SOME of our young readers may have seen flocks of sheep with their lambs being taken from one place to another by their shepherds; but it is not very usual to see these shepherds carrying the lambs in their arms, which is not an uncommon sight in the land where the Lord Jesus lived.
Again, the shepherds in this country are seen not to go before, but behind the sheep; to drive, not to lead them. This is not the case with the eastern shepherds; they always go before, and lead the sheep where they want them to go.
They also give every one of their sheep a name, and the sheep get so familiar with the shepherd’s voice that when their name is called they follow the shepherd, just as your little dog will follow you when you call him by his name.
Then again the good shepherd in the East loves his sheep, and he has often been known to expose his life to great danger in order to save the poor sheep from being killed and eaten by the wild beasts that live in those lands. You will remember that David did this when a lion and a bear came to take a lamb out of his father’s flock. I Kings 17:34-36.
Now, when we think of all this, we can better understand the parable which the Lord Jesus spoke in John 10. As the Good Shepherd, He has a flock; and in that flock there are, not only sheep, but lambs, which He loves and cares for specially; for He has laid down His life to save them from being devoured by the wolf (Satan). So He said to Peter
“Feed My lambs.” No doubt Isaiah refers to this when he says, “HE SHALL FEED HIS FLOCK LIKE A SHEPHERD. HE SHALL GATHER THE LAMBS WITH HIS ARM, AND CARRY THEM IN HIS BOSOM.” Isa. 40:11.
Hundreds of years after the prophet wrote these words, we find the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, doing this. Do you ask us when? Well, turn to the Gospel by Mark, and the tenth chapter, for there we read these wonderful words that He spoke: “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God” (verse 14). “And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” (Verse 16).
Now read in Isaiah 40. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.”
Do not these words of Isaiah show us that the Lord Jesus was thinking of the time when He would gather the lambs in His arm, even before He became a little child Himself? Who is, then, the shepherd Isaiah wrote about? It is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life on the dreadful cross for His poor lost sheep and lambs.
But it says: “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.” We have seen that there are both lambs and sheep in His flock, and that He said to Peter, “Feed My lambs.” Can you say with the psalmist, “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”?
Where are these green pastures and still waters to be found for us? They are, dear children, in His blessed word. If any of you have not yet come to Jesus, listen now to His loving call, and you will then be one of His lambs, whom He will love and care for until He takes you to be with Himself forever.
ML 01/03/1909