John 10:22-42
And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.”
That porch was very large; it was at an entrance, or “gate”, where the people went in and out of the building, and where many people could he, and talk together. It was on this porch that the Lord Jesus answered the men who asked Him to tell them if He were the Christ: He had told them many times before, and had clone the great deeds no other could do. He had just spoken those wonderful Words that He was the Good Shepherd to give His life.
The time and place of His talk seems to have been written that all since who read it would know His words were meant for all people; they were said in a public and proper place for so important a matter. Those leaders did not believe Him because they wanted to keep on in sins, yet He explained carefully, and in that way the people about him heard, and many believed Him, and many since have been blessed by His words.
Jesus spoke of sheep so all could understand His meaning, even children of every land know what sheep are; He said,
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.”
To “hear” His voice, is to believe His words, and by His words know He is the Shepherd. He knows His “sheep”, each one who believes Him, and He gives them eternal life that cannot end.
One or all the sheep of a flock might be snatched from a shepherd by robber or wild animals, or they might perish or die, in a storm, but that cannot be true of “the sheep” of the Lord Jesus He said,
“They shall never perish, neither, shall any pluck (or snatch) them out of My hand.”
The “eternal life” He said He gives would not be eternal if it could stop or end; that life is a part of His own life, so it cannot be lost.
The Lord’s “sheep” often go astray, on earth, and then are not in His path here, for “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness” (right ways). But David, who wrote that, also knew the Lord as Shepherd, “restoreth my soul.” David also knew he could not perish he wrote, “I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever”, be in the presence, of the Lord, His Shepherd, forever.
While the Lord Jesus was on earth He spoke of God the Father as greater and here, of His “sheep”, He said, “No man, (meaning ourselves, men or Satan) is able to pluck them out of the Father’s hand.” Then He said, “I and My Father are one.” Teaching us that His own, those who believe Him, and kept by both the Father and the Son of God.
ML 10/27/1946