She couldn’t believe Lorrie had survived. While Lorrie was being treated, a witch doctor from a nearby village burst into the hut and stared at her. Then suddenly the giant snake, never known to release its prey, relaxed its grip and slithered off through the water. It withdrew to strike, hitting her arm again and again as it held her, screaming, in its coils. Eyes closed, she did not see the deadly anaconda weaving through the water until it struck, burying its fangs into her flesh. After reading the Bible, she took up her prayer list. Lorrie Anderson, missionary to the head-shrinking Candoshi Shapra Indians of Peru, was looking for a quiet place for her daily time of Bible reading and prayer, so she went down to the edge of the river. To protect the sheep from wild animals and thieves.If any sheep is lost, Jesus the Good Shepherd will overturn heaven and earth until the lost lamb is found. In the sheepfold of God, He uses the shepherd’s rod as an alarm system to assure the safety of the flock. If a sheep is missing, the shepherd will immediately begin searching. The method the shepherd used to calculate his portion is counting every tenth animal that passed under the shepherd’s rod (27:32).Īs the shepherd returns to the sheepfold in the evening, he holds his rod horizontally across the entrance just high enough for the sheep to pass under it one at a time. In Leviticus, Moses addresses the general tithe. 14:22–27), and (3) the tithe paid every three years to the poor (Deut. For the ancient Israelites, there were three tithes: 1) the general tithe (Lev 27), 2) the tithe of the sacred meal with the Levite (Deut. The various uses for this rod mentioned in the Bible include:Īnd every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. If you are a wanderer, I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way. – Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. “Ah!” He said, “they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!” And that is the way with men they won’t go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. “Why don’t they go down there when the sheep first gets there?” I asked. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. They may be there for days until they have eaten all the grass. The grass on these mountains is very sweet, and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places they couldn’t get out of. The illustration below will shed light on that bit of truth.ĭr. ![]() Often, we don’t return until we have exhausted every other option. God’s staff is used as guidance to the flock and to lift them back on the pathway when they fell. His rod is used to drive off our enemy, Satan and his minions. The rod and staff mentioned in Psalm 23, verse 4 represents God’s defense and His divine guidance. When used as a weapon it becomes intimidating and deadly. A shepherd’s rod is about two and a half feet long with a mace-like end that the shepherd embeds heavy pieces of iron. The rod is the shepherd’s primary offensive weapon for protecting the flock from enemies, whether the threats are wild animals or human thieves. ![]() It does not refer to a “walking stick” as we often see this depicted in drawings. Its meanings include rod, scepter, and weapon. The Hebrew word here translated “rod” has a long history. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |