Sheep

The Lord God is not paying us any compliments when He calls us His ‘sheep’.

Memories of my childhood include vivid images from the sheep station in central Victoria where we grew up as children.  In fact, our first ‘home’ in this land was a shearing hut – the temporary residence of the shearing crews that would annually come and relieve the sheep of their heavy fleeces.  The nearby shearing shed was a mixture of non-too-pleasant smells.  Sheep droppings, tallow, greasy wool, and sheep dip.

Over the years we became familiar with the routines.  Two things stood out.

First, that sheep needed a lot of work.  Unlike cattle, which were let loose in the back paddocks and largely left to fend for themselves, the sheep were forever being rounded up for some sort of attention.  Not only was there the annual shearing time ‑ a highlight on the sheep station calendar.  The sheep would also be brought in for foot-rot treatment.  Then there would be the ‘crutching’, as wool was trimmed from the posterior to minimise fly infestation, and of course the dreaded sheep dip, where sheep were made to swim a foul smelling channel laced with chemicals that staved off a variety of plagues.  Lambing time required extra work - not only to rescue the ewes, making sure that the problem of orphan lambs was minimised, but that tails (and certain other body parts!) of the lambs were appropriately docked ‑ all to aid the production of the nation’s wool and mutton.

Today I understand a little better why the Lord calls His people ‘His sheep’ and not ‘His cattle’.  We, who live life under His care and who want to produce something worthwhile for the Master, need a lot of TLC.  The rot of sin repeatedly needs to be cut out of our lives with the sharp knife of His discipline.  His grace and Holy Spirit constantly guard our lives from the maggoty infestations of the evil one ‑ more effectively than any sheep dip protects our four-legged namesakes.  When we get ourselves into the rut of depression, His loving and gentle hands lift us out.  When things go well and pride rears its ugly head He directs us once again into the right paths of humility.

The Lord’s sheep sure do take a lot of work.  Anyone who takes an active role in the life of the church quickly becomes conscious of need after need in various members of the flock.  There is so much to do for so many people.  Before God we are sheep‑ creatures with many needs and with a certain helplessness and dependency about us.  We may not like to acknowledge that but this is the Lord’s comparison: We are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care. (Psalm 95:7).

A second thing that stood out was that sheep are not the most intelligent creatures on earth.  One is even tempted to suggest that they are really incredibly stupid.  Put a Border Collie sheep dog amongst a flock of sheep then with respect to intelligence there’s no contest.  Sheep also tend to follow the leader unthinkingly.  Many were the times I watched a flock of sheep unwilling to go through a gate.  They balked at going through the narrow opening and instead milled around, waiting for the nip of the sheep dog to drive the first sheep though the opening.  But when one is through there’s no stopping the rest.  The whole flock then moves with the same relentlessness that drives lemmings over the face of a cliff.

Again the Lord’s comparison of His people to sheep seems appropriate.  We too so often do not want to be where it is best for us to be.  Too many of the flock frolic on the sports oval when it’s really much better for them to gather in a worship service.  Too often we resist going where the Lord wants us to be ‑ up to the point where the nip on our heels convinces us that we have little other choice.  And as for the peer pressure that reflects the herd mentality...?  Most of us have experienced at one time or another the hard way that following the crowd is not always the best policy.

No!  The Lord isn’t complimenting us when He calls us ‘the sheep of His pasture’, rather for our own good He is giving us a picture of what, in reality, we are so that we might follow our Shepherd.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM 25.05.2025

 

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