Jacob’s Flight and Exile
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28
. His voice is heard calling them to His fold, “a shadow in the
daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from
storm and from rain.”
Isaiah 4:6
. His care for the flock is unwearied.
He strengthens the weak, relieves the suffering, gathers the lambs in
His arms, and carries them in His bosom. His sheep love Him. “And a
stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not
the voice of strangers.”
John 10:5
.
Christ says, “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But
he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are
not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and
the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the Good
Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.”
Verses 11-14
.
Christ, the Chief Shepherd, has entrusted the care of His flock to
His ministers as undershepherds; and He bids them have the same
interest that He has manifested, and feel the sacred responsibility of
the charge He has entrusted to them. He has solemnly commanded
them to be faithful, to feed the flock, to strengthen the weak, to revive
the fainting, and to shield them from devouring wolves.
To save His sheep, Christ laid down His own life; and He points
His shepherds to the love thus manifested, as their example. But “he
that is an hireling, ... whose own the sheep are not,” has no real interest
in the flock. He is laboring merely for gain, and he cares only for
himself. He studies his own profit instead of the interest of his charge;
and in time of peril or danger he will flee, and leave the flock.
The apostle Peter admonishes the undershepherds: “Feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the
flock.”
1 Peter 5:2, 3
. Paul says, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves,
and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
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overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with
His own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”
Acts 20:28, 29
.
All who regard as an unwelcome task the care and burdens that fall
to the lot of the faithful shepherd, are reproved by the apostle: “Not
by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”
1 Peter 5:2
. All such unfaithful servants the Chief Shepherd would