What does God look like?

Sheep are mentioned in the Bible more than 500 times, more than any other animal. The prominence of sheep in the Bible grows out of two realities. Sheep were important to the nomads and agricultural life of the Hebrews and similar peoples. Sheep were raised for wool or hair, milk and its products (yogurt, butter, cheeses), meat, skins, bones and horns, and dung. Secondly, sheep are used throughout the Bible to symbolically refer to God's people. Due to their strong flocking instinct and failure to act independently of one another, sheep have been universally branded "stupid." Awassi Sheep

Conditions of shepherding in ancient Israel, however, differed from most modern practices: Sheep were not fenced in and left to fend for themselves. Instead they were totally dependent on shepherds for protection. grazing, watering, shelter and tending to injuries. In fact, sheep would not survive long without a shepherd.

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I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. 12 When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them.
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I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Fatherand I lay down my life for the sheep.

9 I am the gate. Those who come in by me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

What did the sheep do to be allowed in the flock? They did not have to apply for a carte de sejour or visa. No medical exams, no tests, Had to understand they are sheep. But, they had to know where the shepherd was, and stay in relationship to him, close to him.

The main point, for Calvin, is that the biblical Word means nothing without the Spirit to make it come alive and seal it in the heart of the believer. The written Word is never to be considered independently from the agency of the Holy Spirit, which gives life to it. The biblical author does not speak by and from himself, but is an instrument of the Holy Spirit. The joint importance of the external aspect of the biblical text as well as its internal spiritual aspect: the same Spirit that inspired the authors of the Bible must inspire those who read it. So this text, which is now over 2,000 years old and can be studied historically, etc., becomes a Word of God, for me personally and in a way that is immediately pertinent to my life, by virtue of the "inner witness of the Holy Spirit."