Yehovah Rohi; Yehovah Ro’eh
The Lord is my Shepherd
I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
And this invitation is open to all, whoever will accept to follow Him!
The Lord wants to Shepherd us if we will but follow.
He will be our friend, and our Companion.
The Lord leads His flock to pasture (Ezekiel 34.11-15).
Sheep are defenceless and totally dependent on the shepherd.
He lays His life down to defend us.
He feeds, shepherds and pastors us.
God Makes a Covenant
In Zechariah 11.7-12 we see that God made a covenant with His people, using a staff called “Beauty and Bonds” (NLT shows this as Favour and Union).
When Israel is disobedient, God snaps the staff in two, showing that He has revoked the covenant, because His sheep were unfaithful, signifying the end of the old covenant with all the nations.
Zechariah also points out that the Lord asked them to pay His wages;
And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.”
So they count out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter” this magnificent sum at which they valued me!
So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.
Then I took my staff, Union, and cut it in two, showing that the unity between Israel and Judah was broken.
Then the Lord said to me, “Go again and play the part of a worthless shepherd.”
“This illustrates how I will give this nation to a shepherd who will not care for those who are dying, nor look after the young, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy,”
This all turns around when Jesus arrives on the scene in the New Testament, He has now come to shepherd His abandoned flock, who have been like sheep without a shepherd.
He is the Good Shepherd who goes after the one sheep who is lost and places such great value on each of our lives that He was ready to give His own life!
Jesus is treated badly, as a servant and a slave, 30 pieces of silver was the price of a slave if they were gored by another person’s ox, the value of a slave.
What is the value we place on Jesus and His redemption? I hope we value Him a lot more highly than that!
Before His death, Jesus reinstates the New Covenant, first with His disciples.
After His resurrection Jesus passes on the baton of feeding the flock to Peter, when He instructs him to feed His sheep, and care for His lambs.
He reinstates His care for His sheep!
Jesus welcomes the lowliest into the Kingdom, we also must have the heart of a shepherd, to seek out the lowly and weak.
Today’s shepherds have a responsibility to feed, guide and care for the flock, just as Jesus did.
Jeremiah 23.1-4
23 “How horrible it will be for the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep in my care,” declares Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate). 2 “This is what I, Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) Elohim (The Living Word, the Many Powered) of Israel, said to the shepherds who take care of my people: You have scattered my sheep and chased them away. You have not taken care of them, so now I will take care of you by punishing you for the evil you have done,” declares Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate).
3 “Then I will gather the remaining part of my flock from all the countries where I chased them. I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fertile and increase in number. 4 I will put shepherds over them. Those shepherds will take care of them. My sheep will no longer be afraid or terrified, and not one of them will be missing,” declares Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate).
He sets up shepherds over Israel to feed them.
The Chief Shepherd is talking to his shepherds, he is in charge over his shepherds and they are accountable to him.
Instead of abuse of power, a true shepherd does not lead for prestige and honour.
Jesu’s role as “friend” and “companion” can never be replaced by any earthly shepherd and we are to benefit from the intimate relationship which God desires to have between Himself and His people.
We are invited by Yehovah Ra’ah to be in relationship with “The Lord my Friend.”
What a wonderful translation, to know that God is on our side, is our friend, who loves and cares for us so tenderly!
It represents the intimacy which God wants so desperately to have with us, that He would send His Son to die!
He is an Expert Husbandman
Psalm 23
Yehovah Ro’i (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) is my Shepherd, I shall not lack,
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For you are with me;
Your rod and staff they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) forever.
He is a herdsman, He keeps us, is our companion, accompanies and entreats us to follow Him.
What is the Job of a Shepherd?
Rô’eh from which Raah is derived, means “shepherd” in Hebrew.
It suggests “to become known” – this points us to a God who reveals Himself unceasingly, we are constantly getting to know God better, but He knows us best of all.
We Shall Not Want
“Whoever comes to me will not go hungry”, we will be fed by the Word of God.
He cares for us, protects us and provides all that we need; I shall not want.
