I wish I understood half of what you're trying to say with your Biblical scripture; I don't.

I don't mean to be offensive though I lose patience with people who toss around phrases from the Bible pretending that they understand the intention, symbolism, and context of the writers who crafted Biblical text. And please don't tell me the Bible is the word of God- as if God sat down and wrote the Bible. Perhaps it was written by inspired believers but it was written by believers nonetheless. And believers are human, just like you and me, and just as subject to folly, confusion, and hyperbole. (For examples of these see my post history).

I think that the Bible is full of rich metaphor; all religious texts are. The problem, I think, is that people misunderstand metaphor and confuse it for reality. The interpret the signposts as the destination. They confuse the poetry of analogy and symbolism and take everything literally. That leads to concrete thinking and interpretation and the next thing you know...jihad...or Republicans.

Sheep were taken as a metaphor because people base their metaphors on whatever is laying around; whatever is handy. In Biblical times sheep were laying around. They were a fine metaphor for innocence, devotion, and a kind of woolly freshness. These days we interpret sheep as kind of bland and easily spooked. It was in the latter context I referred to sheep.