The Reality of the Wonderful Shepherd with His Sheep by Janet Huhn, Nov. 5, 2024
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I’ve been thinking about the relationship between me and my doggies in regard to what we are learning in our weekly Bible study at our home in John 10 about God’s picture/illustration about Him being the wonderful Shepherd and we being His needy/faithful sheep. Our teacher, Ed Miller, pointed out that in the Occidental/western society the shepherd has a much closer relationship with his sheep than those in our eastern society…
“Sometimes the shepherds were with the sheep for many months, and never saw a human being. They just lived with the sheep; they got to know the sheep. In our society I think we’d say, “That relationship could be between a person and an animal, maybe a boy and his dog, or even an adult and their dog, or some people are cat lovers. It doesn’t matter what the pet is. It could be a parrot or a spider monkey or a gerbil or whatever you like as a pet, a rabbit, a squirrel; I don’t know. But sheep not so much in our western society.”
It got me thinking about my relationship with dogs, and how all my life there’s been a such special bond between them and me. Presently I have my two precious Basset Hounds, Pumpkin and Eddie, who have captured my heart, and it seems like I’ve captured theirs. Dogs tend to be so loyal to their masters (like we’re shepherds), and follow our voices…
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:1-6)
In our study it was pointed out that even if you blindfolded an occidental shepherd, he would be able to identify each of his sheep by their cry and by their smell, and he knew each one by name. I began to think about my relationship with Pumpkin and Eddie, and how unique each one of my doggies are, and how I know them so well that I can recognize them according to how each barks/howls/whines, understanding what it is they seem to be “saying”, recognize what each feels like when I pet them, and recognize how each sounds against the floor when they walk and run, even if I were blindfolded.
The picture of the Oriental shepherd in union with his sheep is only a figure of speech, as is the picture of me and my dogs is for me. When studying the Bible, the reality is always greater than the picture that pictures the reality. God is using those pictures, but the reality that He’s the shepherd is much better.
There’s a greater picture of us as His sheep in Matthew 10:30, where it says,
“The very hairs of your head are numbered.”
I certainly can’t claim to know the numbers of fur strands Pumpkin and Eddie have, except that I’m aware of how much of them they shed every day! In Psalm 147:4, another picture of God and what He knows is,
“He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.”
In Psalm 139:17&18 it says,
“How precious are your thoughts to me, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.”
Well, back to my dogs as my picture; as dear as they are to me, and as much as I cuddle, care, play and “talk” with them every day, my thoughts about them would barely fill a bottle cap of sand.
So, then, if all of those are just pictures, and the reality is bigger than the picture, what can God’s reality be for us of Him as the wonderful Shepherd? God’s reality is given as follows…
“I’m the good shepherd and I know My own, and My own know Me.” Even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father, I lay down My life for the sheep.” (John 10:14&15)
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11:27)
In the Lord’s knowledge of us and our situation and all we’re facing and all we’re going through, here is the reality; He knows that situation as much as He knows the Father and the Father knows Him.
“I and the Father are one; I and My sheep are one.” (Matthew 11:30)
He pictures our union with Him as being that close. When we study John 17, we see that’s what He’s praying for, that we would know that reality of union with Him, that we’re as one with Him as He is with His holy Father God.
There’s more Good News about the shepherd and the sheep given in this marvelous Bible study message in John 10. The audio and transcript in its entirety is available at…
