I am thrilled to announce the release of our latest book: Grazing Through Psalm 23 - The Life of a Sheep.
This book takes a phrase-by-phrase look at Psalm 23. It draws from our firsthand observations of Middle Eastern sheep and shepherds.
If you would like a copy, visit our online bookstore by clicking HERE.
I hope you enjoy the stories we share and gain fresh insight into Psalm 23!
"And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines." I Samuel 17:2
If something happens to their shepherd, sheep will scatter. This happened when Jesus was taken away to be tried and crucified. All of His disciples “forsook him, and fled” (Mark 14:50). In fact, just before Jesus was apprehended, He said, “All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (Mark 14:27). Only after He was resurrected did His flock gather together again.
Micaiah the prophet foretold that Ahab the king would be killed in battle, leaving the Israelites without a leader. He used the analogy of sheep without a shepherd. “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd” (I Kings 22:17).
When Jesus “saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36).
“Scattered abroad” is not the ideal situation for sheep. Quite the opposite. Left on their own, sheep will disconnect from one another and scatter, wandering aimlessly, without direction, away from the safety of the sheepfold.
We must stay connected to Jesus, “the great shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20). That connection is imperative for our survival.
Moses asked the Lord to “set a man over the congregation, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd” (Numbers 27:16-17).
God appointed Joshua to serve as a shepherd to Israel. Moses had been a shepherd to sheep and also a shepherd to people. He knew that the person to succeed him would need to have the characteristics of a shepherd. He did not want the people to be “as sheep which have no shepherd.”
Ezekiel 34:5 gives a bleak look at what happens to sheep when they do not have a shepherd. “And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.” Zechariah 10:2 describes people who “were troubled, because there was no shepherd.”
It is a dangerous thing for sheep to be without a shepherd!
The same is true for us. We are supposed to work and be responsible and do all that grownup stuff. But at our core, we are sheep in need of a Shepherd.
