SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP
It is comforting for religious people to think of themselves as sheep and as God/Jesus as their shepherd/priest. And this is not surprising because the imagery of God’s people being sheep and shepherds of flocks of sheep is one of the most enduring and appealing images found in the Bible.
But what do those same religious people think about other Biblical references to sheep going astray, being scattered, misled and abused by stupid shepherds? What do they think about God’s strong rebukes to priests/shepherds who do not care for their people/sheep? Do their interpretations of these scriptures allow that they personally can go astray or that their own personal shepherds/priests are capable of misleading them? Do they allow that these unattractive consequences happen only to other sheep at the hands of other shepherds/priests but not to them? Does their pride in their religion and their religious leaders insulate and protect them from any interpretations that would diminish their confidence in their righteousness or in the credibility and truthfulness of the shepherds/priests they choose to follow?
And how do Christians interpret that Jesus was sent to save the lost sheep of Israel and commanded his disciples to reach out only to the lost sheep of Israel? Does that mean that only Jews should be the targets of their evangelistic efforts? And how do they interpret these scriptures if they and other converts were not Jewish before converting to Christianity? These are difficult questions to answer for people who do not understand the symbolism of Israel, Gentiles, priests and shepherds.
The key to understanding these and all other mysteries and symbolism of the Bible lies in knowing that there are two covenants. Old/First Covenant religionists who do not understand the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant are spiritually handicapped in their ability to understand all Bible symbolism. New Covenant disciples, however, do have eyes to see and ears to hear these things.
The correct way to interpret Israel is to include any individual person — not a group — who claims to be a God-fearer according to literal interpretations of the Bible. These are all Old/First Covenant religionists. In Biblical terms, any individual, whether Jew or Christian, who interprets the Bible literally is considered to be an Israelite/Jew.
This interpretation gets confusing, however, because an Israelite/Jew can be either on Old/First Covenant religionist or a New Covenant disciple. There are many differences between Old/First Covenant religionists and New Covenant disciples. The main difference, however, is the Old/First Covenant religionists (i.e. Jews and Christians) interpret the Bible literally, while New Covenant disciples listen to God’s voice which guides them to the correct, symbolic interpretation.
| STUDY TIP: See the following pages for guidance on the correct interpretation of scripture: | |||
This understanding of two covenants is critical to understanding of sheep and shepherds. It goes like this:
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People who really believe that all all scripture is able to instruct them in righteousness will pay serious attention to all scriptures about sheep and shepherds — even to scriptures that do not give them warm, fuzzy feelings. They need to discern if they are among the lost sheep that Jesus came to save, or if they are among those sheep who have been saved. New Covenant disciples understand that they were once lost but have now been found. Old/First Covenant religionists, on the other hand, have no sense of ever having been lost.
STUDY TIP: The Hebrew word “ra’ah“, commonly translated as “shepherd” in English appears one hundred and thirty-nine times in the Old Testament, and the Greek words “poimen” and “poimaino“, commonly translated as “shepherd” in English, appear a total of twenty-eight times in the New Testament.
The call to be a shepherd is implied in many prominent Biblical figures (e.g. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Jesus, etc.) who are represented as shepherds, and is strongly reinforced in the New Testament. Thus, in Christianity, it is common to find religious leaders refer to the people for whom they have responsibility as their flock (i.e. sheep). There is also a shepherding ethic in Judaism. Here are a couple of examples:
| Abel, a keeper of flocks (i.e. shepherd) was righteous and his offerings were acceptable to God.
COMMENTARY: Abel, the second born son of Adam, is a picture of a New Covenant disciple. Cain’s murder of Abel prophetically anticipates all future Sibling Conflict conflict between Old/First Covenant religionists and New Covenant disciples. As shepherds, Jacob’s sons (i.e. the nation of Israel and later the church) were detestable to Egyptians. COMMENTARY: While they are in Canaan, Jacob and his sons represent New Covenant disciples. When they left Cannan for Egypt, they abandoned God in search of religion. They made the same mistake that Eve made when she opted for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When Israel first entered Egypt, it was accepted, but pushed to the margins of Egyptian culture and religion in the land of Goshen. Gradually, Israel assimilated into Egyptian culture, became very prosperous (i.e. religious), and eventually became slaves to Pharaoh (i.e. religious leaders). This story is a picture of what happens to New Covenant disciples who backslide into Old/First Covenant religion. They find that God’s spoken word does not satisfy them any more (i.e. there is a famine), and they look for more attractive spiritual (i.e. religious) food which they find in Egypt. Eventually, they become enslaved to religion. When they first came to Egypt they were shepherds who kept sheep. After years of assimilation into Egyptian religious culture, they were occupied making bricks for Pharaoh. In other words, they were no longer shepherds, they were fully occupied in building religious structures. |