17. According to John 10:7-10 to what other feature of a sheepfold did Jesus liken himself?’

¹⁷ At this point Jesus changed figures of speech to illustrate another vital feature of the matter. “Therefore Jesus said again: ‘Most truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All those that have come in place of me are thieves and plunderers; but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasturage. The thief does not come unless it is to steal and slay and destroy. I have come that they might have life and might have it in abundance.’”​—John 10:7-10.

20. How has Jehovah’s undershepherd stood out in contrast with the “false Christs and false prophets” that “have come in place of” him?

²⁰ In his prophecy regarding the “conclusion of the system of things,” Jesus foretold that “false Christs and false prophets” would arise with great deceptiveness. These have “come in place of” the true Christ, and the deceived persons who have followed such impostors have been stolen away religiously and slain and destroyed spiritually, if not actually. (Matt. 24:3, 24, 25; John 10:8, 10)

Their ears are sharp enough to detect who are “strangers” and imitators. They will not be deceived into following such suspicious and, maybe, evil-designing “strangers.” This is a good example for the sheeplike ones who make up the “little flock,” to whom it is the good pleasure of the approving Greater Abraham to give the Kingdom, to follow carefully.

1. How does the “fine shepherd” differ from a “hired man”?

A FINE shepherd differs from a hired man, who is interested in only the pay that he is to get. Jesus said: “I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep. The hired man, who is no shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong as his own, beholds the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees​—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them—​because he is a hired man and does not care for the sheep.”​—John 10:11-13.

2. (a) By saying that the “fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep,” to what was Jesus referring in his own experience? (b) Jesus’ surrender of his human soul served in what behalf in general?

² Back there in the Middle East shepherding sheep out in pasture grounds had its perils. We recall how the shepherd boy David once had to kill a bear and a lion in order to save the lives of his father Jesse’s sheep. (1 Sam. 17:34-36) Jesus spoke of wolves preying upon the sheep. Driving off a wolf might bring a shepherd in danger of bodily hurt. A fine shepherd would not run away for his personal safety like a hired man but would protect the sheep against predatory beasts. A “fine shepherd” would be willing even to ‘surrender his soul in behalf of the sheep’ so as not to lose even one of them. By calling attention to this Jesus foretold his own death as a human soul in behalf of Jehovah’s “sheep.” But Jesus was willing to measure up to this characteristic of a “fine shepherd.” His heavenly Father, Jehovah God, who is the Owner of the earthly “sheep,” was willing to have his Son surrender his human soul in behalf of the “sheep” whom his Father loved so much. The human “soul” of Jesus was offered as a ransom sacrifice for buying back mankind from death, which they had inherited from sinful Adam.

3. (a) According to John 10:14, 15, Jesus compared himself to what with respect to his Father? (b) In order to share the Abrahamic promise with the “little flock,” what was Jesus willing to do?

³ A “fine shepherd” also becomes intimate with each sheep of the flock and assigns to it an individual name by which to call it to him and fondle it or care for its needs.