sheep, not little lambs. He feeds her by hand; she poops by his face. The process is lengthy and requires much effort. But he loves her, and she is worth it. I really think the shepherd enjoys the intimacy of this time [Isaiah 40:11].
During the restoration period, the sheep comes to personally know and trust the shepherd. She trusts his hand to feed her; she has smelled his scent daily; she has heard his voice in soft tones by her ear for weeks. She will be the sheep that stays nearest to him after this, because she loves him and knows he is good.
The shepherd often gives this sheep a bell to wear. Other sheep know when they hear the bell that their shepherd is nearby. This “bell sheep” draws the flock to the shepherd simply by being near him. The shepherd doesn’t need her to do this, but he loves to empower her and honor their relationship.
Finally, we can trust our Shepherd because He was also a sheep. Throughout Scripture Jesus is described as “the Lamb” [John 1:29]. This is comforting: who better to lead me than someone who knows what it is like to be me?
Take athletics for example. I want my coach to have at one time been where I am and to have had success. I will respect that he or she knows how to train me, how hard to push me, and when to let me rest. A coach lacking understanding of what it’s like to be an athlete will be ineffective at best, and dangerous at worst.
Jesus was like us. He was deliberately defenseless, directionless, and dependent on His Father [John 5:19]. He says He understands every difficulty we have. His experience as a sheep emboldens us to approach Him freely, knowing He is gracious and merciful toward us [Hebrews 4:15-16].
So now the question: Why does any of this even matter? In my life, the concepts I’ve described in this series have drastically affected my freedom in the world and intimacy with God:
For instance, if God made me like a sheep, then He must be willing and able to lead, protect, and actively provide for me. I can rest in my Shepherd’s active attention to detail, even when I can’t see what He’s doing.
If I know that I am needy and my Shepherd is passionate and selfless toward me, I will turn more quickly and confidently to Him myself & on behalf of other much-loved sheep.
If I am created for a dependent relationship on Someone Else, there is freedom from shame and false independence. I can stop imagining my Shepherd resents me for my neediness and begin thanking Him for that which drives me into His arms. I can stop thinking I can save others on my own and instead entrust their well-being more fully into the hands of One who can actually save. I can stop viewing pain in my life as certain evidence of the Shepherd’s anger & begin seeing it as precious opportunities to be held by Him.
My hope for you is that through more deeply understanding the shepherd-sheep relationship, you may begin to love dependence on Him, find deeper trust of Him, and more freely extend grace to yourself and others for being limited and needy.
I encourage you to consider the following questions in light of this series:
Does knowing what a shepherd is like help you see God’s actions in your past (or present) any differently?
How would your life change if you knew you and everyone around you were sheep?
How would you depend on God more if this is what He is like as your Shepherd? (Obedience, for instance, is often an indicator of our level of trust in someone.)
Dependence is not bad. We are created to embrace dependence on One who Loves us. As J.N. Darby put it,
“Two things are implied with dependence: first, the sense that we cannot do without God in a single instance; and, secondly, that He is ‘for us.’ In other words, there is a confidence in His love and power on our behalf, as well as the consciousness that without Him we can do nothing.”
May we each know the Shepherd’s love for us and encounter His provision for our need.
*Most of my information has come from the Gracestoration Bible Study (www.gracestoration.org) and from Philip Keller’s book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. Keller was a shepherd in Africa for a while, where shepherding is still as it was in biblical times.
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