John 10:1–5

Yeshua (Jesus) describes Himself in this passage as the Good Shepherd. He comes to His sheep meeting all the requirements: fulfilling all the Messianic prophecies, walking in the ways of Torah and being of the lineage of David, a fellow Jew. Anyone who did not fulfill these requirements was clearly a false prophet; “the same is a thief and a robber.”

Further on in John 10:16, Yeshua alludes to His plan to gather the Gentiles along with the Jews (to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles — Romans 1:16) and make them one flock (who has made them [Jews and Gentiles] one — Ephesians 2:14). It was both central to Yeshua’s mission and evidence to His divinity that He came not as a “radical” to the Father’s law and plan, but walking in obedience to the Father and following everything to the letter — Yeshua was not a radical to the Father, but many perceived Him to be a radical because they had lost sight of God’s ways! To anyone who was in line with God’s ways, Yeshua was a good and upright Rabbi, teaching Torah with authority!

Also worth noting, Yeshua describes Himself as “the door” in John 10:9. So Yeshua is both the shepherd and the door by which the shepherd comes in? This alludes to Yeshua’s Echad (oneness) with the Father. Yeshua is both the Good Shepherd and the Doorway to the sheepfold; the Doorway is by what authority Yeshua calls Himself the Good Shepherd— by His own authority! For anyone else this would have been blasphemy, but Yeshua had the right to say this because “[He] and the Father are one — John 10:30”!