This is part 4 of an 8-part series. View the entire series here.
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” – John 10:11 ESV
Jesus uses a sheep-herding metaphor in His next I AM statement. He’s not only the door into the pasture—or, in more direct terms, the pathway to reconciliation and life with God—He’s also the Shepherd who guides the sheep and keeps them healthy. He protects them from danger, even to the point of laying down His life for them.
Jesus is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep. He knows us and calls each of us by name (Isaiah 43:1; John 10:3). A shepherd would’ve spent so much time with his sheep that he’d know their individual quirks, their personalities, and the physical attributes that differentiated them from one another.
The same is true for the way Jesus sees us. We’re not just faceless sheep in a flock to Him; we are fully known—down to the number of hairs on our heads!—and deeply loved. Through reading God’s Word, spending time in His presence, and letting Him minister to our hearts, we come to know Him on a personal level as well.
But not only that—we also learn to recognize the sound of His voice, which is a crucial component in the life of a believer. Earlier in John 10, Jesus says, “[Sheep] won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice” (10:5 NLT). When we know the sound of our Shepherd’s voice, we’re more easily able to identify counterfeit voices that try to speak things into our lives that are contrary to the Way of Jesus.
In Psalm 23, King David paints a beautiful picture of what it looks like when we allow ourselves to be led by our Shepherd: “Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6 NLT). Life under the Good Shepherd’s care means we can walk confidently, rest peacefully, and feast abundantly, knowing that even in the darkest valley, He goes before us.
