"Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors." 
- Isaiah 53: 1 - 12

How many times do sheep, lambs and shepherds appear in the Bible? Don’t worry, it’s a rhetorical question, although perhaps a good game with the children on a long car journey and I’m sure a computer can tell you in seconds. There are the sheep and the goats, the lost sheep, the literal sacrifices of sheep and lambs; all useful and recognisable motifs in Biblical times and still, even although most of us rarely come across them today, a handy reference point.

In Isaiah’s time, and still today, we, like sheep, turn away from the Lord, we ‘do our own thing’ to a greater or lesser extent and we pain the Lord as we do it.

Our salvation comes from God’s great gift to us: Christ who lived among us and died for our sins. Jesus who at His birth was visited by lowly shepherds, and who, amongst other things, was called the Lamb of God. Our collie, while not a trained sheepdog, inherently knows what to do around sheep and looks very happy when he reunites a stray with her friends. How much greater then is God’s happiness when we turn back from our own ways to His?

As we move through this period of Advent let us reflect on how we have turned away from God, in big or little ways, let us ask for His forgiveness and for His help in regaining the true path which will lead us to a closer walk with Him.

- Angus & Irene Ross