10 Jul 2015

Matthew 18:12-13

Posted by joncooper

Matthew 18:12: “How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.”

Jesus was just talking about the angels in Heaven, and then about how He came to seek and save them which were lost. What if, in this example, the one sheep that went astray actually represents Mankind as a whole? The 99 that did not go astray could be the angels, or even other races that we have not been told about.

After all, the Bible tells us that all we like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us. This is not a case where one went astray while 99 did not. We are all lost. Therefore, it makes sense that the sheep that went astray represents mankind. The sheep that did not go astray would be the angels.

I have never heard anyone propose this interpretation before, but it makes a great deal of sense to me. The shepherd left both his home and the 99 good sheep to go after the one sheep that got lost. Jesus left both His home in Heaven and the unfallen angels to go after the human race, which had become lost. I think it fits.

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