I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD

The people of God are the sheep of His pasture. No one but the Lord can perfectly lead and care for His sheep. The Lord’s outstanding shepherding of those who find shelter in His shadow issues from His essential (intrinsic) attributes, from His holy character, which is reflected in His works and shines as light for the sheep of His pasture. No man therefore can shepherd another the way God does, for all men are essentially corrupt. Human history and the current state of affairs in our realm attest that men are incapable of perfectly leading and caring for their fellow men. Israel’s story appears in the Bible as a typical example; it is indicative of man’s inability to perfectly assume the role of shepherd.

Historical Background

Throughout Israel’s history, there arose many shepherds who were to lead and care for the people of God; but there was none who perfectly assumed his duty. The shepherds of Israel, both political and religious, were not always faithful to the LORD their God. In fact, among the multitude, only a handful served the Lord and honored His name, but not perfectly. Many gave themselves up to evil and set themselves against the Lord. They were godless and wicked, treacherous and heartless, oppressing the poor and the weak among the people. They were blind, devoid of knowledge, full of greed, and given over to pleasures, drunkenness and slumber; they all turned to their own gain, led astray by their deluded and convoluted minds (cf. Isaiah 56:10-12). With their idols they turned the hearts of the people away from the Lord their God. Although they were responsible to lead the people to their God and ensure their spiritual welfare and devotion to their God, they instead led them into idolatry and they broke fellowship with the LORD. Led astray, they followed the way of wickedness. And as a result of their spiritual harlotry, the people were scattered abroad like lost sheep and abandoned to the wild beasts. 

    The false shepherds of Israel failed to properly shepherd God’s people and angered Him with their detestable practices and heartlessness toward His flock. And so the Lord resolved to rescue His sheep from their mouths; He promised by the mouth of His prophets that He would deliver His sheep and restore them to safety and health.

     In the days of Ezekiel, the Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them” (Ezekiel 34:1-6). 

    Vv. 7-10, “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:  As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because My sheep have become a prey, and My sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because My shepherds have not searched for My sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed My sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek My flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock. So the shepherds will not shepherd themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth so that they will not be food for them.”

     Vv. 11-16, “For thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep and care for them. As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his sheep which are spread out, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. I will shepherd them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and be shepherded in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will shepherd My flock, and I will make them lie down,” declares Lord Yahweh. “I will search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with judgment.” V. 23, “And I will set up over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.” 

     So in the face of the leaders’ failure to properly shepherd His flock, the LORD promised to raise up for His flock one shepherd like His servant David, who would come and feed His flock and be their Shepherd.

     Jeremiah declares in Jeremiah 23:1-6, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for My people: “You have scattered My flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’” 

    Like Ezekiel, Jeremiah promised that the LORD God would raise up a good shepherd for His flock. About this Promised Shepherd, Micah also writes in Micah 5:4-5a, “And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace.” 

     All these OT prophecies point to Christ in Whom all the promises of God to His people find their Yes. Paul writes to the believers at Corinth, “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us” (2 Corinthians 1:18-21). 

     God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, is the Promised Shepherd of Whom the prophets of old spoke. And He is distinct from all other shepherds, not only by His nature, but also by His works. Unlike the false shepherds, who heartlessly shepherded the flock of God, the Promised Shepherd is a righteous Branch. He will do justice and righteousness and bring salvation and peace to God’s people. In the words already quoted, the Father Himself bears witness about the uniqueness of His Promised Shepherd, when He says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5-6).

     Undoubtedly, embedded in these verses is also the affirmation of the Branch’s identicalness, His oneness in essence with the LORD who makes the promise. In other words, They both have the same essence. For thus says the LORD about the Branch, “He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness” (cf. Isaiah 7:14). That the Branch is one in essence with the LORD is beyond dispute; for the Branch bears the same name, “LORD” – God’s personal name, which depicts the uniqueness of God’s essence and relates to God’s everlasting self-existence, self-sufficiency, independence and unchangeableness. This tells us that the Branch, unlike the false shepherds of Israel, is not only a man, but He is also God. He will be called by God’s personal name, “The LORD”, because He is one in essence with the LORD who sends Him; He is God. In other words, the Branch and He who sends Him are one. 

     Therefore, when the LORD makes the promise in Ezekiel’s prophecy, He says that He Himself will take over the shepherding of His people. Thus, He who makes the promise and the Branch who will fulfill it, though distinct in person, are one and inseparable. It is clear that a person cannot send himself, and we know that there is only one God, who eternally exists in three distinct yet coequal and consubstantial Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah’s prophecy, the One who gives the promise is the Father. He promised that He would send His Son, the Branch, who is His exact likeness, His coequal and consubstantial, to shepherd His flock. The language of Jeremiah 23:5-6 recalls God’s words to Israel in the wilderness at Sinai.

