The Story

Pictures will help us to think of the sheep and shepherds as they used to live, and still do live, in the Bible lands. While we look at the pictures we think what gentle creatures the sheep and lambs are and how soft their white wool is. We remember, too, how David tended the sheep in the fields near Bethlehem. We remember his shepherd's staff and bag and sling when he met the giant Goliath. The shepherd used his bag for carrying food, and the sling for protecting the sheep and attracting the attention of sheep that wandered and did not quickly answer his call. The shepherds must be watchful also and on guard against thieves and robbers. The shepherd might often risk his life in protecting and caring for the sheep.

Remember the Psalm "The Lord is my shepherd." It reminds us how the shepherd must find good pastures for the sheep, and watering-places when they are thirsty. The Psalm speaks, too, of the shepherd's rod and staff: the rod or club more for defense, and the staff for climbing and for guiding the sheep.

You remember the Christmas shepherds, keeping watch over their flock by night, for the shepherds must often stay in the field with the sheep and must keep watch at night.

Remember the Lord's parable of the lost sheep and how the shepherd left the ninety and nine and went into the mountains and dangerous places to find one sheep that was lost, and how he brought it back safely to the flock.

The pictures and these stories of the shepherds in many parts of the Bible help us to understand the Lord's lesson in which He calls Himself the good shepherd and calls us His sheep. We will still look at the pictures while we read John 10:1-21.

The Lord uses the picture of the faithful shepherd, which was so familiar to the people of Palestine, to show His gentle, loving care of His children. The shepherd and his life with his sheep is not a familiar picture to us, so we will learn a little about it, that we may understand the chapter better as we read it.

We must bring together what we know about the sheep and shepherds in Palestine. All the class can help us to do this. Our pictures will help. The shepherds in that land today are much like the shepherds of the Bible time. What do we know about the shepherds from the story of David and his shepherd life? (1 Samuel 16:11 and 17:34-40) What do we learn about them from the 23rd Psalm? Remember also the beautiful prophecy: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11) What do we know about shepherds from the story of the Christmas shepherds? (Luke 2:8-18) And what from the Lord's parable of the lost sheep? (Luke 15:3-7)

The shepherds spend their lives with their sheep, finding places for them to feed and places for them to drink, shelter from the storms and protection from the heat. Often in the dry season the pastures are all burned up, and the only place to find any grass or green thing is along the sides of the brooks; often they must lead their sheep great distances when one green place is used up before they find another, and sometimes even some of the springs give out and a new watering place must be found. The sheep feel the heat very much, and often in the summer they must lie quietly through the heat, of the day and only begin to eat as the sun goes down. Except in these hot times, the sheep (often several flocks) are gathered together at night in a sheltered place, sometimes in a fold, and the shepherds share the watches of the night, for there are many things to fear. There are the wild animals always fierce and hungry, the lions (or panthers), the bears, the wolves. The good shepherds must always be willing to risk their lives to save their flocks from these enemies. It is only those shepherds who are hired to take care of another's flock who would think of leaving the sheep in times of great danger. Then the thieves and robbers are always looking for a chance to steal, and their time would be in the night if they saw a chance to climb over the fold when the watcher's back was turned or if his eyes grew heavy. Besides this, the sheep themselves sometimes stray away.

The shepherds carry slings and staves as they did in David's time. They also carry a scrip or leather bag to hold their provisions, and often they have their shepherd's pipes on which they play and keep themselves company on the lonely hillsides.

The shepherds of Palestine often wore the coarse blue shirt, short trousers, stockings made of strips of cotton wound around the leg from the toe to the knee, and for shoes a sort of leather moccasin. Their heads are covered by a kind of turban. They also wore a loose, heavy coat, gathered about the waist with a cord. This they wrapped all about them in the cold nights, and in the loose folds of this coat they carried the little lambs which were too young and feeble to follow the flock.

The "sheepfolds" are just little enclosures, often surrounded by walls of thorn bushes, a place being left for a door. Through this door the shepherd leads the sheep out every morning, and through it he leads them home again at night.

Living among their sheep all day, sleeping among them at night, the sheep become the shepherds' friends, each has its name and will come at once when he is called. They understand the warning cry of danger, and come running to their shepherd for protection. They know their shepherd's voice so well that when many flocks have been mixed up together at a watering place or in a fold and it would seem impossible to sort them out, the shepherds have but to take different positions outside the crowding flocks, each calling his own sheep; as soon as they hear their own shepherd's voice they come running to him. People have tried to deceive the sheep and imitate the shepherd's voice, but the sheep will not follow them.

