In the social divisions of...
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In the social divisions of old Israel, tax collectors, tanners, and, interestingly enough, shepherds were among the despised trades. They could not testify in court; their trades were considered deceptive. So, it's interesting, the Old Testament prophets and Jesus, in the New, use the shepherd image for God and his Son.
In 1985, I was standing on the Mount of Beatitudes and noticed a shepherd boy struggling to release a ewe from a barbed wire fence in which she had become entangled. His other sheep were wandering off and he was too young to handle the emergency well, so I went down the hillside to his rescue. With a pocketknife, I cut her loose from several barbs. The grateful ewe ran off and the shepherd thanked me. Even as a farm boy I'd never rescued a sheep before, so it was a good lesson to me how God protects and provides for us. (I saved some of the damaged wool for my oil stock and gave some to other priests. Later, the sick were anointed with oil soaked in the rescued ewe's wool. More than one healing came from that incident.
In 1985, I was standing on the Mount of Beatitudes and noticed a shepherd boy struggling to release a ewe from a barbed wire fence in which she had become entangled. His other sheep were wandering off and he was too young to handle the emergency well, so I went down the hillside to his rescue. With a pocketknife, I cut her loose from several barbs. The grateful ewe ran off and the shepherd thanked me. Even as a farm boy I'd never rescued a sheep before, so it was a good lesson to me how God protects and provides for us. (I saved some of the damaged wool for my oil stock and gave some to other priests. Later, the sick were anointed with oil soaked in the rescued ewe's wool. More than one healing came from that incident.
