All we like sheep have gone astray…

Isaiah 53:6Isaiah 53:6
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
6 . All of us were like sheep that had wandered off. We had each gone our own way, but the Lord gave him the punishment we deserved.

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If you’ve ever met a sheep up-close and personal, you’ll soon learn something about them. Sheep are stupid. Sheep are weak. They are a delicate animal. They need a good deal of care in order to be healthy. When I first learned this from my ‘country-girl’ friend, it took me a bit by surprise that God, in His Word, has referred to us time and again, as sheep. On one hand, I was a bit offended…to think that God would liken me to a ’stupid’ animal. But as I thought about it a bit, one of the Father’s little “Life Lessons” hit my heart with a Truth that I hope to remember for all my days on earth.

We are stupid! Like a sheep who will follow another sheep off a cliff to his death, sometimes we do the same thing, spiritually speaking. Poor choices run rampant in the world and God knows that we’ve made some pretty sad decisions in our lives. While we still lived in continual sin, some of the things we did might have led to a physical death, but worse than that, our choosing of a wrong road would have resulted in spiritual separation from God for all eternity.

Like sheep, we are also weak. Temptation comes to each individual in a way that appeals to the weakness in us. Sin has a way of taking us to that very place where we have a tough time resisting. As sinners we fed on spiritual ‘junk food’….diets of things that could offer no nutrition in a spiritual sense. Feeding our weakness caused us to seek more of the same, because that’s how it is with ‘junk food’. It puts a craving into your mind, and you can’t get enough. It never satisfies, and yet, we continued to seek it, or at least, yield to it, because we are weak.

We might not have known it yet, but the Lord did! He had a plan. He knew we were in need of a guide and a guardian, so He prepared a Shepherd. This Shepherd would come, to care for the flock, to tend to the sheep, and to provide all that we would ever need. He would come to be our protection against the wolves that surround us, seeking to destroy. He would lead us on safe paths and guide us to still waters, soothing us in times of fear and anxiety. He would keep us from following others down a road to death. If we wandered off, the Shepherd would be there to coax us back…to pull us from the briars of life and to gather us into the green pastures where we could live in good health and safety.

Yes, God had a plan…a magnificent, wonderful, Holy plan. These days when I hear the Father liken us to sheep, I know that I am, on my own, stupid and weak, I am grateful that when I was so weary and I couldn’t take another step, I called out to Him, He heard me and I was rescued. He pulled me off the path of death and set me on a new road of life. I have great need of this Shepherd! I want to stay close to the Him, in His protective care. hearing His voice, following His lead. Would I ever want to stray? Would I ever want to be on my own again, making my own decisions with no guidance? NO! I choose to be surrounded by the boundaries that He has placed. I know that if I step outside of them, temptation and trouble awaits and perhaps, even death! I’ve been there before. I don’t want to ever leave the safety and loving care I have come to know. There is a Shepherd of Love, of safety and salvation, and I need Him.

I will leave you with this verse of a hymn I learned years ago.

“Savior, like a shepherd lead us.
Much we need Thy tender care.
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us.
For Thy use our folds prepare.
Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.”
AMEN

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3Hebrews 12:1-3
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
A Large Crowd of Witnesses ^{12 1} Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won't let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. ² We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side e right side: See the note at . of God's throne! ³ So keep your mind on Jesus, who put up with many insults from sinners. Then you won't get discouraged and give up.

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I have a friend who has lived a very difficult life.  A mother of several children and the wife of a drug addict, she has seen and known times the likes of which most of us will never experience.  She has watched some of her children follow the path of their afflicted father, powerless to convince them to climb out of the downward spiral of drug addiction and depravity.  She has taken her children to church on her own.  She has sung in the choir, taught children about the love of Her Savior in Bible studies, and returned home from a crowded worship service to the emptiness and loneliness of a broken home. She has worked tirelessly at her job to provide the basics of life for her children, while watching her hard-earned money drain from her bank account at the exploits of a selfish husband and father.  She eventually ended up losing her marriage, her house, her job, and many of her dreams to the consequences of her husband’s sin.

