Jesus referred to the need for the true shepherd to have such identification or credentials, when he said: “Most truly I say to you, He that does not enter into the sheepfold through the door but climbs up some other place, that one is a thief and a plunderer.

“THE SHEEPFOLD” AND “THE DOORKEEPER”

6. Why was the symbolic “sheepfold” into which the “doorkeeper” introduced him not the Law Covenant arrangement?

⁶ What, now, do “the sheepfold” and “the doorkeeper” mean, inasmuch as Jesus became a carpenter at Nazareth and never was a shepherd of literal sheep? First of all, the “sheepfold” did not picture the Law Covenant arrangement that Jehovah God set up with the nation of Israel through Moses as mediator. Certainly Jesus did not need to be introduced into the Law Covenant arrangement by some Jewish “doorkeeper,” as it were. Jesus had been born into that arrangement. Galatians 4:4, 5 says: “But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent forth his Son, who came to be out of a woman and who came to be under law, that he might release by purchase those under law.” To release them by purchase, Jesus died.

7. (a) On what day in 33 C.E., did Jehovah abolish the Law Covenant arrangement with Israel, and why? (b) Why, from Pentecost of 33 C.E. onward, was there no Law Covenant arrangement out from under which Jesus might lead the Jews?

⁷ So as to present the purchase price to God, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day of his death in 33 C.E. On the 40th day counted from his resurrection day Jesus ascended back to heaven. Ten days after that came the Jewish springtime festival of Pentecost, Sivan 6, 33 C.E. On that day God used him in pouring out holy spirit upon his disciples waiting in Jerusalem. This meant that he had appeared in God’s presence to offer the value of his perfect human sacrifice in order to release by purchase all humans sold under sin, including Jews. Accordingly, on that day, Jehovah God abolished the Law covenant and replaced it with the promised new covenant, making it not with Jews but with the spirit-begotten disciples of the Mediator, Jesus Christ. (Col. 2:13, 14) Thus there was no longer any Jewish Law covenant out from under which the Shepherd Jesus might lead believing Jews.

8. (a) What, therefore, did the “sheepfold” represent? (b) So, for what were the natural offspring of Abraham looking?

⁸ In the light of the above, the question presents itself even more insistently, What does the “sheepfold” mentioned by Jesus in John 10:1 truly symbolize? Unquestionably it must represent something earlier and more comprehensive and longer lasting than the Law covenant of 1513 B.C.E. That was the Abrahamic covenant. When the patriarch Abraham crossed the Euphrates River into the Promised Land in 1943 B.C.E., God’s promise went into effect toward him and his future offspring: “I will bless those who bless you, and him that calls down evil upon you I shall curse, and all the families of the ground will certainly bless themselves by means of you.” (Gen. 12:3) Years later, when Abraham showed willingness to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice, God added to his promise: “And by means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves due to the fact that you have listened to my voice.” (Gen. 22:17, 18) From then onward the descendants of Abraham began looking for that “seed” to come. So the “sheepfold” symbolized the Abrahamic Covenant arrangement. The sheeplike ones embraced within it would picture those waiting for the promised “seed” to come.

9. Whom would the “doorkeeper” not let past him into the “sheepfold”?

⁹ Whether such sheeplike ones knew about the “seed” beforehand or not, they would welcome it when it was made known and presented to them. Anyone trying to get ahold of those “sheep” by false means in order to exploit them would be “a thief and a plunderer.” The “doorkeeper” of the sheepfold would not introduce such a false Christ or Messiah. Anyone getting past that “doorkeeper” and through the “door” would be the true “shepherd,” the Abrahamic “seed.”

Anyone trying to get ahold of those “sheep” by false means in order to exploit them would be “a thief and a plunderer.” The “doorkeeper” of the sheepfold would not introduce such a false Christ or Messiah.