Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Today we're going to do another of the names of Jehovah. Jehovah Ro'i. This means the Lord my shepherd, Jehovah my shepherd. It is probably the most familiar and beloved symbol of Jehovah that's known. Sometimes somebody says, "Which symbol of God do you love?" or "Which symbol of Jesus do you love? Is it Jesus as the light, or Jesus as the word, or Jesus as the vine, or Jesus as the door?" If you have Jesus as the shepherd on that list, that will be the first one that people say, "That's the symbol that I like the best."

I think all of us like this symbol of the shepherd. It's really strange for a Westernized culture such as ours to enjoy this symbol because we're really quite far removed from sheep and shepherds. Yet even those of us that have never been very close to a sheep in our life, haven't lived in the country, or chased them out of your backyard as I did for years living in sheep country in England, still like this symbol of shepherding. There's something about the thought of being taken up in the shepherd's arms and held close to his heart that touches all of us.

Today is going to be a very enjoyable one for me as I teach this lesson because the shepherd symbol to me has been a very special symbol indeed. Jehovah is my shepherd, the best symbol of all. It appears first in the Bible in Psalm 23, in that beloved psalm which we'll be looking at a little bit today. The meaning and use of this word is very obvious: to feed or to lead to pasture as a shepherd does his flock. The word Ro'i means this: shepherd, leadership, caring. All these ideas are caught up in this beautiful symbol.

The word is also used figuratively to include the relationship between a prince and his people. For example, in 2 Samuel chapter five and verse two, it says, "In the past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And Jehovah said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel and you will become their ruler.'" Many times in the Old Testament, the word shepherd is used for the king of Israel or for the leaders, the religious leaders.

We're going to see that as we turn to Ezekiel chapter 34. Sometimes you can't see the good until you see the bad. In the passage of scripture in Ezekiel 34, there is a wonderful lot to be learned about shepherds and sheep. Jehovah is coming to the shepherds or the religious shepherds of his sheep, and he's got some complaints against them. Through the prophet Ezekiel, he speaks to them. He says in verse two, "I want you to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. I want you to say to them, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves. Shouldn't shepherds take care of the flock?

You eat the curds, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you don't take care of the flock. You haven't strengthened the weak, you haven't healed the sick or bound up the injured. You haven't brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You've ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there wasn't a shepherd. When they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains, on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth. No one searched or looked for them."

Jehovah Ro'i, the Lord who is the shepherd of Israel, is concerned because he gave them shepherds. He gave them kings that were supposed to be princes and shepherds over the people, and they failed him. He gave them religious leaders, priests, scribes, people that would teach them how to live. Therefore, verse seven says, "Hear the word of Jehovah. As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, because my shepherds didn't search for my flock but cared for themselves, therefore I want you to hear what I want to say to you."

What he wants to say to them is he is against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. This is a very heavy passage if you're into shepherding at all. Those of us that in a very minor way are under-shepherds of the Great Shepherd, that care for a little flock, perhaps some of you here are a small group leader or a Sunday school teacher, if you are shepherding in any sense, you should hang your heart over Ezekiel 34 sometimes and see what it says to your shepherding heart.

I think even mothers, in a sense, are shepherding a very small flock, or grandmothers can be shepherding a flock that perhaps isn't being shepherded any other way. As you read a passage like this, allow it to speak to your heart. Allow it to say to you the things that Jehovah was saying to his under-shepherds. He continues through this long chapter, and then he turns his attention to the flock in verse 17. "As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I'm going to judge even between one sheep and another."

For those of you that are sitting there saying, "I'm not even an under-shepherd, I don't even care for a little group of people," you are sheep, and God says, "I'm going to look at your relationships with each other. Isn't it enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Isn't it enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?" It is an interesting little sign here. You know that phrase, "muddying the waters"? Perhaps this is where it comes from in the Old Testament.

Even in our relationship with other sheep, we can muddy the waters. In fact, he says, "Must my flock feed on what you've trampled and drink what you've muddied? Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you've driven them away, I will save my flock." Here the shepherd of Israel, Jehovah Ro'i, is concerned not only with the sheep that have no shepherd, but with the shepherds of the sheep, those in high positions of authority, those who teach and speak and rule, and those with little shepherding responsibilities.

He is concerned even with the sheep themselves, for we can butt and we can drive away sheep, and we can muddy the waters. We can do all these things. Then Jehovah Ro'i goes on to say, "I will make a covenant," verse 25, "of peace, and I'll rid the land of the wild beasts and I'll look after the sheep." He begins to show how he, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, will care for the shepherds, and he'll care for the sheep. He'll care for the bad sheep and the good sheep, and the fat sheep and the lean sheep, because he is the supreme shepherd of the sheep.