     When the Lord rescued Israel from the furnace of Egypt, He said to Israel at Mount Sinai, “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for My name is in him. “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. “When My angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.” (Exodus 23:20-24). 

     Here also the LORD who is speaking makes it clear that His Angel, who will go before the people and lead them to the land that the LORD has prepared for them, is one with the LORD Himself by virtue of the authority He has to forgive sin. Only God has the authority to forgive sin. Furthermore, the LORD who speaks stresses that His own name is in His Angel who will go before the people. Thus the Angel of the LORD is identified with the LORD, for the LORD’s name is in Him and He has the authority to forgive sin. These unique characteristics make it clear that the LORD who is speaking is referring to a person who is coequal and consubstantial with Him, i.e., a person of the same substance or essence as Him, in this case the second Person of the Trinity, the preincarnate Son of God. Therefore Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” 

     In the days of old, God the Son was sent by His Father to lead Israel and to take them to the Promised Land after their deliverance from slavery to Egypt. But in these last days, He came in the flesh (the Word became flesh) to rescue God’s people from slavery to sin and to take them to the holy City, the heavenly Jerusalem.

     As the Shepherd of His people, the Lord Jesus Christ is not only the vanguard that conquers the enemies of His people before them, but also the rearguard that protects them. He destroys the enemies of His people as He advances before them; He clears the way so that they may walk a safe path, and with His arm guards them against the darts of the evil one.

     Christ the Lord clothed Himself in humanity and entered the world to seek and save His lost sheep. Although the gathering of the lost sheep of the house of Israel is not yet consummated, it will be fulfilled at the second coming of the Good Shepherd. He will come again to destroy His enemies and gather the scattered sheep of Jacob. About this, the prophet Isaiah declares in Isaiah 40:10-11, “Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” 

     Israel’s shepherds were cruel, careless and self-indulgent. They led the people into spiritual harlotry and caused them to be scattered abroad. But the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd of the sheep, the Promised Branch, is the Good Shepherd, gracious, meek, selfless, merciful, protective, truthful, righteous and compassionate. About His distinctiveness, Isaiah writes in Isaiah 11:2-5, “And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins.”

     Unlike the false shepherds, the Good Shepherd surrounds His sheep with loving-kindness and keeps them like the apple of His eye. He hates wickedness and loves righteousness. He Himself affirms His distinctiveness in John 10:11, saying, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And His sheep are not all from one fold only, i.e., the nation of Israel, but are also from other nations, the Gentiles. Therefore the Lord also declares in John 10:16, “I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

     The Lord’s steadfast love for His sheep is clearly expressed throughout the Scripture. For instance, the Lord Himself declares in John 10:1-5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 

     The Lord uses the metaphor of v. 1  to decry the stealthiness and the malevolent conduct of he who does not seek the good of the sheep but their harm: he is a thief, a bandit who enters stealthily into the sheepfold, not to take care of the sheep but to steal and destroy them. Whereas in vv. 2-5 the Lord underscores the openness and goodwill of the true shepherd. He does not sneak into the sheep pen, but enters by the door and cares for his sheep. The Lord also stresses the familiarity, the intimate and reciprocal knowledge, that exists between the shepherd and his sheep – an intimate knowledge that serves as a safeguard against strangers. The loving-kindness that transpires from the picture of the true shepherd in these four verses is uniquely characteristic of the Lord, the Shepherd of the sheep.

  The Lord’s loving care for His sheep issues from His distinctive character, from His essential goodness, which is reflected in His activities for(1) and relationship with(2) His sheep. 

1- The Activities of the Good Shepherd

The OT prophecies cited above and Psalms 23 beautifully depict the Good Shepherd by highlighting His activities for the welfare of His flock. These words testify to God’s steadfast love for His people. The false shepherds were harsh to the sheep; they did not heal the sick or bind the wounds of the injured; they did not bring back the strayed sheep or seek the lost; they did not feed the sheep but preyed upon them; they did not strengthen the weak or clothe the naked. They destroyed the sheep and scattered them. But the Good Shepherd will come and seek out His lost sheep; He will gather them and care for them; He will provide for their needs and give them rest and security; He will strengthen the weak and heal the sick among His sheep; He will make them fruitful and multiply them; He will be their righteousness, His glory their shelter, and His shadow their resting place (cf. Psalms 91:1).

     David writes in Psalms 23:1-6, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” 

     God’s words by the mouth of His prophets and David’s words in this psalm together point out that:

• The Good Shepherd Seeks Out His sheep 

     The false shepherds of Israel were supposed to instruct the people to worship the LORD their God and were responsible for seeking out every sheep that strayed away from the flock. But they trained themselves to turn the heart of the sheep from the LORD their God, and gave them over to the wild beasts. They did not seek out the lost sheep or bring back those who wandered away spiritually. They fed the people with lies, and the people went out from the shelter of the Most High, they abandoned the LORD’s sanctuary and whored after false gods. Therefore, the LORD removed the people from His land and scattered them abroad. But they will not remain scattered forever, as sheep without a shepherd. For the LORD their God, the Good Shepherd, will seek them out. “I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember Me, and with their children they shall live and return. I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them”, declares the LORD in Zechariah 10:8-10. 

