What is the significance of sheep in the Bible?

Sheep were bred in great numbers in Palestine, and formed a large part of the property of the Israelites. The species common there was the broad tailed sheep with horns (Ovis laticaudatus and Ovis aries). In Palestine they follow the shepherd and know his voice, and will not follow a stranger. Sheep and lambs were constantly offered in sacrifice. The morning and evening lamb and the passover lambs were all types of the sacred One who was called "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

Symbolically sheep are figurative of mankind, as being prone to wander: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." Isa. 53:6; Luke 15:4-7. The Lord said, "My sheep shall never perish." The Good Shepherd calls His own sheep by name, and when brought into His own company they have perfect security, liberty, and sustenance. John 10:9. The Lord led His sheep out of the Jewish fold: these were united with His 'other sheep' (Gentile believers), that they all should become 'one flock' with one Shepherd. John 10:3, 16. In the future judgement of the nations, those saved are called 'sheep,' in distinction from the lost, who are called 'goats.' Matt. 25:31-46.

But what scenes met His eye as He passed thus ministering among the crowds of people? He beheld them as worn out, harassed and cast away as sheep not having a shepherd. His loving heart was moved with compassion for them. In this loving sympathy He reveals Himself as the Shepherd of Israel. Long before His Spirit in the prophets had spoken of the scene we behold here. "Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel ; prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do not feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? ... And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd; and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, where they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search and seek after them" (Ezek. 34). In the same chapter we read what Jehovah the Shepherd of Israel says: "I will both search My sheep and find them out. ... I will seek out My sheep. ... I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries. ... I will feed them in a good pasture. ... I will feed My flock and I will cause them to lie down. ... I will seek that which was lost. ... I will make with them a covenant of peace," ... etc. He came thus to His own as the Shepherd, but they did not want Him. As the good Shepherd He laid down His life for the sheep, becoming the great Shepherd in resurrection and the chief Shepherd in glory. But He is also the Shepherd of Israel, and thinks still of His earthly people and loves them. That thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel will yet be literally fulfilled through the returning Son of Man, and then His poor flock will know Him and sing in the earth what the believer's heart sings now: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." "Then saith He to His disciples, The harvest is great and the workmen few; supplicate therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth workmen unto His harvest." He Himself is the Lord of the harvest. He sends forth the workmen and He equips them for the service. But there is a great difference between the sending forth of the workmen to preach the gospel of the kingdom, and to heal the sick, and the gifts, the Lord in glory, as the Head of His body, has given to the church. The sending forth of the laborers into the harvest will be before us in the next chapter.

What a scene it must have been! Five thousand men besides women and children crowding about Him, and at His loving command they lay down upon the grass and after they found rest He feeds them with His bread. In looking upon that blessed picture we think of Him as Jehovah-Roi, the Lord, my Shepherd. "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." It is fulfilled here. Jehovah, the Shepherd, is present with His people. Jehovah, the Shepherd, gives them rest and then in the green pastures He refreshes them. Thus He acts still. Rest and food in Him and through Him are still His precious gifts to all who put their trust in Him. He Himself is our Rest and our Bread. He satisfies the poor with bread. It is prophetic. He will yet be the great Shepherd of Israel and gather His people, His scattered sheep, and supply their wants. We read of it in that restoration Psalm, the one hundred and thirty-second: "For the Lord hath chosen Zion ; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread."

First the parable of the lost sheep. Here we see in the shepherd a picture of the Lord Himself. The ninety and nine, who represent the Pharisee and scribe class, were left not in the fold but in the wilderness — a place of barrenness and death. The one sheep that was lost represents the publican and sinner class; those who are lost, and know it — the "sinner that repents." The Shepherd finds the sheep; the labour and toil is His. Having found it, He secures it and brings it home. His shoulders become its security. He brings it home, and then His joy begins. Never does He have to say, "Sorrow with Me, for I have lost My sheep which was found."

And first of the shepherd and of the lost sheep: "What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and goes after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost" (15: 4-6). They had murmured at his receiving publicans and sinners. Now, of whom were those classes composed? Of Israelites, sharers by natural birth in the same privileges with themselves. They might look down on such, but they were sheep of the same flock; for the people of Israel are viewed in the Old Testament as a flock.

