“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he brings all his own out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will never follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches and scatters them— 13 because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep, which are not from this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself, I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. 20 And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the words of someone demon-possessed. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” John 10: 1-21 LSB
John 10: 1-21 Shepherds
Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been shepherding themselves! Should not the shepherds shepherd the flock? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you sacrifice the fat sheep without shepherding the flock. 4 Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, and the diseased you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up, and the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost; but with strength and with severity you have dominated them. 5 They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. 6 My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to seek or search for them.”’”
7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh: 8 “As I live,” declares Lord Yahweh, “surely because My flock has become plunder, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not seek for My flock, but rather the shepherds shepherded themselves and did not shepherd My flock; 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh: 10 ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will seek My flock from their hand and make them cease from shepherding the flock. So the shepherds will not shepherd themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth so that they will not be food for them.”’”
Yahweh Will Shepherd His Flock
11 For thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I Myself will seek My sheep and care for them. 12 As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his sheep which are spread out, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will shepherd them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 I will shepherd them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and be shepherded in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will shepherd My flock, and I will make them lie down,” declares Lord Yahweh. 16 “I will search for the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with judgment.
17 “As for you, My flock, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats. 18 Is it too slight a thing for you that you should be shepherded in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the rest with your feet? 19 As for My flock, they must be shepherded on what you tread down with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet!’”
20 Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh to them, “Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and with shoulder, and thrust at all the sickly with your horns until you have scattered them abroad, 22 therefore, I will save My flock, and they will no longer be plunder; and I will judge between one sheep and another.
23 “Then I will establish over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will shepherd them; he will shepherd them himself and be their shepherd. 24 And I, Yahweh, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken.
Yahweh’s Covenant of Peace
25 “I will cut a covenant of peace with them and cause harmful beasts to cease from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 26 I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing. 27 Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plunder to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them tremble. 29 I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not bear the dishonor of the nations anymore. 30 Then they will know that I, Yahweh their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,” declares Lord Yahweh. 31 “As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” declares Lord Yahweh. Ezekiel 34
V. 1 He who does not enter by the door into the fold of sheep - A fold was a temporary holding for sheep, and a shepherd, the one responsible for them, would return by way of the door, speak to the guard at the door, who would let him in to get his sheep. The people that Jesus is talking to are not unfamiliar with these images. They are rural but also close to town when we think of Jerusalem and the many sheep that lived and were tended outside the city for sacrificial purposes. It is also, more importantly, a spiritual concept from their own scrolls, the OT. You can read Ezekiel 34 above and the OT is filled with references to shepherds, including King David who was a shepherd as a boy.
…10Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber. 11Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain: 12“Come, let me get the wine, let us imbibe the strong drink, and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”… Isaiah 56: 10-12
He is a thief and a robber - A thief can be one who steals by stealth, but a robber is a thief who comes prepared for violence or uses violence as his means to steal, like highway robbers. Mohammad was a good example of this. He was a caravan robber who then used cunning in making peace treaties without intent to keep them. Some talk of subterfuge in our day, and even some Christians say it is not lying when you lie in war, but God never calls sin by any other name. By teaching bad doctrine and adding unnecessary steps to the law, the Scribes and Pharisees sought to draw attention to themselves and away from the true God. They would that men follow them astray rather than teaching men to follow God. Now they can't recognize the true God Himself, nor His Son, so they are trying to kill Him before He can take away His sheep.
Thief (2812) kleptes from klépto = steal; kleptomaniac) is a stealer or thief who acts with stealth or subterfuge. The kleptes steals by fraud and in secret (Mt 24:43; Jn 12:6) whereas the robber or lestes steals by violence and openly. In classical Greek kleptēs signifies the one who with cunning and deceit obtains others’ property. The NT uses kleptes in a figurative sense to describe the false teachers and deceivers who "steal" men away from the truth. In the present context kleptes is used as a figure of speech ("like a thief" - see term of comparison = simile) to describe the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Day of the Lord. - Precept Austin
V. 2 But He Who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep - So from the text and the previous text of chapter 9, plus the OT, we see that shepherds are leaders. Political leaders, those in government are a type of shepherd, David being the most famous of those in Jewish history, but there are also spiritual shepherds, and those would be the men that watch over the fold for the Good Shepherd. In Judaism they had priests, synagogue leaders, Scribes and Pharisees, and in the church we have preachers, teachers, elders, and the word pastor is even another word for shepherd. So who is He talking about here? The fold here is Israel, Judaism, and how can we be certain of that, well in v. 16 Christ says, "I have other sheep which are not from this fold." This differentiates this fold (Israel) from the other fold (gentiles). Now remember the last post, we just had a blind man whose parents were afraid of getting kicked out of synagogue, or in other words, removed from the fold. Their son was kicked out, but really he was being called out by the true Shepherd, Jesus. The Bible is very clear in defining the way those not only present themselves but are to actually be, who step into these roles. The Pharisees were obsessed with titles and the praise of men, all the while leading men astray and stealing from God.
2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 1 Timothy 3: 2-7
…3Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed. 4This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, 5whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.… Zechariah 11: 3-5
V. 3 He calls His own sheep by name - This goes so much deeper than trying to develop a rural setting or backdrop for a story. We know that He is bearing down on spiritual applications, that the Pharisees were setting themselves up as shepherds, that they were wolves though who did not protect the flock from other wolves, false prophets and teachers. They were greedy for gain, even taking a widow's last pence. Now here we see too the doctrine of election, that within this fold of Jews is a remnant, His elect, Christ's sheep.