     The LORD also says in Jeremiah 23:3, “I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the land where I have banished them and cause them to return to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.” “In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:11-12). “Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made”, declares the LORD in Isaiah 43:5-7.

     These prophecies explicitly promise the restoration of the people of Israel to their land, a restoration that will be accompanied by prosperity. However, Israel’s spiritual restoration is also implied. For the Lord will turn the hearts of His people back to Him; He will incline their hearts to Him and they will worship Him. The Lord will restore His people to fellowship with Him. The false shepherds of Israel led the people astray and the people did not walk in the ways of the LORD or obey His law. So the Lord poured on Israel the heat of His anger. But His anger will not burn against His people forever; they will not be utterly consumed. “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God” (Isaiah 10:21). For the LORD their God will deliver them from both their political oppressors and the spiritual effects of their iniquities.

     Israel’s re-establishment in his land and his spiritual restoration are explicitly announced in Ezekiel 36:23-31 – “I will prove the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh,” declares Lord Yahweh, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. And I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments. And you will inhabit the land that I gave to your fathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field so that you will not receive again the reproach of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves to your own faces for your iniquities and your abominations.”

     The false shepherds turned the hearts of the people from the LORD their God by leading them in the way of wickedness and the LORD banished the people from His land. But the day is coming when He will gather them like a hen gathers her brood in her wings. “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep and care for them” (Ezekiel 34:11). Although this prophecy also refers specifically to Israel and its complete fulfillment awaits the second coming of the Lord, when He will save the remnant of Jacob, it is appropriate to apply this verse, in light of God’s revelation, to His seeking and saving of His sheep of Gentile descent also. The Lord Himself says in John 10:16, “I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” 

     The Lord seeks all His sheep and saves them. He will carefully search for all His lost and strayed sheep, whether of Israelite or Gentile descent, and He will bring them all back into His bosom and care for them. For it is for this purpose that He came into this world: to seek and save His lost sheep (cf. Luke 15; 19:9-10). He will seek and save them all; He will not abandon them in darkness or to the wild beasts. Not one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep will perish, but all will come to repentance and saving faith. For the Good Shepherd will seek them and bring them in. At the present time, He has already brought back into His bosom many of His strayed sheep. The Apostle Peter, speaking to God’s elect scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, writes in 1 Peter 2:25, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 

• The Good Shepherd Redeems His sheep 

     The Good Shepherd treasures the life of His sheep and is willing to spend and be spent for their sake. He has redeemed His sheep from spiritual slavery. Unlike the false shepherds who slaughtered the fat sheep and delivered others to the wild beasts, the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep, to deliver them from their captor and enslaver. All the sheep have strayed from the LORD their Shepherd, they have defiled themselves with lawless idolatry and enslaved themselves to sin. But the LORD  promised by Zechariah the prophet, “I will whistle for [My sheep] and gather them in, for I have redeemed them. And they will be as numerous as they were before” (Zechariah 10:8). By His precious and holy blood, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the price for the redemption of His chosen ones. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). The Lord Christ Himself declares in John 10:10b, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Then in v. 15b He says, “ I lay down My life for the sheep.” 

    The sheep were originally devoid of life and bound to face eternal suffering in the hell of fire because of their sins. But Christ, the Good Shepherd of the sheep, laid down His life as a ransom so that they might have life. And because His sacrificial death was sufficient to secure the full redemption of the sheep of His pasture, they will receive life in abundance, that is, eternal life. 

     Christ the Lord is our Redeemer: He has redeemed us from spiritual slavery, He has delivered us from sin and death (the wages of sin) and from the dominion of spiritual forces of evil. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” And as it is written in Galatians 1:4, Christ the Lord “gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”

      We the sheep, like the rest of mankind, were once under the curse of the Law, slaves to sin and darkness. But Christ our Shepherd redeemed us by the blood of His cross, He satisfied the righteous requirement of the Law on our behalf. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Through His death on the cross, Christ has set us free from slavery to sin and death. He has delivered us from the bonds of corruption and blessed us with newness of life, a life of righteousness lived to God. 

     Moreover, the Lord has canceled the record of our debt through the offering of His own blood, thereby setting us free from the wrath to come. He delivered Himself up as a sacrifice to propitiate the wrath of God on our behalf. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4).

