Before Jesus left, he commanded and sent his apostles to go out and “Feed my sheep”. He had twelve apostles because there were twelve tribes of the House of Israel and he gave them the authority to go and teach.
“Three times Jesus asked Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Lord, You know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my Lambs… Feed my Sheep.’”
Jesus – John 21:17
“These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them, saying, ‘Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter into any city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, preach/teach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’”
Jesus – Matthew 10:5-7
Did Jesus expect his sheep to be fed of canned food drives or ‘Spiritual Food’? Crackers and grape juice or the Word of God? Many churches want to serve their flocks with community oriented activities such as musical events, fund raisers, youth meetings, day care, gyms and sports, etc. But they have not healed the sick; bound up the brokenhearted; searched for those who are lost; fed the flock; nor let them know what time it is. Consequently, they are hungry and desolate of the knowledge of the Most High God. They have forgotten Him and their restingplace.
“My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.”
Jeremiah 50:6
Jesus fed the Multitudes
“Seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain: and when he was set down, his disciples came to him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, … ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled…”
Jesus – Matthew 5:1-12
Amos foretold of a Famine
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the LORD and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.”
Amos 8:11-13
Food that never Perishes
Jesus made the distinction between the Spiritual ‘food’ to eat and that physical food which perishes.
“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Adam shall give to you: for God the Father has sealed him.”
They asked him, ‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom He has sent.
They said therefore to him, …Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’
Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and gives life unto the world/cosmos’.
Then they said to him, ‘Lord, evermore give us this bread’.
Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.”
John 6:27-40
“It is the Spirit that quickens/gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are Spirit, and they are life.”
Jesus – John 6:62-68
God fed Israel after the Exodus out of Egypt
“…The host of Heaven worship You, the LORD God who did choose Abram and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham… You did see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red sea…
You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors You threw into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters. Moreover, You led them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
Also You came down upon mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them righteous judgments and true Laws, good statutes and Commandments: And made known to them Your Holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and Laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant: And gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promised them that they should go in to possess the land which You had sworn to give them.
Nehemiah 9:6-15
The Spirit of God to instruct them
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and did not hearken to Your Commandments. They refused to obey, neither were mindful of Your wonders that You did among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return them to their bondage: but You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and did not forsake them.
When they had made them a molten calf, and said, ‘This is your god that brought you up out of Egypt’ and had wrought great provocations; yet You in Your manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way wherein they should go.
You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. You sustained them for forty years in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wax old and their feet did not swell.”
Nehemiah 9:16-21
The Sheep and the Goats
“When the Son of Adam shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory. Before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was an hungered, and you gave me meat/food: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink… Then shall the Righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you an hungered, and fed you? or thirsty, and gave you drink? … And the King shall answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me’.
Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungered, and you gave me no meat/food: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink…’”
Jesus – Matthew 25:31-42
Enoch also prophesied…
“And those men said to me: This place, O, Enoch, is prepared for those who dishonor God, who on earth practice sin against nature, which is child corruption in the anus after the sodomitic fashion, magic-making, enchantments and devilish witchcrafts/sorceries and who boast of their wicked deeds, stealing, lies, calumnies/insulting, envy/covetous, rancor/resentment, fornication, murder, and who, accursed, steal the souls of men, who, seeing the poor take away their goods and enriching themselves, injuring them for other men’s goods; who being able to provide sustenance, made the hungering to die by starvation; being able to clothe, stripped the naked; and who don’t know their Creator, and bowed down to soulless (lifeless) gods, who cannot see nor hear, vain gods, who also built hewn images and bow down to unclean handiwork, for all these is prepared this place amongst these, for eternal inheritance.”
Enoch, the seventh from Adam – 2 Enoch 10:3
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
Jesus also warned of ‘Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing‘ who feed and clothe themselves of the flock, but do not feed the flock.
Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits… a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit…”
Jesus – Matthew 7:15-29
“You eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with the wool, you kill them that are fed: but you do not feed the flock! …but with force and cruelty you have ruled over them…
Therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle/rams and cattle/goats.
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant of David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant of David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.”
Ezekiel 34:3-4, 22-24
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the House of Israel, are My people, saith the LORD God. And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men/people, and I am your God, saith the LORD God.”
Ezekiel 34:29-31
Everlasting Life or Shame & Contempt
Now Hear the Word of the LORD! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he!
“At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of Great Tribulation, such as has never been seen on the earth nor will ever be again: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the Book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life – some to shame and everlasting contempt.
They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”
Daniel 12:1-3
The Lamb’s Book of Life
In the beginning, at the persuasion of that old Serpent, Eve ‘ate’ from the wrong tree. If she and her husband had eaten of the Tree of Life, everything would’ve been quite different. Come back to the Garden and never hunger again!
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life…
Blessed are they that keep His Commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the congregations. ‘I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star’. And the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’. Let him that hears say, ‘Come’. Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely.”
Revelation of Jesus Christ 21:27; 22:14-17
“Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency! Your enemies shall be found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places.”
Deuteronomy 33:29