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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Psalm 23,. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness man.

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We love this Psalm and I think part of the reason we love it is one is that we think it's all about us. But it's not all about us at all. In fact it's all about him. And a lot of times the you know times the Christian bookstores have not done us a lot of justice. Because when we think of the idea of sheep and shepherd, we think it's awesome. Because you've been into some Christian bookstore before and you've seen that picture of Swedish Jesus. He's kind of Danish, he's got blonde hair, no split ends, he's got a bathrobe on Miss America sash and he's petting a big old, fluffy white sheep. And when you see the Lord is my shepherd, you think, oh, that's cute, jesus must really be into me. Well, it's not a good picture at all. First of all, jesus was a Middle Eastern carpenter. So sorry, no blonde hair, no blue eyes, that's not how it would work. Okay, dark skin in the Middle East. I mean, just look up somebody from there today. That's kind of what he looked like.

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And when the Bible calls you and I sheep, that is not a compliment. I hope you realize that that sheep are the dumbest animal who has ever lived on the planet. I mean pretty much every other animal on the planet has a fight or flight mechanism, like they can fly away or they can run fast or they can camouflage their body or they could stand their ground and they could fight with claws or fight with teeth or maybe have venom, but not a sheep. A sheep is helpless and defenseless. It can't outrun anything, it can't juke anything. It's white, so it sticks out like a sore thumb if it tries to hide itself. It is a worthless, helpless, defenseless, dumb animal. In fact, sheep are so dumb that when the Bible says that he makes me lie down in green pastures, it's because the sheep oftentimes cannot identify what is poisonous and what is edible and they'll eat poisonous stuff in the field and kill themselves. And when he says he leads me beside still waters, sheep are so dumb they'll be enamored with a rushing brook and they'll stick their head into the white water and they'll end up drowning. So they're defenseless and they're dumb and God goes. That reminds me of some people I know, it's my church and that is true.

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And shepherds, it wasn't like a high, holy calling man, it was the lowest of the low of the low Shepherds. It wasn't like a high, holy calling man, it was the lowest of the low of the low. And so what shepherds had to do is shepherds had to take care of the sheep. I mean, think about it. What other species of animal needs a full-time employee around the clock? Care to keep them alive? Baby humans and sheep that's what we need, and Jesus says I will do that for you. And Jesus says I will do that for you.

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You see, there is a book about shepherds by a guy named Philip Keller no relation to the late Tim Keller and he talks about the reality of what it was like to be a shepherd that you would have to constantly fight off predators. You would use a rod and a staff. A rod was to whip the predator when it came up, so you don't pet a wolf, you don't tame a wolf, you crack a wolf in the head. The staff was to reach out, like the shepherd's crook that you've seen, and wrap it around the neck of the shepherd. And when it was not going in paths of righteousness, but when it was going to paths of death, like the valley of the shadow of death, then at great discomfort to the sheep, then the shepherd would have to grab that thing by the neck and bring it back home.

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One of the things I found very interesting is that sheep are prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love Sound familiar. And when a shepherd back in the first century would find a sheep that was wandering away, he would go and find the sheep and he would fracture its front legs. He would fracture it in such a way where it would take a few weeks for it to heal. But he would bind those legs up and he would carry that sheep on his shoulders with the rest of the sheep.

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And the reason that he did that is so that the sheep would know that this master is there. Though he made him go through some pain, it was to save his life, because if he wandered away again he would surely get eaten. And the master, the shepherd, did not mind the sheep going through some temporary pain to learn a principle that would save his life. And so the Lord is that kind of shepherd for you and me. He makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside still waters, he restores our soul and he leads us in paths of righteousness. So I ask you this on the first day. I'll ask you again Do you know the Lord as your shepherd? If not, lean in, because he wants to love you, he wants to know you, he wants to take care of you.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.