All We Like Sheep

Today's Verse

Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Thoughts

Many times we people think that we are smart, talented, and genius. Intellectually, there’s no doubt about it, because God has given talent to each one of us. We can do a lot of things, invent powerful machines, create wonderful arts, and many others that make our world a better place to live.

Yet for many times, the Bible describes “all” of us as sheep. Sheep is one of the dumbest animals on the planet, if not the dumbest. When unguided, sheep can plunge to their death in a cliff, and then followed by other sheep. Sheep are extremely social animal where in most cases congregate and following each other, thus a shepherd can just lead one sheep and others will follow. However, in the absence of a shepherd, when a sheep is separated from a herd, the sheep becomes highly stressed and easily panics and its action can cause self-inflicted damages. Sheep have no defense mechanism, and they are easy target for predators like wolves, lions, bears, and coyotes.

In our own folly, we tend to follow our own instinct and knowledge; we put aside God in our lives and live the way we wanted to be. We say to ourselves, we don’t need the Shepherd – and in many cases, we are inviting trouble to ourselves. Prestigious universities in North America which were founded to promote Christ are now secularized and have nothing to do about the Lord who made them successful. Any thought about God and the Bible are now being taken out of the classrooms, from hotel rooms, from the court houses, from offices, parks, and other public areas. Atheism is promoted, other religions are welcomed, paganism is practiced, and that’s what America embraces. Sooner or later, the United States is no different than Saudi Arabia where Islam becomes the only allowed religion.

We are like sheep and we are not as wise as we think we are. Left alone to ourselves, we easily plunge to our death. We may know a lot of things, but the wisdom that comes from the Lord through Jesus Christ – our Good Shepherd - is our only guiding light to life. King David who was a shepherd himself acknowledges the need of the Lord as his Shepherd, when he said in Psalm 23:1 (NLT) – “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need”. There is a need of dependence on the Lord, we need a Shepherd - Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls. Only in the Lord, we can have peaceful rest for He leads us to streams of living water, He guides us with his staff, and all the goodness in this life and life to come is always before us.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to this earth to save us and guide us to everlasting life. You are our Good Shepherd, help us to trust and follow You, for we are as sheep that gone astray. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

De God is ons toevluchtsoord!
(God is our refuge! In Dutch)