On my most difficult days,  I often thought of her and knew that regardless of how discouraged I felt by my circumstances, I had absolutely nothing to complain about in comparison with her.  There is always someone worse off than we are!  And I guess the thing that stands out to me more than anything else about my friend and the saga she has lived is the fact that she responded to her trials with such grace.  She always had a smile on her face, always! Despite the inner turmoil she faced day in and day out, she was always quick to lend a hand to others and to serve her Lord.  To this day I still am inspired by her example of hope and joy in the face of such heartache.

Hebrews 12 reminds us that there is Another who endured a lot, considerably more than my friend or you and I will ever have to endure.  He suffered the cross.  He endured the ridicule and shame and rejection of those He came to love and save.  He persevered through the beatings and injustice and murder with tenderness, compassion, and incomparable selfless-ness.   Jesus gave up the safety of heaven for the joy of dying for you, so that you can one day enjoy the comfort of heaven eternally with Him.

The next time you are tempted to be defeated or discouraged by your circumstances, remember what Jesus endured for you.  Let that motivate you to lay aside every weight, every incumberance, every temptation to sin, so that you can run with patience and perseverance the rest of the journey that lies before you.  Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith, our Deliverer.   He came and did absolutely everything necessary to win and obtain your eternal freedom, regardless of how your present situation may appear or feel.  You are delivered through the death and resurrection of Jesus!  You are free.

Even in His dying breath, Jesus looked at those who were watching Him hanging on that cross and He had compassion on them.  He delivered them as well as you and I.  He said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” His heart of love defies comprehension.

We who have been delivered must help others see and accept their delivery as well.  Jesus came to save us all and He doesn’t want anyone to perish.  May we all cherish our Deliverer and all He did for us.  May His utter grace be reflected in our lives as well.  May we not grow weary. May we look to Jesus and take heart!

Joseph took his wife and child and they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly king
There along the banks of the Nile Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing… they were singing
My Deliverer is coming… My Deliverer is standing by

My Deliverer Is Coming
Rich Mullins

I’ve been amazed by the words and the imagery of this song ever since I first heard it so many years ago.

Jesus entered a world that was full of expectation, especially among the Jews. Centuries of political domination had not quenched the belief that they were God’s chosen people, but it had created a situation of desperation. God’s had faithfully acted on his promises in the past: promises to Abraham and Sarah, promises to Moses and the nation, promises to David and his royal line. What about now?

Many awaited a strong-armed deliverer who would rip Palestine from the grip of Rome. Their expectation for the Messiah was someone in the pattern of David, a warrior, a military genius. Many hoped for God’s presence in the restored (though not in full grandeur) temple – something missed since the time of Ezekiel. They longed for God’s voice to be heard through the prophets. Many just longed for the necessities of life, food, shelter and peace to go about daily business – and this was never guaranteed in Jesus’ day. They longed for a Messiah who would provide for the needs of all.

The gospels record that Jesus was taken to Egypt for his own safety (Matthew 2). There he was, hearing the songs of hope from the children around him. My Deliverer is coming. The cry of the Hebrews under Egyptian slavery. The longing of the Jews who fled to Egypt when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. The song of a people displaced, longing for restoration.

For that is deliverance. Not just freedom from oppression, the ability to conduct one’s business without hindrance. No, the people longed to be God’s special possession again. For generations, they had treated this gift as something of little value. Now they longed for it. They did not understood all that was coming, all that God would do on their behalf. But they expected God to do something. And he did, with Jesus immersed in the experience of his people.

In what way is Jesus a deliverer? Do you still think of him as your deliverer, or is that just something in the past?

Jesus, thank you for coming to restore my relationship with You. And thank you for giving us you spirit, that we might overcome the power of sin and live holy lives that please you. Father, thank you for so many gifts that are freely given from your hand.

Matthew 5:17Matthew 5:17
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
The Law of Moses ¹⁷ Don't suppose that I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. u the Law and the Prophets: The Jewish Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning.

