![]() I think the parallels here for our own lives are obvious to most people, but they always bear repeating. If they get lost, they can listen for the shepherd’s call and follow their voice to get home safely. If they’re out in the field grazing, they know when it’s time to come in. In verse 8, Jesus says the sheep won’t even listen to the thieves and robbers, and in fact, as verse 5 says, they will run away from the thieves and robbers because they don’t recognize the stranger’s voice.īut they do recognize the shepherd’s voice, and they will follow the shepherd. That sounds pretty scary, right? But in this story, we also get a glimpse of the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd that has helped the sheep develop a sense of when danger is near so they know when to flee. Verse 1 makes that plain: “Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.” In verse 8, Jesus tells his listeners that “all who have come before me are thieves and robbers,” and he finishes off this section by warning them of their purpose: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Regardless, the purpose of the door or gate was to keep the predators out. In the context of shepherding, a “door” for the sheep may have referred to a corral that had some sort of sheltered area the sheep entered through and could stay under in bad weather. The Greeks had a unique word for gate that typically implied either the entrance into an outdoor enclosed area that didn’t have a frame save for the fence on either side, or a city gate, which may have been reinforced to withstand attacks. Now the word used for “gate” here is the typical word that would have been used for the door of a house, or more figuratively, a “door” of opportunity. It’s entirely possible that Jesus had this as his backdrop while teaching his disciples. Historically, there has been and continues to be an occasional sheep market near that gate, so it’s special to the shepherds as well. This location was special not only to Jesus, then, but also to his followers and to those who had witnessed that miracle. ![]() One might say Jesus had already rescued one of his sheep in that instance, just like the parable of the lost sheep from Luke 15. Five chapters earlier, Jesus had healed an invalid of his 38-year disability at the nearby Pool of Bethesda. I can imagine, however, if he was in Jerusalem, he was probably pretty close to the Sheep Gate. John doesn’t give a lot of details about where Jesus is at when he speaks the message of the sheep and the good shepherd in John 10. They would establish the standard and the work ethic for getting this project done in 52 days. That the high priest was involved let everyone know in Jerusalem that this project was serious business. This would be the cornerstone, as it were, for the rest of the wall. This particular gate was so significant and so important that Nehemiah assigned the high priest and his fellow priests to be in charge of that section. It was on the northeast corner of the Temple mount near the recently rebuilt Temple and adjacent to the Pool of Bethesda, and it was most likely the gate the sheep would come through when brought in for the sacrifices. One thing of note in this story, especially as it relates to our passage today, is that the Sheep Gate was the first section of the wall to be assigned. The task was divided up among several different groups, with each group taking responsibility for a section of the wall that contained a particular gate-10 gates are mentioned as Nehemiah details the assignments. Most of us, I think, are somewhat familiar with the big picture of the story of rebuilding the wall. Some families had been there for almost 70 years already, beginning to return in earnest after the new temple was completed, but they had no protection from enemies around them because of the decimated walls. Around the year 444 BC, he had approached King Artaxerxes about returning to Jerusalem to see the city walls restored. Nehemiah was a central figure in the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Exile. ![]() My message from three weeks after Easter, 4/30/23.
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