I should not have paused at this word, being in itself so very well understood, but only to remark the very great blessedness and tenderness of it as assumed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He saith himself, "I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." (John 10:11) And God the Father also sweetly holds forth the Lord Jesus, in his mediatorial character, under this endearing point of view, as the Shepherd of his church and people.
It would form the subject of a volume, rather than an article in a Concordance, to enter upon the character and office of a Shepherd as peculiarly suited and carried on by Christ; I cannot therefore propose such an undertaking. But while I refer to the Scriptural account of our Lord Jesus under this character, and which is more or less scattered over the whole Bible, I cannot content myself, without just observing how very blessed it must be for all the sheep of Christ and the lambs of his fold to know Jesus, and to make use of Jesus as God the Father evidently intended he should be used, as their Shepherd.
As Jesus is the Shepherd, so they are the flock; the one character implies the other; and the church made up of sheep and lambs are his property. He received them as the gift of his Father, and he hath purchased them with his blood; so that every tye of nature, interest, property, and grace, endears them to Christ. And hence he saith himself, "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out, of my hand. My Father which gave.them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand. I and my Father are one." (John 10:28-30)
I must not enlarge on this point, how sweet soever and interesting it is; but I do beg the reader who is conscious of being one of Christ's fold, and especially, the lambs of that fold, never to lose sight of Jesus under this pastoral office. Jesus knows all sheep, he calleth them all by name, his eye is always upon them, and his heart full of love towards them; he knows how helpless, poor, and prone to wandering they are; and he hath a suited grace for every one and for all. He saith himself that he will search and seek them out in every place whither they are scattered in the cloudy and dark day. His love, and not their deserts, is the cause of his care over them. He will feed them, protect them, help them, heal them, refresh them, restore them, and carry them through, the whole of this wilderness state, until he brings them all home to his fold in heaven. And all this and ten thousand things more, because he is their Shepherd, because he is, and ever must be, Jesus. "Hail, O thou almighty Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth!" (Psalms 80:1, etc. See Pastor.)