At first glance you would think that the primary purpose of the staff is to ward off predators, or discipline the sheep in the way to go. Rather, the primary reason is to pull people our of messes. God always knows the crevices that we have fallen because of our inability to obey or listen to God. When we cry out of desperation, God takes his staff and reaches out to us to save and sustain us.What a loving God that even after we have made wrong choices, he is there to reach his staff to get us out.