YEARS ago there was a man who had a sheep of which he was very fond. In fact it was quite a pet with him. Then one day he missed it from the little fold where he used to keep it in a field adjoining his house. After making inquiries, he found that one of his neighbors had the missing sheep in his field. He asked his neighbor to return it to him, but this the man refused to do, saying that the sheep was his.
Then the owner went to see the judge, and brought a charge against his neighbor for stealing his sheep. The judge had the two men brought into court for trial, and the sheep was also brought along with them. Each man declared the sheep belonged to him. But how could it be proved which of those two men was the real owner of the sheep.
After thinking over the matter for a little while, the judge concluded that the best way of settling the question would be by appealing to the sheep itself, and making use of the knowledge which those animals have of the voice of their shepherd or keeper. So he told one of his officers to take the sheep into an adjoining room, and leave it there with the door ajar, so that it could hear when called. Then he told the man who was charged with stealing the sheep to call it.
The man called again and again, but the sheep took no notice of him.
Then the judge told the other man, the real owner of the sheep, to call it. He called it by the name he had given to it, and which the sheep knew very well. In a moment it pricked up its ears and began to cry, "Baa! baa!" as if it wanted to say, "Here I am." Then it ran toward the door of the room, pushed it open, and went straight up to its owner, bleating as it went.
This settled the matter at once. The judge told the man to take his sheep as it was certainly his. Then he fined the other man for stealing and lying.
This sheep is a picture of what we are by nature — lost, stolen, strayed, and led captive by the devil at his will — held under his sway. The incident also strikingly illustrates the passage of Scripture, "My sheep hear My voice" (John 10:2727My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)). We needed to be set free from Satan's power, and this the Lord Jesus came to do. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:88He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8).
The Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, when He died on the cross, laid down His life for the sheep. Are you one of His sheep, dear young reader? Have you heard His voice calling you to Himself, and have you obeyed His voice? It is possible to close one's ears and refuse to listen, but we hope it is not so with you. He wants to save you, and to make you one of His own; He wants you to follow Him down here, and to spend eternity with Him up there in that bright home He has gone to prepare. How sad if you should refuse to listen to His voice, and go your own way, preferring to remain in your sins and under the power of Satan, which can only end in death and hell forever!
Messages of the Love of God 10/12/1958