The Shepherd, Lamb, and Savior
The Shepherd, Lamb, and Savior
By Joseph Parker
If God wrote a book, what might He say? What would He want to tell us? What would He think is most important to share with the people of the world? If God decided to write a book, would you read it? And just how closely would you pay attention to what God said in His book?
Well God did write a book. And He used human secretaries to do it. These people were His scribes. We call this book the Bible or the written Word of God. Within its pages, you will find eternal truths that ultimately communicate “The Story.”
There are certain themes and key persons in the Story. The key persons are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Throughout the Bible, God the Son is a Shepherd, a Lamb, and a Savior. All three of those roles are huge in the story. For example, consider the theme of shepherds. God uses shepherds wonderfully throughout the Word of God. Christ is the Good Shepherd. He is the great Shepherd. Yet many of the people God called and used to carry out his work were shepherds as well. Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel and most if not all of Jacob’s twelve sons were shepherds. Moses, David, and Amos were shepherds as well. And don’t forget that God used shepherds in the New Testament to help announce the birth of the Messiah (Luke 2:8–20).
The lamb motif is also a great theme in the Word of God. For instance, as God was breaking the will of Pharaoh in Egypt He told the Hebrews to take a lamb into their homes and on a day that would become Passover to kill the lamb and sprinkle its blood over the doorway so that the angel of death would pass over that home (Exodus 12:1-32). Israel was instructed to perpetually commemorate the Passover from that day forward. The symbolic importance of the lamb in the celebration of the Passover is tremendous as Jesus Christ was to become mankind’s Passover Lamb who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29, and Isaiah 53:7, I Cor. 5:7). It is important to remember that Jesus was arrested tried and crucified during Passover.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb and our Savior. His name “Jesus” means “He will save His people from their sins”. John 3:16 plainly tells us:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Lord Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins. He is our Lord and Savior. He came to fulfill His purpose and He fulfilled it completely.
As you read the Bible containing God’s story always be on the lookout for a Shepherd, a Lamb, and a Savior. Jesus is all of these and so much more. As a matter of fact, Jesus is the Word of God.