What Does It Mean to Be a Sheep?
If you’d like to understand your relationship with God on a deeper level, get some sheep.
Sheep are often thought to be dumb animals, and people who blindly follow along are sometimes referred to as a sheep. For example, someone might say “they’re like sheep led to the slaughter” or someone else might use the coined phrase “sheeple.”
But as a farmer who has raised sheep for most of her life, I can tell you sheep are anything but dumb and easily led. If we push past the storybook version of sheep, we see they’re incredible animals. That the Bible contains so many references to sheep as a metaphor for us as Christians is no accident.
Psalm 100:3 (NIV) says, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We are called the sheep of God’s pasture and named his people. But in this context, what does it mean to be a sheep?
Sheep function best in community.
Farmers use the word flock to describe a group of sheep, but no matter what word is used, sheep function best when they’re not alone. They eat together, rest together, travel to water together, and raise their lambs together. If one is separated from the flock, it calls out loudly and persistently. We know we have an issue in our pastures if we hear our sheep. A quiet sheep is a contented sheep living in community.
Sheep are not easily led.
A stranger can’t walk into our pastures expecting our sheep to follow them. Trust is the most important part of raising sheep. From the time lambs are born they learn our family is to be trusted. We provide shelter, fresh grazing, clean water, and help when needed. Building that trust takes time, and sometimes a sheep never does come to trust us. Our sheep can choose not to move to the next paddock for fresh grass when we open the fence or go through the gate into the barn to shelter from a storm.
Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has put on him the iniquity of us all” (NIV). When our sheep don’t go where we want them to, it gets hard. Sometimes it’s our fault: the gate isn’t open wide enough for them to see it, or we’re not moving toward them in the right direction. But sometimes they just want to be ornery. We as humans do the same thing to our Shepherd.
Oftentimes sheep don’t understand why we’re asking them to or making them do something, but as the shepherds, we do. We also know they’ll be better because of it.
Sheep don’t always understand what’s best for them.
We recently sheared our sheep. This is the only day of the year when we physically handle them, and it’s stressful for them. We bring them from a lush green pasture into a small corral and then into an even smaller pen in the barn. They’re forced to walk up a ramp, single file, and one by one be shorn into nakedness while sitting unceremoniously on their rumps. One could describe them as highly offended and not very appreciative of the hard work and planning their shepherds put into making this day happen.
But then they step out of the darkened barn into the glorious sunshine without that hot, heavy, woolen coat and skip and run and twist in the air as they frolic around in their newfound freedom.
Sheep don’t understand shearing day. Even Brownie, our oldest ewe, who has been shorn nine times in her life, doesn’t remember what to do or why we do it. But we always do what’s best for our sheep; they are the life of the farm, our joy and our livelihood. They just can’t possibly understand in the moment that they will ultimately be thankful for and joyful because of shearing day.
Hebrews 13:20 tells us Jesus is the Good Shepherd. As much as I love Brownie and all our other sheep, that love cannot possibly compare to the love our Savior has for each of us. He calls us by name, he knows our path, he walks with us, he dies for us. We may not understand the why of our circumstance or be able to see through our present pain and suffering to the glorious end, but we trust him because he loves us. We can trust him with our whatever.
God’s riches are so great! What he knows and his wisdom are so deep that no one can understand his thoughts or his ways (Romans 11:33).
is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.
Photograph of Annie Carlson’s sheep at Morning Joy Farm © Lea Black Photography, used with permission