     Christ the Redeemer propitiated the wrath of God on behalf of His flock so that they might have peace. He is the Author of their salvation and eternal security, their righteousness and peace. Jeremiah’s prophecy in Jeremiah 23:6 promised that, “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’” 

     The false shepherds of Israel led the people into spiritual harlotry and they became slaves to dead gods. But the Lord their Shepherd has redeemed them and will restore them in His fellowship. He will not forsake them. For they are His covenant people, the sheep of His pasture. He will not abandon them in their lostness, but will save them. The LORD says to Israel in Isaiah 44:21-22, “Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a cloud. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” These verses, like Zechariah’s words in Zechariah 10:8, look forward prophetically to the day when the LORD Himself will pay the penalty for the sins of His people by His death on the cross. By these words, the Lord assures them of the removal of their iniquities from them and calls them to return to Him, for He has redeemed them. 

    Even though the people forsook the LORD their God – led astray by the false shepherds – and went after the gods of the nations, the LORD will blot out their sins. For His precious blood was shed for their redemption. 

     Although Israel’s promised salvation awaits the second coming of the Messiah – for at His first coming “His own people did not receive Him” (John 1:11b) – the process has already been launched. For “to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). 

     The Lord, the Good Shepherd, is the Sun of righteousness, the LORD our righteousness. He is the Redeemer of His sheep; for He has ransomed them from their slavery to sin and will restore them to life. Although Israel rejected her Shepherd at His first coming, the day of her redemption is coming, when her Redeemer will shine on her remnant the light of salvation. As Paul writes in Romans 11:25c-26, “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”” 

     God’s promise to blot out the sin of His people is clearly stated in Jeremiah 33:8. It reads, “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against Me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against Me.” So Israel’s partial hardening will end at Christ’s second coming and she will be saved and gathered to her Shepherd. Thus the Good Shepherd will gather all His sheep – both Jews and Gentiles – into one flock.

• The Good Shepherd cares for His sheep 

     The false shepherds did not feed the sheep but themselves; they ate the fat ones and clothed themselves with the wool. They had no compassion for the weak, and the sick they did not heal, nor did they bind the wounds of the injured. They were consumed with themselves and the strayed sheep they did not bring back, nor did they search for the lost ones. They were cruel and harsh shepherds. And because of them the sheep were scattered and became food to all the wild beasts (cf. Ezekiel 34:2ff). 

     Unlike the self-indulgent, murderous shepherds, the Good Shepherd selflessly cares for His sheep. He bears them up daily. “My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His majestic steed in battle”, declares the Lord in Zechariah 10:3. “The eyes of the LORD are on [His sheep], and His ears are attentive to their cry” (Psalms 34:15). “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength” (Isaiah 40:29). The Lord abundantly provides for all the needs of His sheep, far more than they can ask or imagine. He blesses His sheep with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (cf. Ephesians 1:3). He ensures their physical and spiritual welfare. He never leaves His sheep unattended, as did the false shepherds, but always walks before His sheep and cares for them. 

     Here is the promise of the Lord concerning His sheep in Ezekiel 34:14, “I will shepherd them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and be shepherded in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.” David experienced this and so penned Psalm 23 in recognition of the care that the LORD his Shepherd lavished on him.

     The compassionate care of the Good Shepherd for His sheep extends throughout their pilgrimage in this world and will culminate in their adornment with a life of blissful joy and eternal glory in the world to come. For in the new heaven and the new earth, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17). 

• The Good Shepherd instructs His sheep in the way of righteousness. 

     The false shepherds did not instruct the people in the way of righteousness, but rather deepened their moral corruption. They were to teach the people the rules and statutes of the LORD and ensure their wholehearted devotion to the LORD their God; they were to instruct them diligently in the way of truth and teach them the fear of the LORD. But rather, they taught them as doctrines the commandments of men. They broke the commandments of God for the sake of their tradition, they left the commandments of God and held to the tradition of men (cf. Matthew 15:1-9 and Mark 7:8). The false shepherds led the sheep astray and they drew “near with their mouth and [honored the LORD] with their lips, while their hearts [were] far from [Him], and their fear of [the LORD was] in a commandment taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13). 

     Unlike the false shepherds, the Good Shepherd leads His sheep in the way of truth; He teaches them the Word of God, and brings them to the true knowledge of God. He turns the heart of His flock from dead gods to the living God, instructs them in His way and makes known to them His paths. He teaches them what is right, He guides them in all truth, and equips them with everything good, that they may do the will of God. 

     Moreover, the Good Shepherd disciplines His sheep (cf. Deuteronomy 32:48-52). When the sheep stubbornly err and do not heed His call, He disciplines them through suffering and affliction in order to incline their heart to His Word. For their good and His own glory, the Lord rebukes and strikes His sheep as necessary (cf. Psalms 73), so that they may yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness and be conformed to His image. 

     The psalmist testifies to the benefit of being disciplined by the Lord, saying to Him, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Psalms 119:67 and 71-72). In v. 75 he says to the Lord, “I know, O LORD, that Your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.” Because He selflessly loves His sheep, the Good Shepherd does not withhold His rod of discipline from them, but chastises them as needed in order that they may share His holiness (cf. Hebrews 12:10). Hebrews 12:6 tells us, “the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.” 

