James Brewster
John 10:27,28. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
One of the most beautiful and expressive emblems employed in sacred Scripture, to describe man’s condition as a fallen creature, is that of lost sheep, sheep that have gone astray. Other emblems imply our guilt and rebellion against God, but this expresses chiefly our misery and danger in ourselves, as wandering from God and seeking our good from the things of this world: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way”. The emblem, in its natural meaning, is remarkably descriptive of man’s inability to secure himself from the miseries of his spiritual estrangement from God and aversion to Him. A sheep that is lost is specially helpless and exposed, incapable of finding its way to the fold or the flock which it has left; neither is it swift enough to flee from its various enemies, nor strong enough to resist. It is liable to a multitude of dangers, of which it has no experience or apprehension. Unless speedily recovered by the care of the shepherd, it is sure in some way or other to be destroyed.
Thus its rescue and restoration is the apt similitude of our redemption by the great Shepherd of souls, who came “to seek and to save that which was lost”. He fulfills all the offices of a good Shepherd in this work which was given Him and which He gave Himself to do; but there is one point in which He did more than what we can ever imagine any shepherd to do. In this therefore the comparison utterly fails – in that He gave His life for His sheep.
A shepherd among men may expose his life to risk for the sake of his flock, as when the young shepherd of Israel threw himself against the lion and the bear and, at his own peril, plucked his sheep from their mouth. But the gracious Redeemer, as the good Shepherd, came deliberately to suffer death for His flock: “I lay down My life for the sheep. . . . No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” He made Himself, as one of the helpless and unresisting flock, an offering and a sacrifice unto God, that they might go free. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Now to this flock, “the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood”, Christ continues to fulfil all the offices of a great and good Shepherd, till He will carry them safe through the dark valley and bring them all to the heavenly fold. There they shall go out and in for ever and find pasture, in the full enjoyment of that eternal life which He has given them. In this office as the Shepherd of souls, there is presented to our minds the most engaging and moving view of His care for their safety, and compassion for their misery, and condescension to their infirmities – even more, in some respects, than in the similitude of a father’s watchfulness and labours for his children’s welfare; inasmuch as a family may grow up and guide themselves, and even support their parents in their turn. But a flock is always helpless and continually dependent on the shepherd’s care. In no words can the Redeemer’s care, as a Shepherd, be so truly and beautifully described as in those of His own Holy Spirit in the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel (34:6ff).
The Lord is thus to His people, in a spiritual sense, what a shepherd is to his flock: “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd”; He is the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls. He possesses every necessary qualification for this office, in the highest degree, and fulfils its duties in the most effectual manner. He is “mighty to save” and, though they are so feeble in themselves and surrounded with so many adversaries seeking to devour them, not one of them shall be lost, and no being is able to pluck them out of His hand.
Though they are found in every place and require His aid at every moment, He is able by His divine presence to watch over every one of those committed to His charge, who cast themselves on His care: “He calleth His own sheep by name”. He feeds them as a hungry flock, vainly seeking their souls’ happiness in the barren wilderness of this world; leading them to the pasture of His Word and ordinances, feeding them with knowledge and understanding of their true good, and giving them “that meat which endureth unto eternal life”. He guards them in their defenceless state, from all things that would do them harm, making all things that happen to them work together for their good, and enabling them to walk safely amid the powers of darkness that surround them on every side and seek their destruction every moment. He guides them in their readiness to stray, warning them as by a voice behind them: “This is the way, walk ye in it”. And when wandering at any time from His paths, and made to feel their need of His help, He is at hand to hear their cry, to bring them back to His fold, and to restrain them by His gracious influence on their hearts.
He does all this, not only as the great Shepherd, but as a good shepherd, knowing their weakness and touched even with a feeling of their infirmities, going before them by His example and encouraging them to follow His steps – constraining them by His love, strengthening them by His grace, carrying the feeblest, as in His bosom, and gently leading along those that are heavy laden with their burdens. In all this He is faithful to the charge which He has undertaken. Having loved them as His own He loves them to the end, and nothing shall be able to separate them from His love, having come to seek and to save them when they did not know Him. He will never leave or forsake them after having brought them to know His voice and to obey His call, but will carry them on “from strength to strength [till] every one of them in Zion appeareth before God”.
How great the blessedness of having such a Shepherd as the object of our faith and trust, and of being able to rejoice in the sense of His superintending care and unchangeable love! How precious such a persuasion to every soul, in his earthly pilgrimage and lost, ruined state as a spiritual being, when truly feeling his weak and defenceless condition! How precious such a persuasion, founded not upon his own worthiness, but upon the Lord’s faithfulness, enabling him to say with Paul: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day”.
How important also to consider and to keep in mind the character which He Himself gives of His flock! Many, He tells us, who now appear as His sheep shall be found to lack this character when He shall come to separate them one from another, as the last act of His office – as a shepherd divides His sheep from the goats. This character is, generally, that we welcome Him as our Shepherd; then it may said of us: “Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls”; and we will then indeed say, each for himself, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek Thy servant”; “Let my soul live, and it shall praise Thee; and let Thy judgments help me”.
The character of His flock is, further, to wait on Him for all the direction which they need, to give heed to hearing His voice, and to show that we know His voice and follow Him as He calls us. So may we be warranted to say, “The Lord is my shepherd”; and may the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, make us perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1Reprinted, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Brewster (1777-1847) was parish minister of Craig, near Montrose, when he wrote this piece.