The Shepherd Comes

I had been praying at home, and I had sat down on my bed, when a man came in whose appearance was glorious. He was dressed as a shepherd: a white goatskin thrown around him, a bag over his shoulders, and a staff in his hand. He greeted me, and I greeted him back. He sat down beside me at once and said, “I have been sent by the most honored angel to live with you for the rest of the days of your life.” I thought he was there to test me, so I said to him, “Who are you? I already know the one I was handed over to.” He said to me, “Don’t you recognize me?” “No.” He said, “I am the shepherd you were handed over to.” [a]

While he was still speaking, his appearance changed, and I knew him: he was the one I had been handed over to. At once I was thrown into confusion. Fear took hold of me, and grief cut me to pieces, because I had answered him so badly and so foolishly. But he answered me and said, “Do not be confused. Be made strong in my commands, the ones I am about to give you. I have been sent to show you again everything you saw before — the main points themselves, the ones that are of use to you. First of all, write down my commands and the parables. The rest you will write as I show it to you. This is why I am ordering you to write the commands and the parables first: so that you can read them close at hand and be able to keep them.”

So I wrote down the commands and the parables, just as he ordered me. If you hear them and keep them, and walk in them, and do them with a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord everything he promised you. But if you hear them and do not repent, and instead go on adding to your sins, you will receive from the Lord the opposite. All of this the shepherd — the angel of repentance — ordered me to write down exactly as it stands.