"I will provide for them," verse 29. "Then they will know that I, the Lord, am God, and I'm with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your Elohim, declares the Sovereign Lord." It's quite a passage. Bad shepherds, good shepherds, but the shepherd as the symbol of the one who is to feed and to lead to pasture, to care, to find the weary, to strengthen the weak, to bind up the wounds. That's what we call discipleship. It's another word for caring for each other in the flock of God.

We have to turn, of course, to the picture of the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23. This perhaps is the most familiar passage of all. Who doesn't know this one inside out and back to front? Remember my daughter saying once, "Mother, if I hear you speak on Psalm 23 one more time, I'm going to leave home." It wasn't quite as bad as that, but there was a time in my life when I only had one sermon, and that was it. Psalm 23. It's been taught all over the world, literally. It's a wonderful frame.

Yet every time I graze in these green pastures, I see another little patch of grass I never noticed because God's grass grows overnight. Even if you are in the most familiar passage of scripture of your life, you will find, all unbeknownst to you, there's a little bit of pasture that is fresh and just for this tired little sheep, you and me, to lie down in. I want to take a look at this picture because this is the first place this name, Jehovah Ro'i, comes to the people of Israel in the Psalms through the Psalmist David. He himself was one of God's chosen princes.

In fact, I didn't read all of Ezekiel 34, but God promises people like David, like David's son, like David's greatest son, Jesus himself, Jehovah the Great Shepherd. He promises through David's line kings or shepherds like David. David is a great picture of the shepherd king of Israel. He didn't always do it right. He hurt some sheep once in a while. He caused them to bleat. He caused them to go astray by leading them in the wrong way. He muddied the waters for Bathsheba, for his best friends, for the commanding officer of his army.

He muddied the waters all right, but basically speaking, over all, David is a great example of how to shepherd. Here it is that brings us Psalm 23 and uses this little bit of revelation to tell us the nature of God is a shepherd nature. This psalm is so familiar. Let's look at it. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." What do sheep need? First of all, they need someone to love them. Sheep without love go astray.

In fact, every night as the shepherd would count the sheep in, he would put his hand down the back of each. If the sheep did not feel the shepherd's touch, then later on that night as the shepherd would sit across the door and play his little music, his pipes, those that had been touched by the shepherd would turn their little sheep heads and look in that direction. Those who had missed his touch would not turn their head when he piped. This, in a sense, is the essence of that little picture Jesus Christ uses in the New Testament where he says, "I piped to you, but you didn't turn to me, you didn't dance."

He's using a picture of a shepherd that was very familiar. The shepherd uses his pipes because he loves his sheep. He touches his sheep. Those of us that have not been touched by the shepherd will not turn our head when he calls us, when we hear his voice. We will not be looking in his direction. But the sheep who is loved has been touched by the shepherd. Basically speaking, we need to spend time every day with our Good Shepherd that he might touch us, that he might put his hand on our head and assure us that he's there.

Somebody cares. When nobody else touches you, let your shepherd touch you. Just let him touch you. Sometimes we can want to be touched by other people, by other sheep, rub our little wool up against the next little sheep and have little sheep fellowship, flock fellowship, sing all the little baa choruses together. It's fun, but it's nothing like the touch of the shepherd. Sometimes we're friends with Jesus's friends without being friends with Jesus. But that's the same thing in another way.

What does a sheep need? He needs to be loved. He needs to know somebody cares. We can know somebody cares because the shepherd cares, the Good Shepherd. Remember the bad shepherds. They don't care whether you're bleeding and dying. They don't care whether you've fallen in a hole. But Jehovah Ro'i cares. If you're in a hole at the moment, if you're bleeding or dying, Jehovah Ro'i cares. He's the Good Shepherd. Somebody cares.

What else does a sheep need? He needs food and he needs water. "I shall not want," says this little sheep, because the shepherd leads me to green pastures and beside still waters. A sheep never lies down unless his stomach's full. God wants to look down into our lives and see us waving our little hooves saying, "Oh shepherd, I'm so full." Is he feeding your soul? Is the shepherd feeding your soul? The shepherd can do that through other people. He can feed you through your leaders, through your under-shepherds. That's one of his methods.