WP-Bible plugin: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

This is a lot to think about, but every Old Testament prophecy that was ever made about a coming Messiah was fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, and even more mind-blowing is the truth that, as far as God is concerned, Calvary has always existed. From His perspective, Golgotha came before Creation, the Flood, the Exodus, and even before you.  You see, as surely as there has never been a time when God did not exist, so there was never a time when it wasn’t the intent and delight of our munificent God to bestow upon us the gift of His Son!  Colossians 1:17Colossians 1:17
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
17 God's Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together.

WP-Bible plugin says, “He is before all things, and in him (meaning Jesus) all things hold together.”

The birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Savior is God’s once-and-for-all act of glorious liberation for the human race.  In Jesus, we are free from all of our sin, humanity is once again reconciled to God. The Messiah, the Redeemer has come.   There is nothing more that needs to be done than has already been done.  As God gave His Son to the world, to redeem us from our sins and unworthiness, everything that needed to be done to restore our fellowship with Almighty God was done.  There is nothing more that God needed to do.

All we need to do is accept that Jesus is the Messiah and believe that He was and is the fulfillment of prophecy and of God’s plan to bring about our personal salvation and our reconciliation to God.  Those who were alive when Jesus was walking the earth and preaching in the synagogues were confronted with a call to believe as well:

He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:15-30Luke 4:15-30
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
15 He taught in the Jewish meeting places, and everyone praised him. The People of Nazareth Turn against Jesus ¹⁶ Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as usual he went to the meeting place on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read from the Scriptures, ¹⁷ he was given the book of Isaiah the prophet. He opened it and read, ¹⁸ . “The Lord's Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers, ¹⁹ and to say, ‘This is the year the Lord has chosen.’ ” ²⁰ Jesus closed the book, then handed it back to the man in charge and sat down. Everyone in the meeting place looked straight at Jesus. ²¹ Then Jesus said to them, “What you have just heard me read has come true today.” ²² All the people started talking about Jesus and were amazed at the wonderful things he said. They kept on asking, “Isn't he Joseph's son?” ²³ Jesus answered: You will certainly want to tell me this saying, “Doctor, first make yourself well.” You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. ²⁴ But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown. ²⁵ . Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, ²⁶ but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. ²⁷ During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy. a leprosy: In biblical times the word “leprosy” was used for many different kinds of skin diseases. But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria. ²⁸ When the people in the meeting place heard Jesus say this, they became so angry ²⁹ that they got up and threw him out of town. They dragged him to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, because they wanted to throw him down from there. ³⁰ But Jesus slipped through the crowd and got away.

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Can you imagine the scene?  A crowd has gathered for a regular weekly worship gathering and when it comes time for the reading of the Scripture, someone hands the day’s speaker a copy of Scripture and He opens it to the book of Isaiah and begins reading a prophecy about the coming Messiah.  And then, after reading the verses about a coming Messiah to the captivated audience, He begins His sermon by saying, “You are eye-witnesses to the fact that this Scripture came true today, right now, here in your presence, at this very moment!!”  What an incredible scene!  People must have been turning to one another and asking, “Did He just say what I think He said?”  “Did that man just imply that he is the Messiah?”  There must have been gasps echoing throughout the crowd.

Luke continues to account what happened that day, and how the crowd eventually turned violent and homicidal toward Jesus, furious that He would make such claims to be the fulfillment of prophecy.  When confronted with the choice as to who Jesus was, they discounted Him as the Savior and moved to throw Him off a cliff rather than take Him into their hearts.

All of us must deal with the claim that Jesus made, that as He was the fulfillment of prophecy that day, He still is the fulfillment of it today!  Jesus remains the central figure of the universe, the gift of God to the world, and the completion of God’s plan of reconciling us to Himself.  This Christmas, as you consider the baby born in the manger, recognize that baby, not as a last-ditch effort on God’s part to fix a problem that man started in the Garden, but as the fulfillment of an eternal promise that He’d provide a way for you to be forgiven and spend forever with Him.  Jesus is not just the fulfillment of prophecy, but also the fulfillment and full expression of God’s complete and total love for you.

