Know it that it is the LOST SHEEP that is looked for, not the ESCAPED GOAT. The case of the sheep is an accident and not intentional, but tbe goat’s is intended and done in mischief. The goat is not lost, it ran away. The sheep desires to be found but the goat, does not. Folks see the sheep as a docile, uninspired and almost dumb animal. But the truth is that it is a deeply loyal and quietly intelligent animal. Our people say that what the dog sees and barks excitedly, the sheep sees also but maintains watchful silence. The greater truth is that there is a male sheep called the Ram. An extremely powerful yet very regal and highly responsible territorial animal. It does not go looking for a fight like the goat, but is known never to shy or run away from one. It fights fiercely even unto death against even the lion, especially in protection of its family.
Therefore in life, one has to decide if you are a sheep or a goat.
May the good Lord bless us all.
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
Jesus was in the area of Tyre and Sidon, a coastal region in extreme northwestern Galilee (Matthew 15:21) when a Canaanite woman came to Him with a request to heal her demon-possessed daughter. For a while, Jesus did not respond to the woman’s entreaties, and she followed Him and continued to beg for mercy. Finally, the disciples, feeling that the woman was a nuisance, asked Jesus to send her away. Then Jesus said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).
We should understand Jesus’ words here not as an outright rejection of the Gentiles—moments later, He heals the woman’s daughter (Matthew 15:28)—but as a fulfillment of prophecy, a setting of priorities, and a test of the woman’s faith.
In Jeremiah 50:6, God calls Israel His people and “lost sheep.” The Messiah, spoken of throughout the Old Testament, was seen as the one who would gather these “lost sheep” (Ezekiel 34:23-24; Micah 5:4-5). When Jesus presented Himself as a shepherd to Israel, He was claiming to be the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy (Mark 6:34, 14:27; John 10:11-16; see also Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 5:4; and Revelation 7:17).