"And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." It is a careful and divine discrimination — not a mere act of vengeance which deals with masses, in which all might be overwhelmed in common ruin. He separates them one from another. At the great white throne, where the dead stand to be judged, there is no need of separating them there. But here there is a mingled company. Such a mixture is never found in heaven or hell, but only on the earth. Thus every clause gives proof that our Lord speaks of a judgment of the living on the earth. He separates them "as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." It follows that the persons meant by "the sheep" and "the goats" are respectively the righteous and the ungodly among the nations then living on the earth, when our Lord comes to judge in His quality of Son of Man. It is not now what we have seen in Matthew 24, where He shines suddenly like lightning. Here it is the calm, but most solemn judgment, with everlasting results, according to the discrimination which the Lord makes between individuals. When the judgment of the dead takes place before the great white throne, the heavens and earth are fled away; so that the Lord must have come before then, or there would be no earth as it is now to come to, as we all confess He shall come.

In the parable of the judgment of the nations, our Lord speaks of those who have shown enmity to Him and His people, as the goats; and the sheep stand for His own, to whom He gives life eternal (Matt. 25:32). The dark color of the goat might also suggest this connection with sin, which we cannot call fanciful in the light of the scriptures at which we have been looking. This is also in accord with the garment of the prophet being of goats' hair. It was a confession of the people's sin and a witness against it.

A term used in the O.T. for Israel as sheep gathered by God as their Shepherd, and called Jehovah's flock. Ps. 77:20; Ps. 107:41; Jer. 13:17. It is also applied to those of Israel that were gathered to Christ when on earth. To these He added the Gentile believers; and all were united into one flock (not 'one fold'), with Christ as the one Shepherd. John 10:16. When the leaders of Israel were to be judged as not caring for the Lord's flock, the prophet speaks of the remnant as the poor o f the flock. Zech. 11:7, 11: cf. Luke 6:20. The Lord also spoke to His disciples as a little flock, bidding them not to fear: it was their Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom. Luke 12:32. In Paul's address to the elders of Ephesus he exhorts them to take heed unto all the flock: the wolves would not spare them. Paul commended the shepherds to God and to the word of His grace. Acts 20:28-29: cf. 1 Peter 5:2-3.

"On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." There was no image more familiar to a Jew's mind than that of the lamb. It was the daily sacrifice of Israel, morning and evening. Besides, the paschal lamb was the pledge for the fundamental peace of the year; even as its first institution was coeval with the departure of the sons of Israel from the house of bondage. We can understand, therefore, what thoughts and feelings must have crowded on the heart of those who looked for a Saviour now, when Jesus was thus attested by His forerunner, "Behold the Lamb (ἀμνὸς) of God." In the Book of Revelation He is frequently viewed as the Lamb, but there with a pointedly different word (ὰρνίον), the holy earth-rejected Sufferer, in contrast with the ravening wild beasts, civil or religious instruments of Satan's power in the world (chapter 13). Here the idea seems to centre not so much in the slain One exalted on high as in the sacrifice: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

John the Baptist came as His forerunner, and bore witness to Him. When he saw Jesus coming to him his heart was full! His stupendous work rose before his mind, and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” The question in the 22nd of Genesis raised first by Isaac was, “Where is the Lamb?”; the answer given being “God will provide Himself a Lamb.” Here He is! the One who had come to take up the work for God’s satisfaction, and for God’s glory. You say, yes! and that is the One who came to do the work for me! to put my sins away! That is perfectly true, but mark, it does not say “sins” here, it speaks of something deeper, not simply the putting away of sins, the fruit, but of sin the root. He is not spoken of as the Lamb who takes away the sins (in the plural) but as the One who for God’s satisfaction and glory deals with the root matter of “SIN.” He deals with lawlessness sacrificially, judicially and governmentally, and so removes it that God—the blessed God—might rest in Divine satisfaction and joy undisturbed for ever. That is why He is called God’s Lamb, and as Jesus approached, John said, There He is!—“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!”