“I once heard a child tell the parable of the
lost sheep in a way that stirred fresh thoughts about who the lost sheep is. A
little girl so tiny that we could barely see the top of her ponytails over the
pulpit told the story in a sacrament meeting….She said:
“There was once a shepherd who had a hundred
sheep. He loved his sheep, so he counted them every day. One day he counted:
‘……ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine.’ A little sheep was lost. The
shepherd went to find him. The little sheep was far off in the rocks and
bushes. He was frightened and lonely. The shepherd went to find him. The little
sheep heard him and was glad. He said: ‘Baa-aa’. The shepherd came and found
the little sheep. He picked him up and carried him on his shoulder back to his
mommy. Then he counted again: ‘…..ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred.’ All
the sheep were safely home.” (Bruce C.
Hafen, “The Broken Heart”, p 37-8)
Elder Hafen said that it dawned on him as he
listened, that he was the lost sheep, that those he knew and loved were the
lost sheep, that the people in the Church were the lost sheep, indeed he said
we are all lost sheep…..because of our first parents, Adam and Eve who “were
cast out of their garden of innocence into the lone and dreary world, and ‘out
in the desert they wandered, hungry and helpless and cold’ (p 38).
The Atonement has so many facets that it is
difficult at times to grasp it all. Perhaps the most important would have to be Christ’s power to redeem us
from The Fall. Having been removed from the Father’s presence, we are born
strangers and pilgrims on this earth (D&C 45:13) but the Saviour’s Redemption
means we can one day be restored to our former home.
The greatest scriptural symbol of Redemption is
Ruth, a lowly woman of Moab who married an Israelite. She was a convert
to the Lord, God of Israel ‘under whose wings she had come to trust’ (Ruth
2:12). When her Israelite husband died and left her with no children, Ruth
became one of the lowliest of the earth, devoid of security or livelihood. When
she returned to Bethlehem with her mother Naomi, she consented to a ‘levirate’
marriage with Naomi’s next of kin, as was the custom in Israel.
Through a levirate marriage, the
woman was provided with children and restored to security and society and
brought back to the family home. Here is where things become interesting. The
Hebrew word for a man who would step up to this responsibility was GO’EL. The
King James Version of the Bible translates it as simply ‘kinsman’ but the
proper and literal meaning of GO’EL is ‘redeemer’ (Rasmussen, “Introduction to
the Old Testament”, 1:157)
Ruth’s GO’EL was Boaz. Boaz
became Ruth’s redeemer and restorer of all she had lost. Boaz and Ruth had a
son whose name was Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who was the father of
King David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ.
Consider for a moment how Christ
redeems us from our fallen state and restores us to the presence of the Father
and our eternal home. The Saviour himself affirms His role as the GO’EL when He
refers to himself as the bridegroom and us, Israel, as the bride (Matthew
25:1-13; D&C 33:17; 65:3; 88:92; 133:10). He is the greatest GO’EL of
all….. the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Hope of Israel, the Shepherd who leads home
all that are lost.
Elder Hafen tried to imagine how he would feel
if he was found unworthy on Judgment Day to return to Father’s presence. He
said he didn’t think he could stand a longing for eternity that could not be
fulfilled (p 88). I am of certainty that I would feel like Cain of old who said
when he was banished from God’s presence to be a vagabond on this earth: “My
punishment is greater than I can bear.”
(Genesis 4:13)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Guiding Them Home by Yongsung Kim)
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