Fleeced

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before His shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

I don't know why I started thinking about this text...it was during the sermon, so I expect something was said about things being taken from us for our good and God's glory.

Wool is a new thing for me to work with. It was always in my mind just something that made you scratchy. Wool clothes were uncomfortable to the point of unbearable to me. Even in a coat that was lined, that little piece that would touch the skin would drive me crazy. In my mind, it was good only for tapestry, which I didn't do.

But now it is all the rage in applique and ornaments for Christmas trees, etc. It is costly and worthy of my time and attention. I may even venture to wear if if the lining is thick enough. I seek out jackets and pants at thrift shops for making table mats and quilts.

So here is Jesus, a sheep, coming to be shorn...stripped of his coat of wool for the benefit of others. His outer self, His protection from cold and rain and weather and nights, is being taken from Him. He would be refreshed and cooled, the weight lifted, and the cuttings used, washed and carded and spun to cover another of another breed. He would cover us...in a supernatural way, with a part of Him that He could share with us. He was not diminished by this stripping, for He was still the Holy Son of God, the Lamb to be worshiped on the throne by angels in heaven forevermore afterwards. Sheep don't need the wool that they bear annually...those around them, people, do. They used it to warm their woolless, hairless bodies. Is it not interesting that every other animal on earth does not need clothing? But man can hardly survive without it! In some places in the world the temperatures might be conducive to nakedness, but not many. Survivalists know that clothing and shelter are necessary for long-term life. Babies are immediately wrapped and snuggled to maintain their body heat. Blankets or robes are used to cover at night when our bodies slow and heat inside and outside wanes. And Spiritual covering is needed for us to enter God's presence with favor...clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

So Jesus offered His body to cover us, to give us life. I wondered if the sheep were really quiet when shorn. I only have seen one sheering in my life and that was not a noiseless experience. But Spurgeon says this about the passage:

The wonderful serenity and submissiveness of our Lord are still better set forth by our text, if it be indeed true that sheep in the East are even more docile than with us. Those who have seen the noise and roughness of many of our washings and shearings will hardly believe the testimony of that ancient writer Philo-Jud‘us when he affirms that the sheep came voluntarily to be shorn. He says; "Woolly rams laden with thick fleeces put themselves into the shepherd's hands to have their wool shorn, being thus accustomed to pay their yearly tribute to man, their king by nature. The sheep stands in a silent inclining posture, unconstrained under the hand of the shearer. These things may appear strange to those who do not know the docility of the sheep, but they are true." Marvellous indeed was this submissiveness in our Lord's case; let us admire and imitate.

You see, when in a hot climate, the sheep would know that what the man would do to him by stripping him of that excess wool would bring relief. The sheep did not know that the wool would benefit the shearer, but that the stripping of the excesses would make the sheep feel better!

Many times we feel like we are being shorn...like the things that protect us, make us happy, define who and what we are, are stripped from us. We feel the blades cutting through the thick coating we have covered ourselves with, and we are more prone to panic. We fear having things taken from us...our possessions, our health, our friends and family...but what we fear is detrimental, God knows is good for us and for others. If we trusted like the sheep of old that the shearer had our best interests in mind, we would come willingly and let him strip us of the matted, encumbering, suffocating load we bear and let the cool breeze of refreshing wash over us.

Let's trust God as He shears us for our good and His glory, and see how He can serve others with the clippings.