Of Jesus as a young boy, an adolescent, we don’t find much in Scripture. The first recounted event is him in the temple, “discussing deep questions” with the religious teachers. His frantic parents find him and in a fluster ask where he has been, what could have possibly possessed him to stay behind in Jerusalem. In the hands of Jesus, even this is turned into an opportunity to point to the Father: “You should have known that I would be in my Father’s house.”

Just as the Father sent the Son to us – a precious gift, the Son gives us the Father. Jesus showed us what the Father was like. Everything he did pointed out God’s character and faithfulness. And he purposefully lived among us so that he could restore us to right relationship with the Father.

We all have fathers. Some of them we don’t know very well. This could be because they left this earth before we could really know them, or they failed under pressure and abandoned their role as father. Often we have mixed images of our fathers: memories of love and selfless action on our behalf, and also memories of their failures. Their are some common “themes”, images of fathers: the doting father, who spoils his children. The disciplinarian, harsh and uncompassionate to failure and the learning process. Or how about the aloof father, who cannot be bothered with “childish” things, always too busy or disinterested. And who hasn’t heard of the father with high expectations that can never be met with pleasure or satisfaction?

Each of these is a breakdown of the way a father should be, the way our heavenly Father truly is. But unfortunately, without correction, our view of God can become twisted because of our experience with our own fathers, and today, the images of fathers we find in the media and on TV. So what kind of image does Jesus present of the Father?

Jesus presents God the Father as someone who knows how to give good gifts – to meet the needs of his children. But God is not Santa Claus. He gives with the expectation that we will use what he gives according to his purposes (think “the parable of the talents”). And God doesn’t promise easy street for his children. His gift-giving provides for real needs and lasting satisfaction, not just momentary pleasure and self-involved distraction (Matthew 6). And his gifts help develop the relationship. They are not meant to keep the kids at bay, keep them occupied.

The Father is not harsh. He loved us enough to send the Son! He does discipline his children, but because of the work of the Son we experience his great patience, forgiveness and mercy. He is not naive, either, thinking his children little angels when they deceive, plot and work all manner of wickedness out of selfish will. The discipline we experience in our lives is aimed at rooting out sin so that we can be in vibrant relationship with him and other believers. It is not vindictive or done out of evil motive. But it is piercing.

God is not aloof or unapproachable. Jesus talked to the Father as “Abba”. And while this is not quite the “Daddy” that has been popularized, it does point out an intimate and honored relationship, one of trust and respect. Jesus presents a life of close commitment and connection with God, not just a servile relationship (Matthew 22:37-40Matthew 22:37-40
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
37 . Jesus answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. ³⁸ This is the first and most important commandment. ³⁹ . The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” ⁴⁰ All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets h the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets: The Jewish Scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. are based on these two commandments.

WP-Bible plugin). And this is a stepping stone to producing this same kind of love and connection in all our relationships. The Father loves connection and harmony, good relations and peace. God wants us to come to him and talk, not as a means of boasting about our position before God, but as a means of becoming like him and sharing that relationship with those who are outsiders.

The Father loves his children, and finds great pleasure in them. He does have high standards and expectations (Matthew 25), but he is can and is pleased by us! God promises great reward for simple things. Meeting the needs of widows, orphans, the thirsty and the hungry – the Father sees and is pleased. But we cannot remove the fact that there is an element of obedience required. God is not pleased by a warm fuzzy feeling of connection with him, however strongly stated. They may refer to me as “Lord,” but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7)

Hopefully this has sparked your thinking about God as our father. How do you picture God as Father – which images or analogies stand out to you? In what good/bad ways has your physical father affected your view of God the Father? If you have any thoughts, leave a comment here. God may want to use your thoughts to help someone see how truly awesome our God is – loving us, protecting us, and going after us even as sometimes play the part of runaway.