Perhaps this last name of Jesus is a little difficult for you to
understand; but I am told that those who have visited Palestine have
seen the shepherd acting as the real door of the sheep!
When night comes on, the Eastern shepherd gathers his sheep from the
mountains where they have been feeding, and he leads them to a safe
place, called the fold, where perhaps, shut in by rocks, or by walls,
or by the sides of some steep hill with the broken rocks around as a
protection, he brings them to a spot where they may rest without fear.
Then, having counted them in, and having found that all are there, he
places himself across the doorway, and bids his dear flock lie down,
because while he is there as their door, no harm can come to them.
This is a little picture of how it is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can
call Himself the Door of the Sheep.
I think He wanted His people—His sheep and His lambs—to understand that
if He is the Door, that is their safety.
If they have entered by Him; if they have come to Him to be saved, and
washed and made His own sheep, then they have entered by the door into
the sheepfold, and are safe within it!
Jesus says, no man shall pluck them out of His hands.
Satan may try to get in and snatch the sheep or the lambs, but if Jesus
is their own Shepherd and Saviour, if they are truly His sheep and
lambs, then they need fear no evil, for He says, "Because I live, ye
shall live also."
[Illustration: HE LEADS THEM TO A PLACE OF SAFETY.]