The Shepherd and His Fold:
The place: A wilderness area somewhere in the foothills or Israel, a shepherd is tending his flock. Night is falling, as the shepherd leads his flock to a safe place prepared before-hand. It’s a place of rest, a place having water, and food for the sheep. A small opening into the enclosure has been made for the sheep to go through. As they enter, the shepherd counts his sheep, when the full number is reached, he lies at the door.
From this picture, David drew,
Psalms 23:1, “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.”
If the sheep were to be attacked by wolves, or any other beast, or thieves tried to enter, they would have to get by the shepherd who stood by the door. From this may have come the saying, “Over my dead body.”
“I (Jesus) am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
The Lord paints for us a clear picture of those who try to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but climb in some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. “He that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth: and the wolf catacheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
False teachers, liars, those who care not for the sheep. They feed their greed, while imparting fear into the sheep.
“But he that entereth in (the sheepfold) entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.”
Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com