“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”
Consider the importance of sheep to the people of the Bible. Sheep are first mentioned in the story of Cain and Able, in pre-historic times. Sheep represented the chief wealth and total livelihood of pastoral people, providing Bible peoples with food to eat, milk to drink, wool for the weaving of cloth, and even rough clothing and covering for tents. Sheep came to be used as a medium of exchange and took on a central role in the sacrificial system.
The seminal figures of the Old Testament were shepherds. Able was a shepherd, as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses was a shepherd, and David was a shepherd before he was a king. The kings of Israel were castigated by the prophets as false shepherds who took advantage of the people under their care, leading them astray.
The Old Testament uses the metaphor of sheep and shepherd to describe the relationship between God and his people. In the Old Testament one thinks at once of such lines as these: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Or of the redemptive promise of God through Ezekiel, “They shall have one shepherd…they shall dwell in the land where your father’s dwelt…I will make a covenant of peace with them…and I will bless them.” Or of Jeremiah, looking forward to the same event of Israel’s re-creation: “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold…I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says Yahweh.” Or of Isaiah, announcing that very same redemptive event, and seeing Yahweh in the role of shepherd: “He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, and he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
The New Testament makes a profound application of Christ as the good shepherd of all sheep. Before he fed the multitude (the 5,000) Mark records, “…he saw the large crowd, and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” In the New Testament Christ is the shepherd who saves, sustains, and redeems the life of all who will come into his fold. But the Old Testament never saw coming the prophetic allegory of the shepherd dying for his sheep. The New Testament allegory of John 10 is unequivocal: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…so there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”
When Jesus spoke of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep to search for the one who was lost he was speaking of the character of God, the good shepherd whose will it is that none should perish.
All the above seems rather academic, and probably remains so until one become the lost and wandering sheep. Then it is literally a matter of life and death.
Prayer: “Great Shepherd, I know that I am in need of your care. I know that I am not safe unless I am close to you. I have wandered. I have been lost. And you have found me. I am eager to walk in the path you set before me, for I know that you will lead me home. I am safe in your presence.”