These things were familiar to the people of Palestine, when they read, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters." They were in the minds of the disciples and the others who heard the Lord say, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep." Do you see in the Lord's words about laying down His life for the sheep a prediction of what was coming, and of what He would suffer in saving men?

The feast of Dedication is mentioned in this chapter. It commemorated the cleansing and rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus after its defilement by Greek rulers. The revolt of the Jews under their great leader Judas Maccabaeus against the insolent Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek ruler who defiled the temple and tried to destroy the Jewish worship, is one of the most thrilling chapters of Jewish history. It was during the time between the Old and New Testaments. The rededication of the temple was in the early winter, 165 B.C., and a feast of eight days was kept each year at that season in memory of the dedication. Our chapter says, "It was at Jerusalem, the feast of dedication, and it was winter; and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch." (See 1 Maccabes 4:36-59; 2 Maccabes 10:1-9.)

1. Tell me all you can, from what is told us in many places in the Bible, about the customs of the Eastern shepherds.

2. How is the Lord our shepherd? When are we His sheep?

3. How does the Lord call us by name? When can it be said that we hear His voice?

4. How did the Lord lay down His life, and how must we lay down our lives, for the sheep?

5. What miracle is referred to in verse 21?

Spiritual Study

The parable is about sheep. We ought to see as clearly as we can what sheep correspond to in ourselves. We say they are types of innocence. That is true, yet the innocence which they represent is not mere harmlessness, but a kind affection for one another, and a gentle, trustful love such as little children should feel toward their parents and we all should feel toward the Lord. Such gentle affection is beautifully pictured in the fondness of sheep for each other and in their dependence upon their shepherd, especially in countries where the shepherd lives with the sheep in the field and becomes their friend. It expresses the Lord's faithful, loving care for us, and the obedience and trust which we should show toward Him, when He calls Himself our shepherd and us His sheep. You all can say the Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want." And you remember the prophecy of the Lord's coming, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11) Do you remember the parable of the man with a hundred sheep, and his love for the one that was gone astray? (Luke 15:3-7)

The figure of the sheep and shepherd occurs many times and in many parts of the Bible, describing the Lord's loving care of us and the trustful dependence which we ought to have toward Him. So much use is made in Scripture of this figure that it is hard to see how a Scripture could have been written except in a land of sheep and shepherds. (E. 314; A. 10132)

With this general thought in mind we find several particulars of the Lord's relation to us described in this lesson of the good shepherd.

1. The Lord calls Himself the door as well as the shepherd. He is the door as by His truth and goodness He leads us into a heavenly state and heaven. He said again "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6; A. 2356)

2. The sheep hear the shepherd's voice. To hear "means also to attend and to obey. Notice the word again in verse 16. (A. 2542; E. 108; R. 87)

3. The shepherd calleth his own sheep by name. One's "name" spiritually is his whole character, all that makes him who and what he is. The Lord calls each one by name: He knows him through and through and all that enters into his life, and adapts His care to each one's need. Compare Isaiah. 40:26. (P. 230; A. 2009)

4. "He goeth before them," suggests the power of the sympathy and example of the Lord's life on earth.

5. Going in and out finding pasture, expresses the Lord's protection and blessing in more internal and more external states. Compare Psalm 121:8.

6. A thief or robber who climbs up some other way, is a disposition to think ourselves heavenly or that we can become heavenly, by other means than by the Lord's help. (A. 10794)

7. A hireling shepherd is pretended care for innocence and kindness, really for the sake of selfish advantage to ourselves. (E. 695)

8. The wolf is the cruel, selfish affection which shows itself when the pretense of caring for innocence is cast aside. (E. 314; A. 10132)

9. Other sheep not of this fold, suggest the many kinds of people whom the Lord is preparing for a place in the great fold of heaven. Remember the Lord's words to John who forbade one who followed not with them. (Mark 9:38-40) Find a special meaning of this verse explained in A. 3969.

10. The Lord laid down His life for the sheep not only when He was crucified, but in all the temptations of His life. In each temptation He laid down something of the life inherited from men, that He might make innocence possible to men. The Lord's saying that He laid down His life of Himself, emphasizes the thought that He desired to endure the conflicts which would bring help to men, and that He endured them and conquered in His own strength. (E. 900)

Verse 22 speaks of the feast of Dedication. It commemorated the cleansing and rededication of the temple in the early winter of 165 B.C., after its defilement by Greek rulers. The Lord's presence at the feast of Dedication seems to say that He fulfilled that cleansing of the temple in His own life. Like His acts of cleansing the temple, recorded in the Gospels, this reminds us how He faithfully resisted all evil things and made Himself the pure and perfect tabernacle of God with men. (E. 220; R. 585)

To Next Chapter