But it's second-hand, and even second-hand can be not as good as first-hand. Are we being fed by the shepherd as well as being fed by our under-shepherds who will teach us, perhaps, how to be fed by the shepherd? We need to know how to get our food to lie down in the green pastures. I thank God for someone that taught me to do that. I needed my under-shepherd to say, "Jill, take your Bible, read ten verses, say, 'What does it say?' and then say, 'What does it say to me?' Say, 'Shepherd, where do you want me to graze today?'"

I well remember grazing in a passage of scripture because I'd had a very upsetting letter from my mother who had not been able to understand my conversion. This was hundreds of years ago when I found Christ when I was at college. I wrote and tried to explain what had happened to me to my mother, and it didn't work. She'd given the letter to my father and he didn't understand either. They thought I'd lost it, I think. They wrote me this loving but letter that let me know that they weren't in the fold, and that was a terrible thing for me, to realize that the separation that I didn't want had happened.

I couldn't do anything about it. If they didn't know the shepherd and I did, then there was that unknowledge on their part that separated us. This letter distressed me very greatly. I remember praying about this letter and saying, "Shepherd, this is really distressing to me," and grazing around in the green pastures, just reading through the Psalms until I found a little passage that was really green for me. It nourished my soul in that moment of need.

It said, "When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord Jehovah will take me up." Again, it's the picture of the shepherd lifting the little lamb who really doesn't understand something that's very hard into his arms and holding him close. I remember, just very simply as a new believer, saying, "Do it, Lord my shepherd, do it for me, because my mom and my dad in a sense, their arms cannot be around me in this situation. There is a separation because I've found you and they haven't yet found you as their shepherd. Take me up."

It's that lovely picture again of that shepherd. As I graze, that's what it means to read the Bible. Graze a little bit. Take time. Don't snatch a blade of grass and expect that's going to do it as you whiz out the house to your busy life, chew it on the way to work. Sure, chew the grass on the way to work as well as taking time to lie down and graze in the green pastures. The Lord is my shepherd. I will not want because he'll lead me to this nourishment, this food that I need.

He'll refresh me. Sometimes sheep just need refreshing, and they go and they drink and they drink and they drink and then they're refreshed, especially when it's hot and especially when it's a heavy atmosphere out. Some of us need to learn to drink of the spirit. God's spirit is a refreshing thing. The picture is beautiful, and often the picture of water is used as a picture of the spirit. The idea is that the sheep of the shepherd would drink or appropriate the power of God through his spirit, and that is a refreshing thing.

Some of us need refreshing even today. Some of us feel stale, some of us feel dry, and some of us just need a good drink. That doesn't come in a crowd. The greatest time of refreshment will come with your shepherd. Sometimes we dare not get alone with ourselves. The only time you dare to get alone with yourself is when the shepherd is there as well. Sometimes it's very difficult for some of us to face ourselves, to be alone with ourselves. That's why we fill our lives and crowd out the aloneness because to be alone for some people is very difficult.

But I have found in those times when I don't like myself very much, in fact when I hate myself, if the shepherd is there when it's hard for me to be alone with myself, then there is a refreshing quality that he brings into my life and he helps me cope with those things. He is the Good Shepherd. He loves me. Secondly, he leads me. What does a sheep need? He needs to be led. Where does he lead me? Well, first of all to the refreshment and to the green pastures, the Word of God.

Then he leads me beside the still waters. He leads me into restoration. He restores my soul. He makes me like Christ. He sanctifies me. Jehovah M'Kaddesh, I am the Lord that sanctifies you, that brings you out and separates you. I am the one that makes you like my son. I am the one that brings out shepherd qualities in you that you might go and shepherd others, that they might go and shepherd others, that they might go and shepherd others. The things that I've given to you, said Paul to Timothy, you commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

That's the way the body of Christ works. Not one pastor-shepherd doing his thing up here while everybody pays him for it and watches him have a nervous breakdown. That's not the idea. The idea is that the shepherd shepherds the sheep to shepherd the sheep to shepherd the sheep to shepherd the sheep. All of us should be shepherding someone. For that we will need a restoration of our own character. We will not change our society, we will not do something about the environment that the sheep in this world live in, unless we change ourselves.

Yet we cannot change ourselves. I have no idea where this lady is with her religion or anything else, but I'm just taking her phrase and applying it to us. We cannot change ourselves. The shepherd has to do that. It's the work of the spirit, but we must cooperate. He cannot change us if we will not be changed. We have to do the works of changing, and then the power comes as we do those works of changing. So he will restore our soul so that we will be the person, the sheep follower and the sheep leader, that we ought to be.

