In John Chapter 10, Yeshua presents himself as the Good Shepherd. Amazingly, of all the teachings I have ever heard on the deity of Yeshua or His claims to be God, this passage was never used. In truth, there is only one Good Shepherd and that would be God. David sings in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd…” There can be no mistake that Yeshua was saying in John 10, that He and the Shepherd of Psalm 23 are One in the same.

However, that is not the point of this brief article, but rather the nature of the Shepherd and what that means to you and me. The very fact that David called the Lord his Shepherd is cause for great encouragement. In so much of the writings in the Old Covenant, the Lord is presented as ministering corporately to Israel (i.e. Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God.) He is the God of Israel. However in Psalm 23, David is connecting to God on a deeply personal level; on the level that a sheep would connect to his shepherd. He says, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

David, as a shepherd by profession, understood the role of the shepherd – he is everything to the sheep. He writes as a fully contented lamb—one whose every need has been met by the shepherd (I shall not be in want.)

Yeshua claims to be that Shepherd who takes care of His sheep in John 10:11. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Even if it means His own death, the Good Shepherd will protect you from your enemy. Ultimately, that is what Yeshua did in His sacrificial death. He allowed the ‘lion’ to devour Him, in order to protect the sheep—you.

Shepherd vs. Thief
In the John 10 passage we are not only introduced to Yeshua as the Shepherd, but also to Satan as the treacherous thief. Yeshua warned us that there will be imposters who will be committed to our destruction: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” v. 10. There are two ways we are told that we can differentiate between the true shepherd and the thief.

1. The true shepherd enters through the door, whereas the robber “climbs up some other way.” vs.. 1


2. The sheep should be able to clearly distinguish between the voice of the shepherd and that of the thief. v. 4

In the first point the door represents the truth, while climbing over it represents manipulation, deception and falsehood. We find the Good Shepherd dealing in a straight forward manner with Adam and Eve in the garden. It was the serpent who came and twisted the words of the Shepherd, causing them to fall.

In the movie The Lion King, the evil uncle, Scar, convinced Simba that he had killed his own father, and that Simba must run away forever. However, the truth was, that the wicked uncle had killed the king in order to seize power. Scar is a perfect picture of enemy. He twisted the truth in order to get that which was not lawfully his. In the process he destroyed others.

In the second point, we are told that a true lamb knows the voice of the shepherd. As dense as sheep may seem to be, one thing that they are able to do, is appreciate their master. They literally will run from a voice they do not recognize. And so should we! The enemy will throw lie after lie at us, and often we listen when we should scatter.

 

 

• When he tells us that sin is worthwhile, we should run.


• When he seeks to convince us that God has abandoned us, we should rebuke him.


• When he asks, “Does God really plan on using you?” we should say, “Get thee behind me Satan.”

 

He is a thief and a liar and we must attune our ear to the Master.

In short, the imagery of the Lord as a loving shepherd should deeply encourage us that He loves us, and even when we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [we should] fear no evil,” because He is with us, “[his] rod and [his] staff,” will comfort us.