“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:3,4
We do not know how many times the Lord Jesus used the illustration of the shepherd who lost one of his sheep, out of an hundred. Although He did so at least in two different sets of circumstances. He would share of the shepherd, who left the ninety-nine sheep in the fold, to venture forth into the wilderness, the mountains, to seek the one sheep that was lost. It is important to grasp at this point what the Shepherd is truly doing, and why.
One has rightly said that one of the first things David learned, and later wrote about it in Psalm 23, was that he was a sheep. Shepherds do not herd shepherds, nor put ninety-nine shepherds in a fold, to venture forth to seek another shepherd. When we turn our attention to a sheep, and what it is in appearance, usefulness, and resources, we become overwhelmed by the sheep’s helplessness, ignorance, and lack of skills to survive. It seems that its value to the shepherd is based on two things, the first and foremost being, the worth that the shepherd himself places upon the sheep. The basis for this worth is love, a love that in no wise is derived from the sheep or anything else. It is a love that the shepherd, the owner, provider, and guardian of the sheep, has set upon it by his choice, desire, and will. It is a love that is derived from the nature of the Shepherd, corresponding to His eternal purpose. We see this reality when Moses was speaking to Israel concerning the love of God He had for the nation, when he wrote: “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers.” (Deut. 7:7,8) The love of the shepherd for the sheep is one that has its essence in God, and the manifestation of it by the Spirit of God.
The second reason for which the shepherd places such great worth on the sheep is his design, his thoughts and purposes, and the end result. The sheep cannot respond to the shepherd in any manner worthy of his care for it, for it does not have the capacity to repay the shepherd. However, because the shepherd’s heart, his nature, and the designated and designed purpose of God in the shepherd is to love the sheep, care and protect the sheep, he sees it as possessing great worth, for it belongs to him. How do we know that the heart of the shepherd is disinterested in itself to the point to go to any length to rescue, or save the sheep? We see it revealed in the choice of the shepherd to venture alone into the wilderness. The shepherd leaves the comforts and security of home, leaving the ninety-nine in the shelter of the fold, to pursue, with determined, deliberate, and decisive intent, the individual sheep.
We need to add one more thought about this sheep, for it helps us to understand the depth of love of the shepherd. Isaiah writes: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (53:6) The sheep is born with a nature that “wanders,” goes astray from the shepherd and all that is good, to seek, whether by drifting, or deliberately pursuing a different “way,” ending up manifestly lost, with no possbility of saving itself. There will be no other sheep who can come to the rescue, nor will the lion in the wilderness come to the sheep’s aid, only to its destruction. The shepherd alone comes to seek and to save that which is lost.
Dear Father, Find us individually today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.