He will lead us to a place to rest, a place to feed, a place to be refreshed, a place to be restored and changed. He will also lead us on right paths. He'll show us the right thing to do. So many times women say to me, "My situation is so complex. I don't know the right thing to do." After listening for hours and counseling for hours, I have to say to them, "I don't know the right thing to do either. This thing is such a mess. It is such a tangle. It's just like being at the crossroads and there are paths going this way and there are paths going all the way around you.

You're standing there looking up at a great big signpost that's pointing in ten different directions and there's nothing written on any of them. I don't know which way you should go. You don't know which way you should go, but the shepherd knows which path you should take. He knows the right path, and he will lead you on it if you ask him to. He will lead you in the right path. He will give you the answers to life's problems. It might be that no counselor on earth can tell you, but he can.

You need to be in the word and you need to have, as far as you know, no sin unconfessed. You need to be living a holy cleansed life and then God promises to lead you in the right path. You do your part and he will do his. He loves you, he leads you, he will light your way. There will be light in your valleys. It doesn't say there will be no valleys. It says there will be light even in the darkest valley. Where there's a shadow, there's always light. He will be with us. He is the light. That is our light.

It's not that he will light up the valley. In himself, Jehovah, who is light, will be our light. He will give us light in the dark places. Of course, we can apply this in many ways. Are you walking through valleys at the moment? Are there some deep places in your life? Well, it'll never be totally dark. It will be very dark, and I suppose the shadow of death is the darkest place. For the Christian or for the believer, there will always be some light because he is with me and he is light.

I remember talking to a blind lady and she sat on the front row while I was showing some slides of some work we'd been doing in England once. She sat there with such a lovely smile on her face. Afterwards I sat down next to her and I was embarrassed. I wanted to apologize because here this blind lady had come to my meeting and I'd been showing slides which she couldn't see. I said, "I'm so sorry you couldn't see these slides." She said, "But I could. I saw them all." I said, "How's that?" She said, "Your words described them to me. They painted pictures for me. They were beautiful slides."

She sat there and smiled and smiled. As she began to minister to me and as she began to bless me, I said to her, "Where does this inspiration come from? You surely know the Lord in a very deep way." She said, "Well, that's it. I cannot see, but here's my light." She said, "My life is so full of light. I can see a lot better than a lot of people that can see with their physical eyes and their life is full of darkness. My life is full of light, and even in the valley of my blindness, he is there. Where there's a shadow, even of blindness, physical blindness, there is always light."

Where there's a shadow, there's always light. There's always happiness on the hills and survival in the valleys. He will lead us in the valleys and he will also lead us on the hills. So he is the Good Shepherd. He will shepherd us, his sheep, and restore us to the position where we may begin to lead others, other sheep, and stop butting them around and destroying them and pushing them away from God by our behavior or by our shepherding skills that aren't very good. He will teach us to be good shepherds. I love the verse of Wesley's hymn:

"Thou only thou the kind and good, and sheep redeeming shepherd art, collect thy flock and give them food, and pastors after thine own heart." That's one of my favorite hymns and I always sing it with a lump in my throat. Thou, only thou, the kind and good, and sheep-redeeming shepherd art, collect thy flock and give them food and pastors after thine own heart. I want to be a pastor after his own heart. I pray for my husband and I pray for the pastors on this staff that they might be collected by the shepherd personally and daily and be given food so that they become in themselves the sort of shepherds that he will delight in, pastors after his own heart.

Then you'll be fed, and then you'll go out to feed other people. So the name Jehovah Ro'i is given to us in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 34 and Psalm 23 as a contrast: the bad shepherds, the good shepherd, and also little insights into the sheep themselves. It's in the New Testament in John chapter 10 that the parallel passage is picked up. Jesus, talking about himself as the Good Shepherd, verse six says, "Jesus used this figure of speech, but they didn't understand what he was telling them."

Jesus Christ himself is talking about the fact that he is the Good Shepherd. He uses such simple figures of speech, the pictures of the shepherd and the sheep that already were familiar because of Psalm 23 and because of Ezekiel 34 to the people that he was speaking to. "I tell you the truth," Jesus says. "The man who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber." You cannot steal away into heaven. You cannot climb over the gate. The gate, Jesus explains, is me.

