Sheep are unique creatures that are very needy and dependent on a protector. A. B. Paterson offers a different view of sheep that we seldom emphasize when describing sheep. we often think of sheep as being innocent and even cuddly, the following quotation from A.B. Paterson provides a different aspect of them: He writes:
People have gotten the impression that the merino [sheep] is a gentle, bleating animal that gets its living without trouble to anybody, and comes up every year to be shorn with a pleased smile on its amiable face. It is my purpose here to exhibit the merino sheep in its true light. The truth is that he a dangerous monomaniac, and his one idea is to ruin the man who owns him. With this object in view, he will display a talent for getting into trouble and a genius for dying that are almost incredible. If a mob of sheep see a bush fire closing round them, do they run away from danger? Not at all, they rush round and round in a ring till the fire burns them up. If they are in a river-bed with a howling flood coming down, they will stubbornly refuse to cross three inches of water to save themselves. Dogs may bark and men may shriek, but the sheep won’t move. They will wait there till the flood comes and drowns them all, and then their corpses go down the river on their back with their feet in the air. A mob will crawl along on a road slowly enough to exasperate a snail, but let a lamb get away in a bit of rough country, and a race horse can’t head him back again…. There is a well authenticated story of a ship-load of sheep that was lost because an old ram jumped overboard and all the rest followed him. No doubt they did, and were proud to do it. A sheep won’t go through an open gate on his own responsibility, but he would gladly and proudly “follow the leader” through the red-hot portals of Hades: and it makes no difference whether the leader goes voluntarily or is hauled struggling and kicking and fighting every step of the way. (Spangler, God 190-191)
No wonder we are compared to sheep that have gone astray! No wonder God names Himself as our Shepherd (Yahweh Roi) and we are in desperate need of Jesus, the Good Shepherd (Poimen Kalos). He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.( Isaiah 40:11).