We have sheep. Every year in January we have to shear them. The sheep do not like it, but I do. This makes me think of what the Bible tells us about sheep. At sheep shearing when the sheep is flipped down it is under control of the man who is shearing and does not make any noises. In Isaiah 53:7b it says, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb.” This is a picture of how Jesus acted at His death. Jesus did not speak or try to run away. He went willingly and did what His Father told Him to do.
Sheep are usually greedy when they are hungry. Then they overeat and get sick or die. This is a picture of us. Because we are greedy we are pictures of sheep and Jesus is our shepherd. In Isaiah 53:6 it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way.” In Matthew 18:12 it says, “If a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray?” This is a picture of us going away from the church and Christ the good shepherd leads us back. In John 10:11 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his live for the sheep.” This is a picture of Jesus the good Shepherd who died on the cross for us. Part of Psalm 23, “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. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
I feel safe with Jesus as my shepherd.
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The Sabbath is strictly a spiritual idea. The keeping of the Sabbath is a high spiritual act, the expression of hope and faith on the part of the Christian sojourner in the midst of this present world. It is for this reason a very evil omen, a sign of apostasy, of a lack of spiritual life, or a sick faith and a waning hope, when they that call themselves Christians, that outwardly join the band of Christian pilgrims in the world, evince no longing to keep the Sabbath properly, desecrate it, and more and more join the world, to follow after their own desires, speak their own words, and do their own evil works.
-The Triple Knowledge, Volume 3, page 269, Herman Hoeksema