Our connection to our Shepherd leads us to peace and contentment, rather than skittishness and wandering.
We will be rooted in the Word of God.
He supplies everything we need to thrive in His Word and promises!
He Leads Us in Green Pastures
He pastures, tends, grazes and feeds us till we are satisfied and fulfilled, He shepherds us.
He leads us into green pastures, where we can lie down and find rest, to feed on truth and shepherd us into the areas which are good and nourishing for our souls.
We can be recharged, He invites us to lay our burdens down at His feet and find abundance for our souls, fullness of joy and nourishment in His presence.
Sheep do not know how to find good pasture and will die in the desert if they wander off on their own away from the shepherd and the flock, we need to follow the only one who knows where to lead us.
Separated from the shepherd and His flock, the sheep is on a sure road to destruction, vulnerable to being picked off by wolves or lions or dying of hunger and thirst, what a warning, that we need to be attached to both shepherd and flock.
We need to listen to His voice and stay close to Him as He calls us to rest in Him.
We are to graze and feed on the pastures that He leads us into; the good pastures of the truth in His Word, under the protection of His care.
We need to feed on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
“Know that the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) He is God Elohim: It is He that has made us, and not ourselves. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”
Oh what a joy to be His people, to belong to Him, the rest we find in being His!
“I am the Door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved, and go in and out and find pasture.”
There is freedom in the leadership and care of Jesus.
In Him we are set free to graze on all the fullness of God’s word; to browse with Him among the lilies of His salvation.
His salvation is so wide and covers so much that we can never run out of good pasture.
Goats are stronger and often bully sheep, and represent evil.
They need to be kept separate from the sheep and need to graze in different areas.
Sheep need gentle valleys, whereas goats can cope with rougher feeding grounds.
If you’ve ever seen goats, you know that they can eat anything, the roughest and toughest shrubbery.
At judgement day there will be a final separation of the sheep and the goats, but until then, we find pasture in the church, with His flock, but we must also be responsible to find pasture for ourselves in His word.
He Leads us by Still Waters
He has led us into a place of abundance, He is the source of the Water of Life!
He says to us, “Let those who are thirsty, come to me and drink!” (John 7.37-38)
The water of life without cost, a fountain of living water living within us bubbling up to eternal life!
An ordinary sheep only had access to water through the shepherd, it could not find water by itself and would die in the desert left alone.
In the desert water had to be drawn from deep wells, the sheep had no bucket to draw water for themselves and were totally reliant on the shepherd to give them water and draw it for them!
In John 4, Jesus has this conversation with a Samaritan woman;
John 4.11-14
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Jesus was showing that without Him, we have no access to that living water.
Without a bucket He was helpless, but He was the source of living water and wanted to show her where to get eternal life.
The Holy Spirit is represented as living water, the water which only Jesus can give.
When we trust in Him He leads us into stillness, rest and peace, not into fussing and fear.
We can drink of His Holy Spirit in the presence of His protection.
“Come to me and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11.28), His sheep can only rest in green pastures, where there is an abundance of food and water.
By these still waters, He restores our souls and our thirst is quenched. Just as the Samaritan man bound up the wounds of the man robbed on the road, Jesus takes us aside in a quiet place and restores our souls.
We Know His Voice
Our Shepherd knows us and we know Him; we know His voice and will follow only Him.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, a stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him: for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Shepherds used to call their sheep and they would follow.
We must know His voice and when He is speaking to us, so that we do not go down wrong paths!
When we follow Him, He leads us and guides us in the paths of righteousness, of life and peace He has paths for us to walk in as we submit to His guidance.
God makes a way where there seems to be no way, nothing is impossible for Him.
We are divinely guided as He directs us into the right paths, so many times He has spoken into our lives, with dreams and words guiding us, but do we rightly hear His voice and follow His instructions?
This is a relationship between the many sheep, who are weak, depending on the one who is strong.
If the shepherd does not hear the faint cry of the weak, a life is lost.
“Jesus has heard my feeble cry.”
