Your rod and Your staff - they comfort me. (vs.4)
Shevet is the word for rod. The shepherd used it for protection and for counting his sheep. Proverbs 13:24 talks of using the rod for disciplining, also. For correction. In Genesis, the same word is used for scepter.
Asking myself, how does a rod comfort me? I am happy about the fact that He counts His sheep daily to see who is still in the flock - that His watchare over me, this little sheep He loves enough to name, is constant. Remember, He says that when He brings us before the Father and all the angels (Rev. 3), His brag will be, "These belong to Me!' In John 17 Jesus prays several times for the Father to keep us safe as He kept the disciples safe when they followed. Our safety is of paramount importance to Him.
Safe from what? We are not actual sheep who will be chased down and ravaged by wolves. We are people living in a civilized society, most of us. Jesus spoke of false prophets as wolves who divide the body of Christ. Divisive people who act sweet as lambs at first then devour the well-meaning sheep. The rod used for counting, it seems, must work in tandem with obedience to the voice of the shepherd. To stay in His flock, we have to listen only to His voice.
The rod for correction or corralling is more evident to me. Whack me on my ample fur-fluffed fanny if I get too far from the flock. If I am so far off that I need a lesson that physically challenges my rebellion, then do it! The alternative to this is the brambles I am caught in by my own wanderings. Our Shepherd will use the crook of His staff to try and reach my baa-ing pitiful self, but why go there in the first place? Well, because this relationship with Jesus is just too confining. Too many things to obey. I get to go only where He tells me I can, and I really want to see what is over that far ridge. Never mind that the last sheep who went that direction never came back. Maybe that ewe is having the time of her life. We just cannot see her. Or maybe she was just the meal the wolf was looking for. Only a good shepherd knows for sure.
Jesus has to keep us all together. He was before all things and in Him all things hold together! (Colossians 1:17). He is our glue. If we focus on the Shepherd, the entire flock, we move as a unit across whatever wilderness or meadow we find ourselves traversing. A bunch of errant baa-ing was just what kept the first generation of Israelites from entering the Promised Land that was probably only a few weeks outside of their Egyptian experience. "Baa-baa this!" "Baa-baa that!" and pretty soon we are picking stickers out of our rumps and looking into the leering eyes of another master. Too late for "Ooops" then. Shoulda stayed in the safe place with the others. Now I am just loin chops on somebody's greasy plate.
Lest you think this business of always having to follow a shepherd keeps you from your own free will, let me just remind you that it is just that free will that gives you the choice to walk in His footsteps. If you have been in other pastures with other shepherds, you will so enjoy the serenity and purpose of "lying down in green pastures, drinking from calm waters, and walking on roads that lead somewhere."
Shevet is the word for rod. The shepherd used it for protection and for counting his sheep. Proverbs 13:24 talks of using the rod for disciplining, also. For correction. In Genesis, the same word is used for scepter.
Asking myself, how does a rod comfort me? I am happy about the fact that He counts His sheep daily to see who is still in the flock - that His watchare over me, this little sheep He loves enough to name, is constant. Remember, He says that when He brings us before the Father and all the angels (Rev. 3), His brag will be, "These belong to Me!' In John 17 Jesus prays several times for the Father to keep us safe as He kept the disciples safe when they followed. Our safety is of paramount importance to Him.
Safe from what? We are not actual sheep who will be chased down and ravaged by wolves. We are people living in a civilized society, most of us. Jesus spoke of false prophets as wolves who divide the body of Christ. Divisive people who act sweet as lambs at first then devour the well-meaning sheep. The rod used for counting, it seems, must work in tandem with obedience to the voice of the shepherd. To stay in His flock, we have to listen only to His voice.
The rod for correction or corralling is more evident to me. Whack me on my ample fur-fluffed fanny if I get too far from the flock. If I am so far off that I need a lesson that physically challenges my rebellion, then do it! The alternative to this is the brambles I am caught in by my own wanderings. Our Shepherd will use the crook of His staff to try and reach my baa-ing pitiful self, but why go there in the first place? Well, because this relationship with Jesus is just too confining. Too many things to obey. I get to go only where He tells me I can, and I really want to see what is over that far ridge. Never mind that the last sheep who went that direction never came back. Maybe that ewe is having the time of her life. We just cannot see her. Or maybe she was just the meal the wolf was looking for. Only a good shepherd knows for sure.
Jesus has to keep us all together. He was before all things and in Him all things hold together! (Colossians 1:17). He is our glue. If we focus on the Shepherd, the entire flock, we move as a unit across whatever wilderness or meadow we find ourselves traversing. A bunch of errant baa-ing was just what kept the first generation of Israelites from entering the Promised Land that was probably only a few weeks outside of their Egyptian experience. "Baa-baa this!" "Baa-baa that!" and pretty soon we are picking stickers out of our rumps and looking into the leering eyes of another master. Too late for "Ooops" then. Shoulda stayed in the safe place with the others. Now I am just loin chops on somebody's greasy plate.
Lest you think this business of always having to follow a shepherd keeps you from your own free will, let me just remind you that it is just that free will that gives you the choice to walk in His footsteps. If you have been in other pastures with other shepherds, you will so enjoy the serenity and purpose of "lying down in green pastures, drinking from calm waters, and walking on roads that lead somewhere."
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