“And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God,” declares the LORD God.
Ezekiel 34:31
Whenever we come to this theme of shepherds and sheep in the Bible, we have a problem. Animals tend to make us sentimental, and most of us have a remarkable capacity to project an image onto animals that is a long way from reality.
Take bears, for example… Some children get anxious at night and have trouble sleeping, so what do we do to comfort them? We put a bear in their beds. Now, how far from reality is that?
Adults sometimes continue this sentimentality. If you ask them, “Why do you have this bear sitting on your bed?”, they might answer: “Because he’s so cute!” And then you could reasonably say, “But bears are killers. If you actually met one, you wouldn’t survive.”
We have the same problem of sentimentality when it comes to sheep. We think of sheep as being white, fluffy, and cuddly. But if you had real sheep in your bedroom, you wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the smell. And if you have ever watched sheep being sheared, you will know just how awkward these animals are—it’s hard to imagine anything less cuddly.
When the Bible describes Christians as “the flock” of God, this is not a flattering description. To be described as “sheep,” is to be smelly, dirty, defenceless, lacking the capacity for independent thought, and so on.
This is who we are – the flock of our God – full of sin, defenceless, prone to the herd mentality, and in need of a shepherd to guide and protect us.
How does it make you feel when you hear that you are part of “God’s flock”? Why?
