The Stepping Stone
Pat Findley
Issue date: 10/24/02 Section: The Forum
In John 10:11, Jesus states, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." I gather strength from the fact that Jesus declares himself the Good Shepherd. I am especially encouraged by the fact that Jesus compares us to sheep. Last summer I was reading through John 10, and it occurred to me that I did not know much about sheep. I grew up more like an indoor boy. Although I used to pet sheep at the petting zoo, I do not know much about them aside from the fact that they are fluffy and on hot days they smell funny. I began to realize that I can read Psalm 23 a million times, but if I do not ever learn more about the shepherd-sheep relationship, I am never going to fully understand it. How can we understand the reality of the beauty of Christ as the Good Shepherd unless we learn more how shepherding was done during the days the Bible was God-breathed?
In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Philip Keller writes, "To a great extent the Bible is a collection of books written by men of humble origin, who penned under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Much of its terminology and teaching is couched in rural language, dealing with outdoor subjects and natural phenomena. The audience to whom these writings were originally addressed were, for the most part, simple, nomadic folk familiar with nature and the outdoor life of the countryside about them." Keller goes on to point out that in today's society we miss much of the truth taught in God's word because we are not familiar with the subjects used as illustrations, i.e. sheep. I learned in our Methods of Biblical Interpretation class that a text can never mean what it never meant. Sometimes I accidentally mold God's truth to fit my own pre-understandings. Sometimes I miss obvious things taught in Scripture because I fail to let the contextual details of the particular text alter my pre-suppositions. It is not something I aim to do or something I do on purpose; it is simply a barrier to understanding the Bible that we all face. Pre-understanding is a fog that creeps into our quest for truth and blurs our vision. It is when we approach the Bible with an open mind and unbiased spirit that the fog begins to clear. The quest for truth is a costly one. It requires that we lay down what we think we know, test it against God's truth and allow Him to make His truth and our understanding the same.
I do not know where you are in your understanding vs. pre-understanding journey, but I hope that you will join me here for the next few weeks as we delve into the shepherd-sheep relationship outlined in the Bible. From now until Christmas break, this column will be about some aspect of the Lord as our shepherd or us as His sheep. Keller writes, 'God is the author and originator of both the natural and the supernatural. The same basic laws, principles and procedures function in these two contiguous realms. Therefore it follows that to understand one is to grasp the parallel principle in the other. Out of this there will then emerge a growing admiration and affection for The Great Shepherd of our souls!" May this be our focus!
In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Philip Keller writes, "To a great extent the Bible is a collection of books written by men of humble origin, who penned under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Much of its terminology and teaching is couched in rural language, dealing with outdoor subjects and natural phenomena. The audience to whom these writings were originally addressed were, for the most part, simple, nomadic folk familiar with nature and the outdoor life of the countryside about them." Keller goes on to point out that in today's society we miss much of the truth taught in God's word because we are not familiar with the subjects used as illustrations, i.e. sheep. I learned in our Methods of Biblical Interpretation class that a text can never mean what it never meant. Sometimes I accidentally mold God's truth to fit my own pre-understandings. Sometimes I miss obvious things taught in Scripture because I fail to let the contextual details of the particular text alter my pre-suppositions. It is not something I aim to do or something I do on purpose; it is simply a barrier to understanding the Bible that we all face. Pre-understanding is a fog that creeps into our quest for truth and blurs our vision. It is when we approach the Bible with an open mind and unbiased spirit that the fog begins to clear. The quest for truth is a costly one. It requires that we lay down what we think we know, test it against God's truth and allow Him to make His truth and our understanding the same.
I do not know where you are in your understanding vs. pre-understanding journey, but I hope that you will join me here for the next few weeks as we delve into the shepherd-sheep relationship outlined in the Bible. From now until Christmas break, this column will be about some aspect of the Lord as our shepherd or us as His sheep. Keller writes, 'God is the author and originator of both the natural and the supernatural. The same basic laws, principles and procedures function in these two contiguous realms. Therefore it follows that to understand one is to grasp the parallel principle in the other. Out of this there will then emerge a growing admiration and affection for The Great Shepherd of our souls!" May this be our focus!