…29For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. 31What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?… Romans 8: 29-31
…14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20: 14-15
V. 4-6 They know His voice - They have been conditioned to the voice of the true Shepherd, as those who are born again gain spiritual eyes and ears. We just witnessed this in the story of the blind man. In verse 5 we see that these sheep will not follow strangers, they don't recognize the voice so they run from them. It's like when we were kids and our moms told us about stranger danger, and not to go with someone we don't know. We tend to forget this when we are older, we tend to take people at their word, or not want to look much deeper than this because we are too lazy to look for fruit or too afraid of sounding judgmental. Some of this we lose and take the low rode of just writing off everyone all together, hiding and keeping to ourselves. Jesus is using this "figure of speech" to teach them, and it is loaded with great truth, but it is all going over their heads and not penetrating the untilled soil of their hearts. There are so many today who pretend at being the voice of the Lord, but those who would distort such a thing, not carefully sticking to His word, will come under a harsh judgment.
…6So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” 7But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here of whom we can inquire?” 8The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.… 1 Kings 22: 6-8
…26He who assaults his father or evicts his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace. 27If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge. 28A corrupt witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.… Proverbs 19: 26-28
V. 7 I am the door of the sheep - Some suggest quite probably that His sheep have heard His voice from the earlier verses and followed Him. Now He speaks of a different type of fold, one they would use when away from town, one for when they were grazing in the hills. This would be a wall of rocks with an opening, and the shepherd would rest in the opening so that anything trying to enter or exit would come through Him, which also reminds us of the exclusive nature of the Kingdom in vs 9. It is only accessed by Him and through Him, His obedient life and atoning death.
…6O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,… Psalm 95: 6-8
I say to you, I am (ego eimi) the door of the sheep (probaton) - I am is the famous "ego eimi" and in this passage He identifies Himself as the door, the definitive article "the" (he) indicating that He is not just any door, but is continually (eimi is present tense) the specific door. The idea is the ONLY DOOR! The sheep pens had only one door for the sheep to enter and as discussed above, in some settings, the shepherd Himself sat in the door guarding the way in and out. In essence then the shepherd was himself equivalent to the door, which is Jesus' point about Himself. He Alone is the door. This statement echoes His declaration in John 14:6 that "I am the (DEFINITIVE, SPECIFIC, ONLY) way, and the (DEFINITIVE, SPECIFIC, ONLY) truth, and the (DEFINITIVE, SPECIFIC, ONLY) life; (ABSOLUTELY) no one comes to the Father but through Me." Door is not literal, but is a term of comparison, specifically a metaphor, identifying Jesus as the specific, unique way through which the sheep can go in an out. He will elaborate on the significance of Himself as the door in Jn 10:9. - Precept Austin
Bruce Barton also interprets the sheep as Jews and the sheepfold as Judaism - The "sheepfold" of Judaism held some of God's people who had awaited the coming of their Shepherd-Messiah (see Isaiah 40:1-11). He "calls his own sheep by name and leads them out"NRSV of the fold. When the Shepherd came, believing Jews recognized his voice and followed him. Not all Jews were God's people (see Ro 9:6-8). (Borrow John - Life Application Commentary) - Precept Austin
V. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers - They had many pretenders, those that put themselves up as judges of the people, who dishonored the office of priest, took bribes, called themselves prophets when they had not been sent.
25 “There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.
26 “Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 “Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain.
28 “Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. Ezekiel 22: 25-28
Lenski writes "Some have thought that Jesus here refers to false Messiahs who had come before his time. But this is historically incorrect and also untrue to the figure. False Messiahs would be false doors to the fold not thieves and robbers who fight shy of "the door." When Jesus adds that these "are" thieves and robbers he comes down to the present and includes the present Jewish leaders. All, past and present, "are" self-seekers. All these are (reality) "thieves and robbers" (figure). They do not own the sheep and they are not shepherds. For their own evil purposes they attempt to get the sheep into their power. How ill the sheep would fare at their hands is left to the imagination. That they are, indeed, nothing but men who steal and rob is evidenced by the present representatives (PHARISEES), who, like their predecessors, reject "the door." (See page 713 of Interpretation of St John's Gospel) - PA
…20The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly. 21I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. 22But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.”… Jeremiah 23: 20-22
V. 9-10 He will be saved - There is only this One Way. You enter through Jesus, you are saved by Jesus from the justice of God. Jesus is the satisfaction for God's Holy and just wrath. You are lost, He has to come find you. The Pharisees, false pastors, teachers and phony Christians will try to offer you another way. Most of it will relate to works and their measuring tape. "You are so special they say, God just wants everybody to be happy, you are good enough, he was a man who did good things before he died, she was a woman who donated much, you said a prayer, we wrote your name in a registry, the god I believe in would never send anyone to such a place as hell." They are thieves and robbers that talk like this. Those that play down sin, the very thing the eternal Son had to die for, in order that we could be saved, they are not your friends, they don't know the Shepherd so they don't represent Him. They say what people want to hear.
…23At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 25See, I have told you in advance.… Matthew 24: 23-25
I'm going to leave 1-21 up for context but pick up with verse 11 next post.
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