He seeks us out and saves us from folly!
When people ask me what I have been saved from, my primary answer is myself!
My own foolishness would have lead me to destruction; the destruction of my relationship with my husband and my home, but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, showed me a way out, a much better way than my own!
He literally saved me from the thicket I had got myself entangled in! Thank God that He goes after the lost sheep! (Luke 19.10)
This is a relationship based on grace, mercy, love, trust and tender care.
He carries the sick and vulnerable.
He cares for us, we are the object of His special affection and concern.
If our Shepherd has this special care for us, how should we then care for others?
What kind of thicket are we stuck in, that He will not rescue us?
What wound that He will not bind?
What prison of darkness that His light cannot penetrate?
No situation is hopeless to the Shepherd who rescues us and sets our feet on a rock!
He truly knows us, He knows our weaknesses.
The Good Shepherd is familiar with His sheep.
He knows what is in the heart of man and understands our human nature and yet still loves us and wants to be with us and guide us!
Oh how we need His guidance, because we are prone to wander, but in Jesus we become rooted and anchored, firm and established!
We find safety in His house.
He Walks With Us Through the Valley
Being a shepherd is a dirty job, Jesus, our King, humbled Himself to be our Shepherd.
He walks with us through difficulty.
He is with us in dark times; He is our light.
In every dark valley of the shadow of death, He is WITH us, to bring us THROUGH it.
He does not leave us alone and abandon us, but stays with us.
The valley can be the place where are most vulnerable; sheep are vulnerable to attack from predators lurking in the shadows.
Wolves are the enemies of the sheep, the shepherds protect the sheep.
The wolves know the scent of the sheep, we all know that dogs are renowned for their sense of smell, but the devil and his demons are terrified of Jesus.
The wolf has to go through the shepherd to get to the sheep.
Jesus shields and protects us from the wolf, the lion and the bear and every attack of the enemy, of everything which would attack us, He puts Himself between us and them, so we need to stay close to Him!
“I am the gate for the sheep, whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10.9)
We desperately need the protection of our Shepherd and Saviour!
A soul separated from God, is like a sheep without a shepherd, if we decide to leave the shepherd behind, we should realise that He is the very thing that we need to survive.
We do this by choice, “All we like sheep have turned away, each to his own path” (Isaiah 53.6)
Every soul must choose to be with God or without Him, between life or death.
Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.31-32), if we choose our own path, it leads to destruction.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7.13-14)
What a foolish and scary thing to be left alone in this valley!
But thanks be to God, if we are lost, He goes to find us!
He does not say, “Tough luck, you got yourself into this mess’” but comes to find and rescue us.
Sin separates us from God; lost souls need to be sought out and rescued by the shepherd.
Foolish sheep as we may be, He has compassion and comes to our rescue.
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19.10)
Will He leave us in this valley?
No! We may have to journey through it, but not alone!
We have crossed over from death to life. (John 5.24)
He protects us from attack, strengthens the weak and binds up the broken.
Thieves and robbers will try to come in to kill, steal and destroy, but they do not come in by the door, Jesus. (John 10.10)
Shepherds used to sleep across the doorway of the sheepfold, to protect their flock from attackers, they literally ‘laid down their lives,’ standing between the path of their sheep and those who wanted to do them harm.
His Rod and His Staff Comfort Me
We rest in knowing that God fights our enemies for us and protects us.
The symbol for the letter Lamed in Hebrew is the shape of a shepherd’s staff, Jesus is our Shepherd.
He pulls us out of whatever ditch of sin or wrong thinking we have fallen into and makes sure that we are feeding on the right things, no poisonous plants, not getting sidetracked by wrong doctrines etc.
He goes after the lost, to seek and to save.
He saves us from our own pitfalls and rescues us out of them.
He pulls us out of the miry clay and sets us our feet on the solid Rock of His Word, a firm place to stand in the sinking sands of life.
He has certainly pulled me out of a pit or two, especially when I first got saved, quite literally.
He doesn’t let us get stuck in a rut, He will move us to the pasture where we need to be.
