Protected by the Shepherd

Good morning dear saints. It is a new day. When you pick up your new prescription you are asked if you need to speak to the Pharmacist. They want to know if you have ever taken the medicine before and they are quick to tell you the side effects. Sometimes those side effects are worse than the illness. I have asked and not really got a clear answer about if I have an ankle ache and I take a pill, how does that pill know where the ache is? I don’t understand and have not been given a clear answer. But the good news is that it works.

The more I study from the Word of God the more I realize that I don’t know how things are suppose to work. For example, I am a sheep in the flock of God. I spend my time in the pasture and daily I get my scraps and scratches just by being out in the wild. At night when get back in my pen, I get checked out by the Master Shepherd. That doesn’t mean He was not there with me during the day. But sometimes I wander into dangerous places. The Shepherd has an oil that He applies to the injuries of the sheep. You see sheep keep their head down and graze, unaware of the surroundings. The shepherd has the responsibility of checking out the pasture land for certain dangerous things. The sheep pay no attention to the dangers but the shepherd does. There are two dangers that really harm the sheep as they graze. One is the poisonous plants. The shepherd has to search the pasture land and remove any that would be harmful to the flock. The second is a little snake called an Adder. This snake lives in holes in the ground and when the sheep’s noise gets close the snake slithers out and strikes the nose of the sheep. So how does the shepherd prepare the sheep for this danger. The shepherd is out in the field with a bottle of oil. When he comes up on one of those holes, he will pour oil completely around the opening so the snake can not slither up but will slide back down. The shepherd also places the same oil around the nose of each sheep so that the snake will get a whiff of the oil and refuse to strike. Thus the shepherd, because he has prepared the pasture and the sheep, can rest assured that the sheep will be a bit safer.

Psalms 23:5 says “He anointed my head with oil.” David was an experienced shepherd and so when he relates his experiences to his faith in the LORD as his shepherd, he knew the protection the LORD always provides. Now we can get busy grazing because the LORD has anointed our head with oil. Be a blessing today.