"I am the gate," verse seven, "for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved." Some people think they can climb into heaven through good works, the steps of being good. Some people think they can climb into heaven through going to church or reading their Bible or praying a lot of prayers or doing good. Jesus said, "Unless you come through me, unless you know that you're going to get to heaven for one reason and one reason only, I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep, you will never ever get to heaven."

What a relief it is to enter heaven now, for we can know now through the gate who is Jesus, so that we will be in the heavenly fold forever with him. Jesus is the gate, and he has taught his sheep these things. Look at verse 10 of this passage. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly." I have to use the King James there. "To the full," this says. It's a little weak. "More abundantly!" What are people looking for? Life! More life! Life more abundantly!

This is a way to approach people who are celebrating, who are not in the valley but are living life on the high hill. Say, "Wouldn't you like to have a higher hill? Wouldn't you like to know life more abundantly?" Remember speaking to that fellow on the plane and he said, "I'm not interested in that. When my life falls apart or somebody dies or I get cancer, then I will turn to God." I said, "Well, is life good for you?" He said, "It's wonderful." I said, "Wouldn't you like it to be better?" He said, "Well, everybody would like it to be..." and he used the word "more abundant."

I said, "I've got news for you. Jesus said, 'I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.' You have life, you have good life, but you do not have abundant life if you do not have Jesus." We need to tell people that. They might not receive it. Jesus taught these things. Enter life by him and you will have life, eternal life, more abundantly. Don't let the devil tell you you'll have it less abundantly. "If you come to Jesus and let him be your shepherd," says the devil in your ear, "it's going to make a miserable person out of you. It's going to make a negative person out of you. There will be so many negatives you will not believe it."

Nonsense! Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly." He opens the gate because he is the gate. He lay across the gate. The lion, if you remember, got him. The old lion came along and got him that he might save us, those of us that are his. So the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Jesus has taught us that. Look at verse 17. "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father. I am the Good Shepherd," verse 14. "I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep."

The difference between Jesus and, as it says in verse 12, the hired hand, is that Jesus wasn't hired. God didn't hire Jesus. He didn't say, "I'll give you a lot of money if you go down there and die for all those lost sheep." All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, which is the essence of sin. It doesn't say "all we like sheep have gone astray, we have all committed adultery and murder." It says, "all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way." That is the biggest sin you could ever commit.

If you've ever gone your own way, you're in trouble as far as God's concerned. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was the sheep that came before his shearers, and as he was dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. He is the Lamb of the Old Testament, the Lamb of the New Testament, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

How can a shepherd become a lamb and then become a shepherd? It's a mystery. Yet Jesus is all these things. So he says, "Enter by me. I can take you to heaven. I can only forgive your sins. I am the one. I am not hired. I came of my own free will to lay down my life for the sheep." If God had hired Jesus, he probably would have run away from the cross. The hired hand isn't the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and he runs away because he doesn't own the sheep.

God owns us. We are his. We might not acknowledge it, but he created us as Isaiah tells us, he redeemed us as Isaiah tells us, we are twice his. Not only once his, twice his, twice created and redeemed. Love that picture. Remember the little boy that bought a boat? Sailed it down the river and he lost it. He'd made it. He was disturbed. He was more disturbed when he saw it in a second-hand shop. Somebody had found it and put it up for sale.

He walked in and said, "That's my boat. I made it." The man said, "Then buy it." He said, "No, I made it. I don't need to buy it." He said, "Well, you can't walk out of this shop until you buy it." The little boy had to go and save up his pennies and hope it wasn't bought. He went back in the shop and it was still there. He bought his own boat back. As he walked out the door, he was heard to say, "Twice mine. I made you, now I've bought you."

We, whether we acknowledge it or not, are twice his. He made us and then he bought us. He owns us. That's the difference between being hired and being the owner of the sheep. The reason Jesus Christ came is because he is Jehovah God, the Elohim who came to this earth and borrowed our humanity, clothed his divinity in our humanity that he might bring us redemption. John 10 underlines the things Jesus has taught his sheep: you can enter into life by me. I am the gate. You cannot climb into heaven any other way. Jesus has bought the sheep, he is the owner, he is not the hired hand.

Jesus has brought the sheep, verse 16. Look at this. "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. Them also I must bring. God has one big universal flock. The problem with us little sheep is that we see all these different pens, all these different churches, all these different denominations. We forget sometimes that God has one body, one flock.

He does have other sheep that are not of this Christian flock. As we've read in Ezekiel 34, the sheep in the Christian flock are butting each other and muddying the waters and pushing each other away, and the strong are getting onto the weak and all the rest. That's one problem the shepherd has. The other problem is all these people that are out in other sheep pens, and all the people from other religions. Every religion has its own merit. That is true. But every religion doesn't have a Jehovah who gave his life for the sheep.

Every other religion has a prophet, a dead one. Only Christianity has a God who became a man and was brought back from the dead again and is alive today. Remember he's El Elyon, the highest, Lord of lords. Many lords, many religions. He is the Lord of lords. That's him of whom we speak. So Jesus is this Jehovah that I've been explaining in the Old Testament. Remember when we did that little piece about Jehovah Jireh and how Abraham was about to sacrifice his son? And how he heard the voice of Elohim from heaven saying, "Don't do it."

Jehovah, the Angel of the Lord, leaned out of heaven and said, "There's the lamb or the ram caught by his thorns in the thicket. Sacrifice the lamb. Jehovah himself will provide himself a lamb." Remember how I said what a poignant time that must have been for the Angel of the Lord, seeing Isaac saved and yet knowing that next time there wouldn't be a voice from heaven when it was his turn. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Jehovah. He is the Angel of the Lord that spoke to Abraham.

On the cross of Christ, he did that for us. The last little passage I want to turn you to is Luke chapter 15. These are all famous shepherd passages. I would suggest you memorize them. Memorize chunks of these things. You have no idea how that will nourish your soul. You can lie down on those green pastures if you memorize it, without a Bible while you're driving down the freeway or while you're riding in the subway. You can do it anywhere.

Luke chapter 15, famous little parable of Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Who were the Pharisees? Who were the teachers of the law? They were Ezekiel's 34 shepherds. They were feeding off the sheep. They were clothing themselves. They were getting money from what they were doing from the sheep, Israel, whom they were supposed to be shepherding.

So here you have a prize situation. This man, Jesus, Jehovah in the flesh, welcomes sinners and eats with them. "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also must I bring." He was doing his shepherd thing. He was finding the lost, he was binding up those that were hurt. Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety and nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need it." Lastly Jesus says, "You sheep, listen to me. All we like sheep have gone astray, not just the tax collectors, not just the sinful women that were coming to hear Jesus speak. All we—you, me, they, and everybody else. There is none that does righteous, and in case we think we're the only one that does, no, not one, says the Bible. Not even you, in other words."

There is none that doeth the righteous thing. All we like sheep have gone astray. We are the one that wandered away. Most times we think we are the ninety and nine, but we're not. Actually the whole world is the one that wandered away, because every single one of us need to enter in by the gate. What happens? We have to acknowledge we're lost. We have to realize that Jehovah has been seeking us and searching for us down the lives that we have lived, down the pathway of the lives of which we've lived for a long, long time.

He's sought us. Now the big question is, has he found us? Has he lifted us up in his arms? Has he brought us home rejoicing? Has an angel sung a song about you yet? Does somebody in heaven say, "She's come home"? And have the angels joined in and said, "Hallelujah"? It's very important you find that out because you don't want to face Elohim as a lost sheep. The Bible says he will separate the lost sheep from the found sheep on that day that we face him not as our shepherd, but as our judge.

So it's very important that we know now, we know today that we are indeed found. If you have any question in your mind, why don't you get that settled today? Some of us don't know. We've been brought up in a flock all our life. Some of us are suffering from flock shock. We say, "This flock's really done weird things to me. I wasn't expecting what I found." Some of us need to talk that over. Some of us are hurt. Are we really lost, or are we really found?

I would pray there would be joy in the presence of the angels of God today over one sinner who repents. Let's pray together. Dear Jehovah Ro'i, the Lord who is our shepherd, we thank you for these precious passages of scripture. We take to heart what you say to us in Ezekiel 34, and we turn again for comfort to Psalm 23. We remember that you are indeed our perfect shepherd. We may have earthly shepherds that have led us and fed us and cared for us, and we praise you for that.

But Lord God, we think mostly of your shepherding, your perfect shepherding in our lives. We thank you, dear Jesus, that you were Jehovah and you came to this earth to seek and to save that which was lost. And that everybody here was that one lost sheep. Many of us perhaps have counted ourselves among the ninety and nine for years, and yet maybe today we've realized you mean everybody in the world was that one lost sheep.

The answer of course is yes. Thank you that you weren't a hired hand, that God didn't bribe you to come down and save our souls. You came because you loved us. You owned us. We’re twice bought, and you wanted to tell us that. Help us not to try and climb up some other way into heaven, but to enter by Jesus. Entering, may we find life more abundant. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.