     The false shepherds trained the people to walk in unrighteousness and ungodliness. But the Good Shepherd “has appeared, bringing salvation for all [His sheep], training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). He instructs His sheep in the way they should go. He holds them with His right hand and guides them with His counsel.  

     The false shepherds led the people away from the LORD their God. And as a result, the LORD gave them “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction” and hid His face from them. But because of His steadfast love for His sheep, their severance from the light of His countenance will not last forever. For the LORD will not abandon His sheep in darkness. By the mouth of His prophet, He made this promise to Israel in Isaiah 30:20b-22, “He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with your silver, and your molten images plated with your gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing and say to them, “Be gone!”” 

     The face of the Good Shepherd shall always shine on His sheep and His voice will instruct them all the days of their lives. They will walk according to His counsel; His voice will be their light. For “Thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they will sanctify My name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction” (Isaiah 29:22-24).

     The false shepherds failed to instruct the flock of God in the way of truth, and they went astray after a lie; they worshiped what was not God. But the Lord, their Teacher, will teach them everything that pertains to holy living and godliness. For the Lord establishes the steps of His sheep; for they are His delight. “Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go” (Isaiah 48:17). Psalms 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” 

     The Lord shines His light in His sheep and brings them to the knowledge of the truth. He gives them understanding and discernment and guides them in the path of righteousness. His face brightly shines on them so that they do not stumble and His voice continually teaches them the way they should go. 

• The Good Shepherd crowns His sheep with peace, security and hope 

     The false shepherds did not lead the people in the way of righteousness. Consequently, the LORD their God gave the people “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction” (Isaiah 30:20). But because of His steadfast love for His sheep, the Lord will not afflict them forever. He made a promise of peace and security to His people, saying by the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet, “Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first” (Jeremiah 33:6-7). 

     The Good Shepherd is the Guarantor of everlasting peace, security and certain hope for His sheep. He promised in Ezekiel 34:15, “I will shepherd My flock, and I will make them lie down.” V. 25-29, “I will cut a covenant of peace with them and cause harmful beasts to cease from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plunder to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them tremble. I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not bear the dishonor of the nations anymore.” 

   In the years of old, the LORD rescued Israel from slavery to Egypt and brought them to His Land. “He led out His people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock” (Psalms 78:52). Then He settled them in a land flowing with milk and honey. He promised them peace and stability in case of obedience, and curses and adversity for disobedience. But the leaders of the people led them astray and they forsook their God and incurred curses rather than blessings; they forfeited their peace and security in the Lord. But despite the unfaithfulness of His people, the LORD, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, remains faithful, and He has not forsaken His covenant to His people. For the day is coming when He will bring peace to His people and restore them in His blessings. The day is coming when Christ the Good Shepherd will restore all things; He will provide His sheep with stability and spiritual peace. On the night He was born into the world, His ministering angels bore witness to the peace He would bring to His people, as they gave glory to God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). 

     Long ago, God promised by the mouth of His prophets that He Himself would shepherd His flock and make them lie down and enjoy peace. In the fullness of time, He clothed Himself with flesh and came into this world to bring peace to His people. The false shepherds were self-indulgent and hostile, troublers of Israel; their unorthodox conduct brought many afflictions upon the nation. But Jesus Christ, the Righteous Branch from the root of Jesse, is the Prince of Peace. He will restore peace on the land and between God and His people. Christ will bring peace not only to the remnant of His people Israel, but also to His other sheep among the nations. “For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

      Christ the Lord is the Architect of peace, the Source of eternal peace. He brings peace between heaven and earth and among men on earth. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:11-22, “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands – remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” 

     The Lord is our own peace. He brings peace to His sheep, a peace that is foreign to this world. He Himself says to His disciples in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” 

     Moreover, the Lord is the Founder of our hope and confidence. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:3-7, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

     The false shepherds of Israel gave the people no hope. But Christ the Good Shepherd is the eternal hope of His flock, their sure foundation, the Hope of glory. The Lord “is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Psalms 46:1-2). David writes in Psalms 23:4-6, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” David also writes in Psalms 138:7, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand delivers me.”

     Our hope is secure in the Lord our Shepherd. For He Himself is our hope. In Him we rest secure forever. 

     In view of the certain hope of the sheep of the Good Shepherd, compared to the sufferings of this present time, and considering our weaknesses, Paul asks some rhetorical questions in Romans 8:31-39, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

• The Good Shepherd protects and preserves His Sheep

     The false shepherds of Israel did not protect the sheep, but abandoned them to the wild beasts. They did not preserve the sheep, but slaughtered them and clothed themselves with the wool. But the Good Shepherd protects His sheep and preserves them. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep”, says the Lord in John 10:11-13. 

       In Jeremiah 23:4c the Lord makes this promise concerning His sheep: “they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be left unattended.” For the Lord Himself will shelter His sheep, He will keep them in His shadow. “He is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in Him” (Psalms 37:39b-40). “In the cover of [His] presence [He hides] them from the plots of men; [He stores] them in [His] shelter from the strife of tongues” (Psalms 31:20). 

