The concept of a sheep without a shepherd reminds us of Ezekiel’s castigation of the shepherds of Israel “that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? … and they were scattered because they had no shepherd” (Ezekiel 34:2–5). However, the writings of Ezekiel would not have been on the plates of brass since Ezekiel was among those taken into Babylon after Lehi was commanded to leave Jerusalem. Ezekiel was not called to be a prophet until he was “among the captives (taken to Babylon) by the river of Chebar” enroute to Babylon (Ezekiel 1:1). Therefore the concept was either revealed to Alma or he was aware of it from an earlier source. The God of Jacob is called “the shepherd, the stone of Israel” (Genesis 49:24), and Jesus identifies himself in modern revelation as “the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel” (D&C 50:44). Of course we have the twenty-third psalm enlarging upon “The Lord is my Shepherd.” The most well-known New Testament passage is the parable given to the Pharisees by the Savior along with his further explanation, where he again says,” I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14; see also vv. 1–18). Apparently the shepherd concept had been taught throughout Old and New Testament times.
King Benjamin had given his “people a name, that thereby they may be distinguished above all the people which the Lord God hath brought out of the land of Jerusalem” (Mosiah 1:11). This was the name of Christ and those who “would not take upon him the name of Christ must be called by some other name” (Mosiah 5:8–10). Alma is reminding the people of Zarahemla that Christ has extended a call to them to take his name and become sheep of the good shepherd (Alma 5:38).
Alma’s declaration that they are either sheep of the fold of the good shepherd or of the devil (v. 39) is the same doctrine taught to Nephi by an angel in the valley of Lemuel: “Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great [devil’s] church” (1 Nephi 14:10). Jesus taught the same doctrine to the Pharisees in his mortal ministry. “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad” (Matthew 12:30).
All that is good comes from God, and all that is evil comes from the devil (Alma 5:40) is also a New Testament doctrine. The Apostle James taught: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). The concepts that good works come from following the good shepherd and evil works come from following the devil (Alma 5:41), and that we receive wages from whom we follow, were taught in the previous chapter of Alma (see Alma 4:26–27).