Image from www.yahwah-apostolic-ministries.org
Anyway, in hindsight, I suppose it was ‘providential’ that I did not lead my dear dying father into the hands of Jesus since Psalm 23 was really about David’s ‘Shepherd’ and I will just trust that the God self-characterized and revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures is not an “exclusive” God but a universal God who considers and accepts a Torah-life lived by a Torah-ignorant dying father who might not have known he was in YHWH’s flock all along.
Image from www.mmoutreach.org
Had I known then what I know now, I would have declared at my father’s deathbed the name of YHWH Who is the Shepherd of Israel, one of the metaphors for Him in the TNK . . . . but Who is also the Shepherd for every gentile who chooses Him as God and Lord of life. When we choose YHWH, we are among the privileged ‘chosen’ who get to know Him through His Sinai revelation.
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Update 2015/Postscript:
There was a time in my Christian past that I would have been offended by the image hereunder and its message.
Image from frankscottage.wordpress.com
I used to think that the sheep metaphor is perfect for any Christ-believer because my bible teacher explained that sheep had very poor eyesight but very keen hearing; the ‘good ‘sense makes up for the ‘poor’ sense. So what’s the point? Well, my teacher said the only way sheep would recognize the shepherd from other shepherds (when they’re all mixed up together with other flocks in one sheepfold or pen) is through their ‘master’s’ unique ‘call’. I thought it was amazing that from one sheepfold of differing flocks all mixed up together, if two or three shepherds called their sheep at the same time, whichever sheep belonged to whichever shepherd would simply go the direction of the call the sheep recognized as its lead. In effect, shepherds do not have to brand their sheep like they do cattle and other livestock because the sheep species, by their keen hearing sense, need only to hear their master’s call and off they go into that recognizable sound direction.
Whether or not my teacher was right about sheep, I never bothered to check because I particularly liked that metaphor when applied to Jesus as my Shepherd. But now that YHWH, the Shepherd of Israel (according to TNK) is the Shepherd I have chosen to follow, does the metaphor still apply? Yes, all the more so! The use of “call” or “voice” is really applicable to identity/character/message (or teaching). Actually, Yeshua the Jew would have taught Torah, eaten kosher, worshipped the God of Israel. Christianity’s Jesus has been transformed to a Christian version (lots of posts on this, won’t get into the discussion here). Suffice it to say that the message of the Jewish Yeshua would have been — follow the Shepherd of Israel, YHWH.
Sinaites have virtually left the sheepfold belonging to Christianity’s Jesus and followed the call of another Shepherd, the One we consider as the One we missed hearing before but now hear loudly and clearly!
Should we be ‘proud’ of being called ‘sheep’ instead of being ‘offended’ because we are called ‘sheep’ as the message in the image (see the 3rd image in this post) chides all sheep? It’s a metaphor . . . and an apt one . . . it’s all about following someone’s lead and obedience to that someone we choose to follow and obey, whether blindly or ignorantly or willingly with eyes wide open.
Now another poser: go back to the message in the 2nd image in this post:
Who chooses: the Shepherd or the sheep?
Ahhh, dear reader, that question you must answer for yourself! Whether you’re a Christian, Moslem, a convert to Judaism, or Sinaite — did you choose the God you worship? The chosen people were ‘chosen’ — still, they had to choose to obey the One who chose them. Not all of them did, not all of them do to this day. Where do we Gentiles fit, we who were not chosen in the same category as the Jews? What do you think? Does our choice lead to our being chosen?
Hint: sheep are sheep, conditioned by their shepherd to hear their call and follow them; humans are humans, given free will so they can make choices according to their inclination.
- One could choose to follow or not follow.
- One could choose between two options, which one to take.
- One could choose even if there is only one option, how? Go with the one option or choose not to.
- One could choose to follow someone else’s lead or his own desire.
- One could choose to follow either of two inclinations within himself: the inclination to do good or the inclination to do evil, granting one has been educated by Torah on what is ‘good’ as defined by the Law-Giver or the Revelator on Sinai.
Whose commandments are you following, the “Old” or the “New” in the Christian Bible or the original commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures?
Which brings us back to the question in this post’s title:
“Who is the Shepherd” whose flock you belong to?
- The Shepherd of the Christian Old Testament who continues to be the Shepherd in the New Testament?
- Or the Shepherd identified in the TNK?
Whose call, whose voice do you recognize . . . and follow, hmm?
Numbers 27:17 Moses spoke to HaShem saying, “May HaShem, God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the assembly who shall go out before them and come in before them , who shall take them out and bring them in; and let the assembly of HaShem be like sheep that have no shepherd.
Psalm 23:1 A psalm by David. HaShem is my shepherd, I shall not lack.
Psalms 80:1 – For the conductor, for the shoshannim, a testimony, a psalm of Asaph. Give hear, O Shepherd of Israel, You Who leads Joseph like a flock: appear, O You Who is enthroned upon the Cherubim.
Ecclesiastes 12:10-11 Koheles sought to find words of delight and words of truth recorded properly. The words of the wise are like goads, and the nails well driven are the sayings of the masters of collections, coming from one Shepherd. Beyond these, my son, beware: The making of many books is without limit, and much study is weariness of the flesh. The sum of the matter, when all has been considered. Fear God and keep His commandments, for that is man’s whole duty. For God will judge every deed –even everything hidden –whether good or evil.
Isaiah 40:9-11 Ascend upon a high mountain, O herald of Zion, raise your voice with strength, O herald of Jerusalem! Raise it, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, my Lord, HaShem/Elohim, will come with a strong [arm] and His arm will dominate for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His wage is before Him. [He is] like a shepherd who grazes his flock, who gathers the lambs in his arms, who carries them in his bosom, who guides the nursing ewes.
Isaiah 63:11 –They [then] remembered the days of old, of Moses [with] His people: Where is the One Who brought [the Israelites] out of the Sea together with the shepherds of His flock?
Jeremiah 49:19 Behold [the enemy] will ascend as a lion from the heights of the Jordan to a secure pasture land; for I shall bring [the enemy] suddenly and make him overrun her and he who is chosen I shall charge against her. For who is like Me? Who can challenge me? And who is the shepherd who can stand before Me?
Ezekiel 34:1-6 The word of HaShem came to me, saying, “Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, to the shepherds: Thus said the Lord HaShem/Elohim: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have tended themselves!Is it not the flock that the shepherds should tend? . . . for the lost you did not search –rather, you subjugated them with force and with rigor. Thus they became scattered for lack of a shepherd and became food for every beast of the field; they became scattered. My sheep wander on all the mountains and upon every high hill; My sheep have scattered upon the whole face of the earth, but no one seeks and no one searches.
Ezekiel 34:23 – I will establish over them a single shepherd and he will tend them —My servant David; he will tend them and he will be a shepherd unto them. And I, HaShem, I will be a God to them, and My servant David a prince among them. I, HaShem, have spoken.
Ezekiel 37:24 – My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them; they will follow My ordinances and keep My decrees and fulfill them.
Zechariah 10:2 For the teraphim [oracles] speak words of nothingness, the diviners falsehoods, and dreamers speak lies; they comfort with meaningless words. Therefore, they have wandered off like sheep; they are humbled, for there is no shepherd.
11:17 – Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! A sword upon his arm and upon his right eye! May his arm utterly wither and his right eye go completely blind!
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