     The Good Shepherd surrounds His sheep with protection and preserves their lives. He hems them in, behind and before, with His right hand. Like the apple of His eye, He keeps them from harm; He hides them in the shelter of His wings in the day of trouble. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”, declares the Good Shepherd in John 10:10. Therefore not one of His sheep will perish. “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day”, declares the Lord in John 6:37-39. John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear  My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” 

     “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalms 116:15). “From oppression and violence He redeems their life, and precious is their blood in His sight” (Psalms 72:14). The Good Shepherd treasures the lives of His sheep. He preserves them from the penalty and destructive power of the enemy within, i.e., sin, and shields them from the flaming darts of the evil one and oppression by the wicked men and women of this world. The Lord crushes the foes of His sheep and strikes down those who hate them (cf. Psalms 89:23). No one can snatch the sheep of the Lord away nor can anything utterly destroy them. 

     The Lord goes before His sheep and gives them victory over their enemies. He gave His people Israel words of comfort and reassurance, assuring them that He would always be with them and would protect them through thick and thin. “Thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-2). “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will make you mighty, surely I will help you; surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”, says the Lord to Israel in (Isaiah 41:10).

     The Lord guards the lives of His sheep and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. He walks with His sheep in the midst of the waters. He is the stronghold of their lives. Not one of them will perish, but all will be kept to the end; for the LORD ensures the physical and spiritual preservation of His Sheep. Therefore “though [they] fall, [they cannot] be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds [their hands]” (Psalms 37:24). 

• The Good Shepherd restores the health of His sheep 

      The Good Shepherd is the Great Physician; He brings healing to His people. He will heal all His sheep from the heart disease that mars them, so that they will no longer walk in faithlessness, after the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and pierce themselves with pangs. The false shepherds led them astray and they worshiped what was not God. As a result of their waywardness, the LORD afflicted them with severe wounds. Yet He has promised by the mouth of His prophet that He will heal His people. “For thus says Yahweh, ‘Your injury is incurable, and your wound is desperately sick.  There is no one to plead your cause; no healing for your sore, no recovery for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the punishment of a cruel one, because your iniquity is numerous and your sins are mighty. Why do you cry out over your injury? Your pain is incurable. Because your iniquity is numerous and your sins are mighty, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; and those who take you as spoil will be spoil, and all who plunder you I will give as plunder. For I will restore you to health, and I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares Yahweh, ‘Because they have called you a banished one, saying: “It is Zion; no one is seeking her”’ (Jeremiah 30:12-17).

     The LORD, the Shepherd of the sheep, will restore the health of Israel at His appointed time. Despite their unfaithfulness to Him, He will not abandon them to their incurable pain. He Himself will bind their wounds. For He left His throne on high and entered this world to heal His own. Out of love for His sheep, He willingly yielded His body to be crucified and was inflicted with wounds on their behalf. “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isaiah 52:14b). He took from the Father’s hand the cup of His wrath and drained it down to the dregs, so that His sheep might be restored to health. “He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed”  (1 Peter 2:24). 

     Once we were deaf, blind, lost, dead and hostile toward God and the things of God. But by His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, the Good Shepherd has given us life, sight and ear to hear Him. He has inclined our hearts to God and caused us to delight in His testimonies. The Lord our Shepherd has filled us with the knowledge of and the desire to do His will. He has given us a new heart and a new mind; He has made us partakers of the divine nature, that we may bear fruit to Him. 

     The false shepherds did not care about the health of the flock (cf. Ezekiel 34:4). But Christ, the Shepherd of the sheep, has come to restore His sheep to full health. “He is the One who heals the brokenhearted and who binds up their wounds” (Psalms 147:3). He takes away the infirmities of His people and their diseases. The Lord binds up His wounded sheep and strengthens the weak; He heals them and snatches them from death’s door; He sustains them on their sickbed and restores them to full health; He redeems their lives from the pit.

     The day is coming when Christ the Good Shepherd will bring physical and spiritual healing to Israel. “Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. I will return the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. And it will be to Me a name of joy, praise, and beauty before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will be in dread and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it”, says the LORD in Jeremiah 33:6-9. 

2- The Shepherd-Sheep relationship

The relationship between the Good Shepherd and His sheep is without comparison. For it is built upon true love, a love that originates from the Good Shepherd – for He is love – and is graciously bestowed upon the sheep. In other words, the Good Shepherd’s love for His sheep is a perfect and unconditional love. He chose them in eternity past, not on the basis of their own works or merits, but according to the riches of His grace and His steadfast love toward them. God chose His sheep from before the creation of the world and set His love on them. And at His time appointed, His Holy Spirit comes and pours into their hearts the love of God and draws them to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls. 

     Paul writes in Romans 5:5-11, “and hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received the reconciliation.” 

     The Father loves the sheep not because they are good or have done good deeds, He loves them in spite of their waywardness and unworthiness. He demonstrates His love for the sheep by sending His Son to bear the punishment for their wrongdoings, that they may be justified in His sight by the blood of His cross. And because the Son also loves the sheep, He willingly laid down His life for them, that they might be restored to fellowship with God; and the Holy Spirit, who also loves the sheep, has poured out the love of God into our hearts. Therefore we, the sheep of God’s pasture, love the Lord our Shepherd because He first loved us. Although we do not yet love the Lord our Shepherd perfectly as He Himself loves us, the day is coming when our devotion to and love for Him will be complete and pure. 

     The pure and perfect love of God is the foundation of our relationship with Him. We are united with Him on the basis of His perfect and unconditional love for us. Our relationship with the Lord our Shepherd issues from the perfect love that He has for us from before the foundation of the world, and which was fully revealed at the cross, when He laid down His life for us. As John writes in 1 John 4:9-10, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Christ the Lord Himself declares in John 10:15b, “ I lay down My life for the sheep.” 

     All those who belong to the Good Shepherd are sealed into His covenant love and united into one body by the Holy Spirit of love, the Spirit of the Good Shepherd, who indwells each sheep. The love that unites the Shepherd with His sheep also unites the sheep with one another, because they are sealed by the same Spirit. And such is the will of the Shepherd, that His sheep should love one another. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”, says the Lord to His sheep in John 13:34. 

     The love of the Lord for His sheep is the guarantee of their eternal security. Because the Shepherd perfectly loves His sheep, they have nothing to fear. As it is written, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). As people loved by God, we live not in fear; for there is no more condemnation for us. The Lord has bestowed His perfect love upon us and poured it out into our hearts by His precious Holy Spirit of love. 

     Therefore we have confidence toward the Lord our Shepherd in the face of judgment. Those who are not His live in constant fear: fear of death, fear of God’s final judgment. But it is not so for the sheep of God’s pasture. For the Holy Spirit who dwells within us produces in us the awareness that God has made us His children. The Spirit of the LORD our Shepherd infuses our heart with the love of God and fills it with the assurance of sonship, and with dependence on and reverence for our heavenly Father. Therefore, in our distress we cry, not to a distant God with Whom we have no intimate relationship, but to our very Father by whose Spirit we have been brought forth and to Whom we are eternally reconciled through our union with His Son Jesus Christ, the LORD our righteousness. Paul writes in Romans 8:15-17, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by Whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” 

     The Holy Spirit is the seal of our sonship to the Father, the mark of God’s ownership. He it is who seals us into God’s covenant love, makes known to us our new filiation or identity, and leads us to address God in a way that uniquely accords with our new identity. We call Him Father, for by virtue of our new birth we have become His children, “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). 

     Since we have been made children of God, there is no more enmity but friendliness, a friendliness wrought by the Shepherd of our souls through His substitutionary death on the cross and His imputed righteousness to us through faith, which righteousness is the guarantee of our eternal security. So then we can confidently approach our heavenly Father without fear and, like little children, cast all our anxieties on Him because He cares, and in Him our hope is secure. For we shall inherit His kingdom, since we have become His children by adoption, thanks to our birth by His glorious Spirit.

     We have confidence toward the Lord our Shepherd not only in the face of death and judgment but also when it comes to our needs. “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15). Paul writes in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” The Lord Himself says in John 15:7, “ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

     The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and refuses them nothing that is necessary for their spiritual preservation and growth in holiness. The Lord always supplies every need of His sheep, He gives them whatever is necessary for His glorious purpose to be fulfilled in and through them. He has blessed His sheep with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. 

     The steadfast love of the Good Shepherd for His sheep is incomprehensible. It is an everlasting, unconditional and perfect love that is reflected not only in His provision for their needs (both physical and spiritual), but also in His constant presence with them. He never leaves them nor forsake them. The Good Shepherd is always with His sheep. In Psalms 23:4, David testifies to the Lord’s constant presence with him, saying, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” He also writes in Psalms 139:8-12, “If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I lift up the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will bruise me, and the light around me will be night,” even the darkness is not too dark for You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

     The LORD, the Shepherd of the sheep, is always with His sheep. They are never left on their own, they are never left without His care and guidance. Wherever the sheep of the LORD’s pasture are, there He is with them. Whether they are in the remotest part of the sea, in Sheol, or in heaven, He is always with them to lead and care for them; and whatever their afflictions and trials, He is always there to support them. Neither space nor the gloom of deep darkness can hinder the Lord’s presence with and care for His sheep. For He is the omnipresent and omnipotent God. Therefore He is able to shield us with His presence wherever we are and whatever happens. 

