“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 (Joh 10:3-5).”

We were responsible for a stretch of road between Kirkuk and Tikrit.  It wasn’t the most dangerous in terms of the number of roadside bombs, but it was potentially the most dangerous in terms of the size of the bombs encountered along its length.  That size increased the lethality of the explosion.  In an effort to mitigate that risk we would search villages on both sides of the road looking for those responsible for setting these devices.

On one particular day we were searching multiple villages.  As a staff officer most of my work was finished before the operation and wouldn’t increase again until after the operation.  But I was bored so I hitched a ride out to one of the villages.  I knew the commander responsible for this portion of the operation, but he still wasn’t happy to see me.  He had a lot on his plate, and I remember I could stay but in his words, “don’t expect me to baby sit you.”

It didn’t take long until I was bored.  I didn’t have anything to do, and I didn’t want to get in the way.  Then I saw a flock of sheep being led by a twelve-year-old boy.  I’m guessing this particular shepherd saw the soldiers and was curious as to what was going on.  I remembered a passage in the Bible about sheep knowing their shepherds and not following another voice and I knew I had an experiment to run.  After about an hour of following this little flock trying to get the sheep to follow me and not their shepherd, I knew the truth in Jesus’ words.

In order for a parable to be a parable I suspect that it has to be true at the shepherd level.  That level of life in which the pragmatic is central.  This is the blue-collar level of the parable. I have no doubt that Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with this level although I also suspect that Jesus’ audience may not have been shepherds and, at least in regard to the Sadducees and the Pharisees, were probably above the blue-collar level.  However, I suspect that there was much more to Jesus’ parable than the truth that sheep are not likely to follow a shepherd that they don’t know.

At the time of Jesus’ arrival there was a fervent expectation for a messianic king.  The expectation was held by both the lower and upper strata of that society and culture.  But the teachers and the scribes of Israel would have been looking for something specific that would identify their messiah.  These specifics were hidden throughout their scriptures, what we today call the Old Testament.  “In Ezekiel 34:11–16 “shepherd” is an image describing God’s gathering his scattered people; it also seems to be a messianic term in the context of Zechariah 9–14 (especially 11:4–17; 13:7) (Scott 1995, 319).”

In Ezekiel the LORD specifically admonishes the shepherds of Israel accusing them of willful neglect of His sheep (Eze 34:1-4).  The sheep, “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 (Eze 34:5-6).”  Jesus’ claim to be the good shepherd would have been an encouragement and good news but to the leaders of Israel it would have contained a little sting.  Their shepherding of Israel was not to different than the shepherds in the days of Ezekiel.  As a result, God promised Israel of Ezekiel’s day that He would become their shepherd (Eze 34:11-16).  One verse of that passage says, “…I myself will make them lie down… (Eze 34:15)” similar to that of a famous Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures… (Psa 23:1-2).

This got me thinking.  Why didn’t Jesus just say, “I am the good Shepherd?”  That would have been significant enough to bring His audience the context they would have known for them to recognize that He was identifying Himself as the Messiah of Israel.  I think the answer is in the accusations against the shepherds of Israel in Ezekiel’s day.  They had been feeding themselves (Eze 34:2)!  Israel had been set aside as a witness to the nations.  God’s plan of redemption and salvation had been foreshadowed and revealed through the nation of Israel.  The savior of mankind would be the Jewish messiah.  And yet, the shepherds of Israel in the days of Ezekiel were using all that God had provided to ensure that message’s integrity and survival through the ages, even until you and I could read about it, for their own gain.  They were reading God’s words and interpreting them before God’s people in such a way that they could retain power and profit.

I don’t think this bodes well for the prosperity gospel but for me personally it is also convicting.  Am I looking into God’s word with the intent of finding what God says or am I looking into God’s word looking for what I want to find?  I am listening for the voice of God in the first and I am looking only to justify my own selfish desires in the other.  But what if one day God wanted to tell me something important?  If I hadn’t been listening to His voice, I would probably not recognize it. There is no difference between us and the Israelites of Jesus’ time. I think Simeon in Luke’s Gospel is a good example. “This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel (Luk 2:25).” When Jesus was presented in the temple he heard the voice of his shepherd in the person of the Holy Spirit and he declared, “my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel (Luk 2:30-32).” I suspect Simeon spent time both in the Temple and in the scripture.

Those who know the voice of the shepherd know it because they have spent time in His presence listening to Him.  How many hours had those sheep in Iraq spent in their shepherd’s presence?  They weren’t born into that knowledge; they grew into it over time.  The difference is that you and I get to choose our shepherd.  A shepherd that has given his life for us (Joh 10:11) demonstrating that He cares.  The only way we get to know His voice is by spending time in His word.  Don’t neglect that discipline.

Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash