SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2016 7:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Jesus is the True Shepherd of the
Sheep
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 10:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who
does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other
way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd
of the sheep. 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and
he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 “When he puts forth all
his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his
voice. 5 “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him,
because they do not know the voice of strangers." 6 This figure of speech Jesus
spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had
been saying to them.”
We can see
from the highlighted portion of verse six that what we are looking at here is a
metaphor that the Lord is using to teach those who are listening to Him, and
each of those elements common to everyday life has a symbolic meaning to His
metaphor. Now we have to answer the
question “what is the sheepfold?” There
are some who would say that this is the church or that this is heaven, but let’s
look at verse sixteen “16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also,
and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” I believe that the sheepfold in these first
six verses is speaking of the people of Israel, and then in verse sixteen as
far as those who are not of “his fold” are Gentiles. MacArthur commenting why it is not the church
writes “it is hard to see how thieves could break into either the church or
heaven and steal sheep (cf. vv. 27-29).
The ‘door’ is Jesus Himself (vv. 7, 9), who alone has the authority to
lead out of Israel’s fold His own elect sheep.
The thieves and robbers represent the self-appointed (cf. Matt. 23:2)
Jewish religious leaders, who, doing the work of the devil, not God, climbed
the walls of the sheepfold to spiritually fleece and slaughter the people.
The leaders
that Jesus was talking to came from a long line of leaders who had been
fleecing and slaughtering the sheep in the history of the nation of
Israel. The good thing as Jeremiah
23:1-2 is that they would not escape God’s judgment “1 "Woe to the
shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!"
declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the
shepherds who are tending My people: "You have scattered My flock and
driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend
to you for the evil of your deeds," declares the LORD.”
Perhaps
Ezekiel 34:2-10 was on the heart of the Lord as He taught and told this
metaphor: “2 “Son of man, prophesy
against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ’Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the
shepherds feed the flock? 3 “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the
wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4 "Those who
are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the
broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have
you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated
them. 5 “They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for
every beast of the field and were scattered. 6 “My flock wandered through all
the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the
surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for
them."’" 7Therefore, you shepherds, hear
the word of the LORD: 8 "As
I live," declares the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock has become a
prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of
a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the
shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock; 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of
the LORD: 10 ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold,
I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them
cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore,
but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for
them."’"”
Things have
not changed when we come to the Church age as the fleecing of the flock of God
is still going on today, pretty much for the same reasons and that is power and
financial gain. Jesus warned that this
would happen: “"Beware of the
false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous
wolves (Matt. 7:15). Paul writes similar
words in Acts 20:29 “"I know that after my departure savage wolves will
come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
By the way Paul was speaking to the elders at Ephesus, and his prophecy
came true as there are only stones left there today as they had left their
first love as Jesus pointed out in Revelation chapter two and things went downhill
from there.
Peter
cautions about this in 2 Peter 2:1 “But false prophets also arose among the
people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them,
bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”
The letters of 2 Peter and also Jude have much to say about false
teachers, or false shepherds, and Jude was not even going to write about them,
but felt it necessary to do so.
We are also
studying the book of Zechariah and although we have not gotten there yet, in
the 11th chapter of that book Zechariah speaks of the ultimate false
shepherd who we call the Antichrist, he writes “16 “For behold, I am going to
raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the
scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the
flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. 17 “Woe to the worthless
shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye!
His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.’” You can also read much about him in Daniel
11:36-45; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10; and Revelation 13:3-10.” All of these verses are dealt with on my blog
as I have already studied all of these books.
We will
stop here and in our next SD we will try and begin with verse two of John 10.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at the world around me and how it
is being torn apart I am thankful that what we read in the Scriptures that
Jesus will judge the false shepherds both in Israel and in the Church age, and
am looking forward to when the Lord comes in the air to receive His church, and
take us to heaven.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Be wise and not be fooled by
false teachers.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:4-5) “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5. For is we have been united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection,”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Haman” (Ester 7:10).
Today’s Bible question:
“Which book introduces the first great leader of Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/29/2016 8:24 AM
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