     The Lord’s presence is the light that enlightens our path, a comfort in times of distress; it infuses our hearts with a peace that is foreign to the world and a joy that the world does not know about and can never experience. For such blessings flow exclusively from our union with the Lord our Shepherd. We have been united with Him through His death and resurrection, and sealed by His Spirit into the family of God. As it is written, “He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying [to the Father who sent], “I will tell of Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.” And again, “I will put My trust in Him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given Me”” (Hebrews 2:11-13).  

    All those given by the Father to His Son are members of the household of God, they are spiritual brothers of the only begotten Son of God by virtue of their adoption and one with Him. For as it is written,¨he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). The Lord is our head and we are His body. By His Spirit we have been raised from death to life and are no longer estranged from God, but have become God’s children, Christ’s eternal possession, because His Spirit lives in us. Paul writes in Romans 8:9c, “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” But we are Christ’s, the sheep of His pasture, members of His body, because He has given us His Spirit. And as members of His body, we are also united to one another by the same Spirit. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

    The Lord’s unity with us, which is sealed by the Holy Spirit, is a reflection of the unity that characterizes the eternal relationship of the Father and the Son. In His High Priestly Prayer on behalf of His disciples, the Lord Himself declares to the Father in John 17:20-23, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.” 

   The unity of the Good Shepherd with His sheep is the essence of the intimate knowledge that uniquely characterizes the Shepherd-sheep relationship, which is patterned on the eternal relationship of the Father and the Son. There is a special and intimate fellowship between the Father and the Son, deep, reciprocal love and affection: the Father knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father (cf. Matthew 11:27). The same kind of intimacy characterizes the Shepherd-sheep relationship. For Christ, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, knows His sheep personally and His sheep know Him. The Lord Himself declares in John 10:14-15, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Here, the Lord stresses that the relationship between Him and His sheep, just like His relationship with the Father, is defined by a profound, intimate and reciprocal knowledge. This mutual affection, understanding and special communion is forged by His deep, sacrificial love for His sheep: He laid down His life to restore His sheep to fellowship with Him. 

     Consequently, His sheep listen to Him; they follow Him. For He is personally known and related to every single one of them. He intimately knows them and they know Him. The Lord declares in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” The sheep of the Shepherd know Him, He calls them by name and they follow Him. “A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). But when they hear the voice of their Shepherd, they listen to Him because they know His voice. 

     Conversely, those who do not belong to the Good Shepherd do not know Him, nor can they follow Him or listen to His voice. The Lord said to the Pharisees concerning their rejection of His words, “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (John 8:47). Unlike those who do not belong to the Good Shepherd, the sheep listen to His words; they delight in His precepts and obey His rules and commandments. And they do so, not by fear of judgment, but out of love and reverence for the Lord their Shepherd.  They love Him because He first loved them, and His love for them is eternal. 

     Our union with the Lord our Shepherd will never end, for He has placed His mark of ownership on us; He has sealed us with His Spirit, making us His eternal possession (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22). We are His delight. Therefore, we can never be separated from Him, but shall dwell with Him forever in His holy and eternal habitation. For such is the desire of the Lord our Shepherd, a desire that He explicitly expressed to the Father in John 17:24, saying, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” 

     The day is coming when the Shepherd of the sheep will gather His flock in the bosom of His glory. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). So we who belong to the Lord our Shepherd shall see Him face to face and share in His glory forever. Paul writes in Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

     Only through Christ can a person enter into glory. Without Christ, our end as human beings is destruction. For sin has permeated every fiber of our being. By nature, sin is our master and death our companion; and we live under the dominion of spiritual forces of evil. Against these fierce enemies, we have not the capability to stand in battle. Just as a sheep that strays from its shepherd is helpless, powerless, lost, and vulnerable to attacks by wild beasts, so is a man who treads the streets of this broken world without the shepherding of Christ, the Good Shepherd. For only Christ, the Good Shepherd, can provide the children of mankind with the necessary direction, protection, peace, comfort and sustenance; only Christ can give them purpose, fulfillment and life. 

     Therefore, rather than seeking autonomy from their Maker – the Almighty God, the Hope of glory, the great God and Good Shepherd Jesus Christ – men ought to repudiate such autonomy and seek shelter in the shadow of the glory of His Majesty. For without His shepherding, the children of man are deprived of spiritual sustenance; they grope in darkness and fall prey to the prince of the power of the air. Without Christ the Good Shepherd, the children of man are held captive by sin, devoid of purposefulness and life, and condemned to eternal ruin and torment (cf. Psalms 1). 

     Therefore, if you are driven by a sense of self-reliance or self-sufficiency,  I urge you to lay down your pride. Give glory to God! For the sake of your own soul, harden not your heart against Him. Turn from your evil ways, from your self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and put your trust in Christ, “in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). Christ is the Sovereign God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone is the Sustainer of our souls; He it is who gives us purpose and fulfillment; He it is who rescues us from destruction and gives us eternal life. He is our only hope, the Hope of glory. Turn to Him now! For as it is written, “because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:5-8).