{"id":62,"date":"2003-10-12T23:27:18","date_gmt":"2003-10-13T03:27:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T04:00:00","slug":"the-shepherd-and-his-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/the-shepherd-and-his-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shepherd And His Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillip Keller<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”: — Psalm
\n23:4<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The shepherd?s staff is normally a long, slender stick, often with
\na crook or hook on one end. It is selected with care by the owner; it is shaped,
\nsmoothed,and cut to best suit his own personal use.

Some of the most moving memories I carry with me from Africa and the
\nMiddle East are of seeing elderly shepherds in the twilight of life, standing silently at
\nsunset, leaning on their staves, watching their flocks with contented spirits. Somehow the
\nstaff is of special comfort to the shepherd himself. <\/p>\n

Just as the rod of God is emblematic of the Word of God, so the staff
\nof God is symbolic of the Spirit of God. In Christ?s dealings with us as individuals
\nthere is the essence of the sweetness, the comfort and consolation, the gentle correction
\nbrought about by the work of His gracious Spirit.<\/p>\n

There are three areas of sheep management in which the staff plays a
\nmost significant role:<\/p>\n

1. The first of these lies in drawing sheep together into an intimate
\nrelationship. The shepherd will use his staff to gently lift a newborn lamb and bring it
\nto its mother if they become separated. He does this because he does not wish to have the
\newe reject her offspring if it bears the odor of his hands upon it. I have watched skilled
\nshepherds moving swiftly with their staffs amongst thousands of ewes that were lambing
\nsimultaneously.<\/p>\n

But in precisely the same way, the staff is used by the shepherd to
\nreach out and catch individual sheep, young or old, and draw them close to himself for
\nintimate examination. The staff is very useful this way for the shy and timid sheep that
\nnormally tend to keep at a distance from the shepherd.<\/p>\n

Similarly in the Christian life we find the gracious Holy Spirit,
\n“The Comforter,” drawing folks together into a warm, personal fellowship with
\none another. It is also He Who draws us to Christ, for as we are told in Rev. 22:17,
\n“The Spirit and the bride say, Come.”<\/p>\n

2. The staff is also used for guiding sheep. Again and again I have
\nseen a shepherd use his staff to guide his sheep gently into a new path or through some
\ngate or along dangerous, difficult routes. The tip of the long slender stick is laid
\ngently against the animal?s side and the pressure applied guides the sheep in the way
\nthe owner wants it to go. Thus the sheep is reassured of its proper path.<\/p>\n

In our walk with God we are told explicitly by Christ Himself that it
\nwould be His Spirit who would be sent to guide us and to lead us into all truth (Jn.
\n16:13). This same gracious Spirit takes the truth of God, the Word of God, and makes it
\nplain to our hearts and minds and spiritual understanding. As we comply and cooperate with
\nHis gentle prompting, a sense of safety, comfort and well-being envelops us.<\/p>\n

3. The staff also makes the presence of the Shepherd real to the sheep.
\nIt is the Holy Spirit Who comes quietly but emphatically to make the life of Christ, my
\nShepherd, real and personal and intimate to me. Through Him I am “in touch” with
\nChrist (Jn. 15:26). There steals over me the keen awareness that I am His and He is mine.
\nIn all of this there is enormous comfort and a sublime sense of “oneness,” of
\n“belonging,” of “being in His care,” and hence the object of His
\nspecial affection. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phillip Keller “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”: — Psalm 23:4 The shepherd?s staff is normally a long, slender stick, often with a crook or hook on one end. It is selected with care by the owner; it is shaped, smoothed,and cut to best suit his own personal use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Shepherd And His Staff - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/the-shepherd-and-his-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Shepherd And His Staff - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phillip Keller “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”: — Psalm 23:4 The shepherd?s staff is normally a long, slender stick, often with a crook or hook on one end. 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