The Unreliable Hired Man

Lesson #166

With this lesson we will begin the fourth section of chapter 10, defined by John 10:11 – 18. We begin this section by considering the inferiority of the hired hand who was to watch over and care for the sheep. “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:12 – 13 ESV). Jesus is telling this story, a parable, to point out the failure of the Jews as shepherds to the people of Israel and point out that God sent him as the true Shepherd.

Those who names were recorder in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world are the people the Father chooses for salvation. They are the ones Jesus died on the cross for and with the shedding of his blood he purchases them. These chosen ones the Father draws to himself, prepares them to understand and to desire to come and accept Jesus Christ for who he is. These people the Father causes to be born again and given as gifts to Jesus Christ.  

Since the hired man does not own the sheep he thus considers his life and its protection to be more important than the safety of the sheep. When the hired hand sees danger coming he is not willing to risk harm to himself, he leaves the sheep to the destruction of the wolves and flees to safety. As a believer, are we like the hired man? Do we embrace safety and comfort so that when our faith in Jesus Christ is threatened, we tend to remain silent or even deny Jesus to protect ourselves? We need to evaluate our willingness to face persecution and its cost and we also need to consider the effect on our relationship to God if we do not remain faithful.

After pointing out the unreliability of the hired man, Jesus then continues by saying, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14 – 15 ESV). Jesus is the good shepherd because he was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Jesus owns the sheep because, as the perfect sacrifice he shed his blood, dying on the cross as payment. These he owns, he knows by name and they know him. Jesus then gives an example of how well we should know each other; as well as the Father knows him and he knows the father. Jesus then, for the second time, says he will lay down his life for the sheep.

The relationship between us and God may be greater than you think. On January 29^th I posted some thoughts about 1 Corinthians 6:17 on Facebook. That verse reads: “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” Jesus has always existed as the Son of God, who came to earth in the form of a man; fully God and fully man. At our spiritual birth our new creature in Christ had its beginning; our start point for eternal life. At that point the eternal Spirit came to dwell in us and we in him. At that instant we became God-men; one with God and he with us. This same eternal Spirit dwells in you and I, if you are a believer, making us part of one body. Can you comprehend the meaning of oneness with God and having the capacity to know every believer intimately because of this oneness of relationship? We who make up this body of believers are the sheep that belong to Jesus, the good Shepherd. As you get your mind around what God has done for you through Jesus Christ, we can’t but bow before him in worship and out of love serve him in obedience.

Prayer

Father, the more I study for these lessons, the more I learn about who I am in Christ and what he has provided for me now and for the future. The more I know and understand the more overwhelmed I become and the more I look forward to passing from this earthly body to the heavenly realm. What a truly awesome day that will be. But if we don’t study and learn so as to understand, how can we look forward to that time with anticipation? Father, maybe that is why people pray so hard to be healed when near death; to live a bit longer here on earth. When that time comes for me I pray that my family and friends will pray for a quick passage and for the grieving of those left behind.