What is the difference between the ninety-nine sheep and the one lost sheep in the parable?
The ninety-nine are left in the wilderness and become scattered and lost, but they do not know it. The one lost sheep is caught in a crevice, crying, and knows that it is lost. The essential difference is awareness of being lost.
Les explains that the common impression is that the ninety-nine are safely in the fold while only one is out alone, but he corrects that: they are not in the fold; the ninety-nine are in the wilderness. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine alone out in the desert, and since sheep are dumb, with only sparse grass, they soon scatter and are lost too. Yet the difference is that they do not know it. The one little sheep caught in a crevice cries because it is lost and knows it.