THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART XIV)

“Shepherd, Sheep, and the Sheepfold”

By Akin Ojumu

Like many other passages in the Scriptures, John 10:10 is a Bible text that has been a victim of abuse and misuse by all kinds of preachers for far too long. It’s a text that church folks often rip out of its proper context kicking and screaming. 

John 10:10

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Having been bought into the erroneous narrative that the thief and robber mentioned in this text is a reference to Satan and his demons, modern-day Christians are known to decree and declare John 10:10 to ward off demonic attacks and to stave off misfortunes.

There are three rules for an accurate interpretation of Scriptures. And they are context, context, and context. Context determines meaning and it’s the single most important factor in correct interpretation of Bible texts. It’s the job of any serious Bible student to understand both the original intended meaning of a Bible text and how that fits within the immediate and larger contexts of the entire Bible.

When this approach is applied to the interpretation of John 10:10, it becomes quite apparent who it is the Lord Jesus is referring to as a thief and robber in this text, which is a continuation of a discourse that started in the preceding chapters. The scene is the same, and the audience is the same.

Earlier in John chapters 8 and 9, the religious leaders of Israel had, by their cruel and insensitive response to the healing of the man born blind, proven themselves to be, at best, bad shepherds, and, at worst, wolves in sheep’s clothing. Having invented their own version of Judaism, i.e., the Rabbinic Judaism aka Pharisaism, the religious leaders had led Israel astray from the true knowledge of God. Because of their apostasy, the religious leaders had become enemies of God who were strangers and aliens to the Kingdom of God.

John 8:42-47

“Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

In John chapter 10, the Lord Jesus used the concept of shepherding to unmask the religious leaders as impostors, and He exposed their Rabbinic Judaism as an apostate religion. Employing three related-but-separate Jewish metaphors, the Lord drew a sharp contrast between Himself, the Good Shepherd, and the religious leaders, who were the false shepherds.

The first analogy the Lord used was that of a night marauder who sneaks into the sheepfold with intentions of stealing the sheep that doesn’t belong to him.

John 10:1-3a

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens.”

Shepherds in first-century Israel pasturing kept their sheep in a common sheepfold which is a walled-in enclosure that housed multiple flocks of sheep belonging to different shepherds. The sheep pen was equipped with a single entrance which served as the only intended place for the sheep to come in or out. 

To help watch over sheep, the shepherds employed the services of a doorkeeper, aka hireling, who served as an undershepherd to guard the entrance to the sheepfold. Also, the gatekeeper assisted the shepherd in caring for the flock, and especially to guard them at night. 

Whenever a shepherd comes to the sheepfold to retrieve their sheep, he would come to the entrance of the sheepfold. The gatekeeper would let him in because he recognized him as being a legitimate owner of some of the flock of sheep kept in the sheepfold. A thief, on the other hand, whose intention was to steal or harm the sheep, would attempt to gain entrance into the sheepfold through another way because the gatekeeper would never let him in.

John 10:3b-5

“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

An interesting thing about shepherding in first century Israel was the unique and special relationship shepherds had with their sheep. Similar to how dogs and their owners have a close bond in our day, so close that dogs recognize the voice of their owners, so did sheep and the shepherds of Jesus’ time. Sheep were able to recognize the voice of their owners and they could tell their shepherd from strangers.

Every shepherd had their own unique call that their sheep recognized and to which they only responded. Upon hearing the unique sound, the sheep would come out of the sheepfold and gather around the shepherd. All the individual shepherd needed to do to get his own flock of sheep out of the sheepfold was call. In response, his sheep, and only his sheep, would come out of the sheepfold.

Now, this metaphor of shepherd, sheep, and sheepfold that the Lord uses in John 10 is loaded with so much rich imagery, it blows the mind. First off, the sheep in the metaphor is an analogy for the people of God. By its narrow implication, in the near-time historical context, the sheep specifically represented the people of Israel. More broadly, though, the sheep are the people of God writ large. These are those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior and who belong to God. The sheep, therefore, is a symbolic representation of the Church of believers in Christ.

We’ll take a pause here and continue next time when we’ll dig deeper into the meaning and implications of this rich metaphor.