By: Rev Bertram Charles

Scripture: 1 Peter 2: Verse 25

Peter compares men and women to sheep, not for their good qualities and attributes but for their foolishness, stupidity and prone of going astray from the shepherd; going away from the fold and going away from green pastures of blessings and prosperity.  The errant and lost sheep only return when the shepherd goes looking and searching for them, finds them and brings them back to the fold.

Comparatively, natural human beings are like silly sheep; they go astray from God, are alienated from God, deviate from the rule of His Word, stray from the straight, narrow and right way; they walk in crooked paths which lead to destruction and death. They never return of themselves, or of their own will, might or strength. They only return to the sheepfold by the powerful and effective Grace unto the great and good Shepherd.  They have turned everyone to his or her own way  that is an evil one;  a dark and slippery one; a crooked one that ends in ruin.  Yet this is a destructive path of their own choice and approval in which they have pleasure and delight in doing.  They become addicted to their ruinous ways, turn their faces from God  and set their hearts toward their own ways that seem right to them but the end are the ways of death.  “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”  (Prov. 14: 12)

The hearts of men and women are so deeply set on these destructive and deadly ways that nothing but the Grace of God can turn them from their wicked ways and lead them in the paths of righteousness, mercy, peace and eternal life.

When the sheep return to the fold, the Shepherd restores and comforts His sheep; He cares, feeds, protects,  shelters and will never leave or forsake them even when they graze through the valley of the shadow of death.