The Shepherds
People do not fully understand the shepherd’s way of life, and therefore miss some of the meanings from the Bible verses which tell of shepherd and sheep. Of course the Easterners have other types of animals which they keep: donkeys, cows, oxen, goats, buffalo, and the like, but none of these animals require the special care that the sheep do. The Shepherds Much of the Bible is based on the facts of life of the Eastern people; this is why people of other cultures such as ours cannot understand it. I have devoted my life to teaching these Orientalisms in the Bible, so that people can understand and believe that it is a Book based on truth. In both the East and the West, the figure of Christ as the Great Shepherd of the sheep is the most precious and appreciated way of describing our Saviour. However, I have found in my travels in the western countries that the people do not fully understand the shepherd’s way of life, and therefore miss some of the meanings from the Bible verses which tell of shepherd and sheep. Of course the Easterners have other types of animals which they keep: donkeys, cows, oxen, goats, buffalo, and the like, but none of these animals require the special care that the sheep do. The other animals are very self-sufficient and are taken to pasture by neighborhood boys; when they are brought back at night they are released at the edge of the village and find their way home by themselves. This could never be done with sheep for they are like small children; the shepherd calls each one by name, and talks to him like a child. We have the comparison of the sheep and the goats which Jesus uses in Matthew 25:32-46 ["…as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." (verse 32b-33)]; Goats, you see, are not helpless and trusting like the sheep, but are very independent. The goat looks out after the flock of goats. When a goat grazes, he takes a few bites then looks up to check for dan
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symbol of authority. You can see bishops of the Eastern and Roman churches carrying this crook and blessing the people with it; I wonder if they understand that this is the symbol of the shepherd. The English word, "pastor" means shepherd. Sheep will not drink from flowing water; this is why the 23rd Psalm speaks of "still waters." If the shepherd cannot find a place where the waters are still, he must scoop out a pit in the sand for some water to run into, so that the sheep will drink unafraid. Sometimes the shepherd must lead his sheep across a little stream of water which they do not wish to cross, so he must take one and toss him across so that the rest will jump across also. Sheep will follow one another blindly even when it is dangerous, and this is why the Scripture says, "All like sheep have gone astray." www.kcpillai.org 2 Sometimes, in spite of all the care of the shepherd, a s