Who Is Your Shepherd?

Why should you care about a shepherd? In America most people don’t know much about sheep, let alone hearing anyone talk about a “shepherd”. We call them sheep farmers, not shepherds. But the Bible has much to say about shepherds and sheep. Why? Because as people we are much like sheep. The prophet Isaiah said that “all we, like sheep, have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6).

Sheep have a tendency to wander away from where they should be. They tend to go everywhere but where they are supposed to go. A couple of years on a farm in New Zealand with a few sheep helped me to see the reality of that. Open a gate for sheep to go through and they will go in every other direction than through that gate! Get one sheep to jump away from that gate, and the whole flock will follow! Exasperating bunch of animals!

God looks at us and expresses the same frustration: Show people the right way to go and they will go in every direction except the right way!

When Jesus was on earth He claimed to be the “Good Shepherd” who gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11). He proved to be true in His claim by dying on a cross to pay the price for the sins of the “sheep” – you and me. He came to be the Shepherd who gave His life in order to bring the sheep back to the right way from which they were straying.

Psalm 23 gives a beautiful description of the Lord as the Good Shepherd. But He is only that Shepherd to those who become His “sheep” through faith in Him.