So he had them into the slaughter house, where a butcher was killing a sheep. And behold the sheep was quiet, and took her death patiently. Then said the Interpreter, “You must learn of this sheep to suffer and to put up wrongs without murmurings and complaints. Behold how quietly she takes her death; and without objecting, she suffers her skin to be pulled over her ears. Your King doth call you his sheep.”
Notes and Commentary
The Interpreter continues to instruct the pilgrims by taking them into the slaughter house. There they saw a sheep being butchered, yet “the sheep was quiet, and took her death patiently.” The sheep signifies several important truths from God’s Word.
1. The sheep signifies Christ.
Jesus came to suffer and die for His people, “to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). When Isaiah prophecies of Christ’s crucifixion in the Old Testament, he compares Christ to a lamb being led to the slaughter. He faced His suffering willingly, without murmurings or complaints. He was oppressed, afflicted, and stricken, “yet He opened not His mouth.”
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
(Isaiah 53:7–8)
Continue Reading Notes and Commentary
The text for The Pilgrim’s Progress is public domain.
Image above created from Unsplash
Notes and Commentary for Part II ©2014, 2023 Ken Puls
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from
the New King James Version (NKJV) ©1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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