Some pasture may not be the wrong pasture, of wrong doctrine, but new pasture, which will open us up to see new things which we would not have seen if we had stayed in the same place.
For example, we were in our original church where we got saved for nearly twenty years and that church gave us a good foundation, but when God called us into missions and moved us to Thailand new horizons opened up.
We had the chance to mix with different people of all backgrounds and study the Bible in a different way, causing us to discover things which we had not previously thought about, opening up new pastures.
Our first foundation was not wrong, but in order to grow more, we needed to be transplanted.
Gardeners do this when they split clumps of plants, not to destroy them but to multiply them and enable them to grow more.
God gives us the freedom to go in and out and find pasture in His word.
This is certainly not to say that we should be gypsy Christians, but always to be rooted within a local body of Christ, but to be open to His moving us to new pastures, so that we do not stagnate, but grow.
He has already provided for us, we don’t need to wander off and find our own provision, but move under His own direction to us.
We need to trust His direction for our life, that He is leading us to a place of peace and healing, of refuge and provision.
He laid down His life that we might have life and have it in abundance and that we might spread that life to others.
He Prepares a Banquet
He sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies.
The shepherd would spread a cloth to put food on for the sheep and they ate in the presence and safety of the shepherd; safe from predators.
Do we not hear His voice, as we feed upon His word, teaching us as the Holy Spirit speaks to us?
“I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts.” And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour, saying “Know the Lord,” for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest. “ Jeremiah 31.34
He is our ruler and teacher and His Word is to be our food, our daily bread to feed on.
He gives us abundant life and rejoicing in the presence of our enemies. Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the Sheep makes us complete in every good work and gives us a crown of glory that does not fade. (Hebrews 13.20 & 1 Peter 5.4)
He is our very great reward.
We are truly blessed to have a Saviour who makes all this provision for us!
What more could we want or need?!
He is the Shepherd of His flock, how blessed we are to be under His care!
He Anoints Us With Oil
What a joy it is to be one of His companions and special friends, no wonder we are filled with the oil of gladness!
He provides us with peace in His anointing oil, His strength, guidance and empowerment.
We are set apart as His own sheep, belonging to His flock.
We are set apart as kings and priests.
Priest were anointed and set apart for the priesthood as ‘Holy to the Lord.’
He owns us, adopts us and seals us as His own.
Everything He does makes Him more dear to us, no wonder we love Him!
Song of Solomon 1.3 – “Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfume.
Your name is like perfume (scented oils, incense, ointment, purified oil) poured out.
For fragrance of your sweet ointments, your name is fine oil of myrrh, better than all the spices.
No wonder the young women adore you!”
He anoints us with the oil of gladness!
His Goodness Follows Us
His goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, as I do these studies I become more and more aware of His overwhelming goodness, the lengths He has gone to for us.
He is full of goodness and treats us with mercy and kindness which we don’t deserve and so we want to dwell in His house forever, under the shadow of His wing, in the bosom of Jehovah.
He has made provision for us for all of eternity, therefore we lack no good thing.
We are transitioning from glory to glory.
He is our Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace and He is preparing a place for us.
Jeremiah 31.10
10 “You nations, listen to the word of Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate).
Tell it to the distant islands.
Say, ‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will gather them
and watch over them as a shepherd watches over his flock.’
Here He gathers His people, carries and tenderly leads us and watches over us.
In Matthew 9.36 Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved with compassion, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
The Sin Bearer
“We all like sheep have gone astray and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53.6
We have ALL gone astray and are in need of the Shepherd to come and find us.
Like the Yom Kippur goat, our sins have been laid on Him, the Good Shepherd, who has laid down His life for us, His sheep and the sacrifice has paid the cost for sin once for all.
Here, at the cross He became our Sin-Bearing sacrificial lamb.
He is “That Great Shepherd who is risen from the dead.” Hebrews 13.20
He is the “True Shepherd,” promised from Ezekiel 34.11.
Let Him lead us as we go into this New Year and on into eternity.