| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 15 |
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The shepherd’s love and care are individual and personal. “He calleth His own sheep by name.” It is easy enough for us to understand how a Syrian shepherd may know each of His sheep by name. His flock is small, and he can readily know each one. But when we think of the millions who are in Christ’s flock, it seems strange to us that He should know and call each one of all His by name. Yet the truth is made very clear in the Scriptures. It is as easy for our Good Shepherd to know each of His millions personally as for any human mother to know the name of each one of her little group of children. There is great comfort in this teaching. We are not lost in the crowd. Love always individualizes its object. We cannot love a crowd — we may pity a city in distress, as after the horrors of an earthquake, and yet not know one person in it. But if we have a brother, a child, or a friend among the sufferers, we know the one. Our Good Shepherd loves each one of His own.
A little child of poverty, who had been adopted by a kind man, said he was glad to belong to somebody. It is pleasant for us to know that we belong to Christ. He speaks of his sheep as “His own.” They are His own because the Father gave them to Him. “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me” (17:6). They are his own because He gave Himself for them. “Ye are not your own, for ye were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). They are His own, further, because they have voluntarily given themselves to Him. It is very sweet to think of ourselves in this way belonging to Christ. The words suggest love, closeness of relation, tenderness of affection.
The Good Shepherd presents Himself also as the Guide of His flock. He “leadeth them out.” “He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him.” He does not drive them — He leads them, and they follow Him. They love Him and also trust His guidance. They know that they are safe wherever He takes them. Sheep need to be led; they have no such instinct for finding their own way as most other animals have. Set certain kinds of dogs down anywhere, miles from where they have been staying before, and they will find the way home by instinct. You cannot lose a dog. But a sheep cannot find its way anywhere. The same is true of human souls. They get lost very easily, and are willful and wayward. They need to be led, and without the divine guidance never could get home. But if Christ leads, we who are His sheep must obediently and cheerfully follow Him. The reason we have so many troubles in life and get so often into difficulty and danger is because we do not follow Him as we should.
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