Consider the scriptures
#4 – John 10:7-9
John 10:7-9 NASB
“So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All those who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
This parable has always fascinated me. There is so much to unpack from these scriptures and so much to talk about.
The listeners didn’t understand the parable before this that started in John 10:1, so Jesus gave them another parable.
“Truly truly” begins many of Christ’s sayings. Emphatically, He wants you to believe what He is saying and pay close attention.
“I am the door of the sheep.” Jesus is the gate or the entrance. “Sheep” refers to “little sheep”.
“All who came before me are thieves and robbers”. On the surface, these words appear interchangeable in English, but the word robbers here in Greek could also be interpreted as “booty”, or valuable stolen goods which are taken by the thief.
The sheep did not listen to them.
This implies that the sheep needed to listen to another voice than the shepherd in order for the thieves to be able to steal from them.
“Did not listen” can also be interpreted to mean that they refrained from hearing; could not hear. Indeed, in scriptures prior, Jesus explains that the sheep know the shepherd’s voice and do not know the voice of strangers.
They run away from the stranger.
“if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
“Go in and out” implies the freedom to enter and also the freedom to exit.
It also means entering in to rest and going out to spread or reach the world.
Finding “pasture” is a concept that relates closely to the theme of this parable involving sheep, the shepherd and the gate, but there is more to this word.
Pasture also can mean “that which is assigned”, law, laws or principles.
If we are entering through Christ, who is our gate, into laws and principles that He has assigned for us, then we can infer that the thieves who came before Christ, came bearing another law.
They came to entice us somewhere else where we did not have freedom and to put us under a set of principles that would steal from us.
Many Christians know the scripture that comes after verse 9.
John 10:10 tells us that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Finding pasture through Jesus is resting in the law of love and then going out to spread the good News to others. We know our Shepherd’s voice.
We cannot and must not listen to the voice of those who seek to take away our freedom in Christ and allow the thief to steal, kill and destroy what God has given us.