John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:"
A piece I wrote back in 2011 describes vividly to me the passage in John 10:27. Knowing it was true was wonderful enough, but seeing it fleshed out in life was a special blessing.
November 2011
On our recent trip to Israel, I met an actor in Nazareth village who portrayed a shepherd who was tending his goats. As we approached the coral that the shepherd was guarding, we reached in to pet the goats that were clustered as close to their shepherd as they could get. He was on the outside of the pen while they poked their noses through the slats to reach him. Some of us ladies walked up to the pen, but by then the goats were walking away from the front of the pen. One of the ladies called out to the goats to come back. She spoke several times only to be completely ignored by the goats. The Shepherd saw what was happening and spoke two words in Hebrew to the goats and they instantly responded and returned to the front of the coral where the shepherd stood. The goats appeared not to hear the strange voice at all. The voice of the woman was so unfamiliar that they didn't even lift their heads to turn and look at her in curiosity.
How often do we turn our attentions away from the voice of Christ to listen to the voices of the unsaved or wrong teachers? We look to man first and when their teaching fails, we clamor to hear from God, He is our second choice rather than our first.
This episode with the shepherd reminded me of the Words of our Lord when He said "my sheep know my voice and they obey." In this real life picture of the goats obeying their master we see not only obedience but immediate obedience and great joy in that obedience. The goats loved to be with their shepherd. We watched as the shepherd opened the coral door to let them out and walk away from the pen. The goats stayed so close to the shepherd that he could barely take a step. They stepped on his feet and jumped up on him to stay close.
I loved this real life message that God was showing me. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be as those goats. Clamoring for every moment with Him, following Him no matter where He goes, keeping our attentions on Him every moment. The goats did not just follow Him because He commanded, but because they loved Him. There was no hesitation in their obedience because they loved to please him.
We should be so in love with our Savior that it is His voice we listen to first and all other voices that are not familiar to His commands and directives are ignored, given no attention at all. Do we live in the confidence that we can hear His voice to the point of knowing the difference between His commands and the false prophets and teachers? Do we keep our head straight ahead, heeding not the
Israel Trip Page 2 of 2
unfamiliar voice of the world or those who do not understand what God has told us?
If we love Him, we take our instruction from Him and only listen to those who walk closely with Him. We listen only to those who know His Word and are obeying it. When someone comes along to divert our attention from Him by human knowledge, we should pay them no mind whatever and even correct them that they may not influence us.
The more we remain silent and do not address wrong teaching, the greater chance we have of being sucked into the lies of the evil one. We must mentally fight the deception and verbally refute it when it comes at us. The longer we ignore a problem the more likely that problem will grow into worse and worse disobedience.
If we desire to be close to our Savior, we must stay close to His Word daily and intimately in conversation with Him. As long as the goats stayed very close to the shepherd, they were safe with no chance of being deceived or harmed. We have a lot to learn from that shepherd and his goats. We can love our Shepherd as deeply and completely as those goats loved their shepherd, but to do so, we must set aside our own desires and pride, to trust Him completely.
Let's follow the Shepherd; He has all the answers to everything perfectly!!!
