One funny portion of Scripture for me is found in the famous 23rd Psalm:
"Your rod and your staff comfort me."
Most people just assume that they are comforting to sheep in the same manner that the 2nd Amendment is comforting to us.
What cracks me up is that there was another very serious use for those instruments.
The best way for a shephard to keep his sheep safe was to keep them in a hurd. Keep them together. Obviously, sheep are wild, and curious so they like to wander off. This is very dangerous because when they wander off they become easy pickings for predators.
Well, if you have a problem sheep that keeps doing this, there is one surefire way to keep it in the fold. The shephard would take the rod, usually a 12" piece of acacia or other hard wood, and break a hind leg on the problem sheep. That doesn't sound too comforting does it!?
The comforting part is what happens next. All of us have seen old paintings of shephards with a sheep over his shoulders being carried about. More than likely what you are seeing is one of these problem sheep. Since that sheep is no longer mobile, the shepard has the responsibility to hand care for that sheep. To feed it and take it to water. While nursing this sheep back to health it forms a bond with that shephard. By the time it is fully healed, and allowed to walk freely, that sheep will usually be found always right neer the shepard.
That security, bond, and love are the comforting part in the 23rd Psalm.
I say all this because in my previous post I said:
Originally Posted by HugAJackass
"My sheep hear my voice, and they follow it." Applies to the other half, at least some of the time.
The last part of that applies to me more often than not. I often find myself having wandered away from the herd, out there where I cannot hear the voice of the Shephard. This usually results in a "broken leg" of sorts.
The difference between me and most other sheep is that I'm a much slower learner.
I say this only to say, don't lump me in with other Christians. More often than not, I do not deserve to carry the name of Christ as a lable on my life. IMO, if you want to see a Christian, then study the person of Jesus. Everyone else is just second rate scum.
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
