Voice Gate

John 10:¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”

Even as He lies down to be the door, so He lays down His life for the sheep. Every night the shepherd lies down and becomes a living gate, he knows that he may never see the next day. But he would rather die protecting his sheep than have a wolf come in. The question is what are you willing to die for? Someone said that until you find what you are willing to die for, you do not begin to live. You only begin to live when you find things worthy of your total commitment, even if it means the ultimate sacrifice. The picture of herdsmen being totally committed to their sheep has been from time immemorial.

When they are nomadic herdsmen or ranched herdsmen, they are usually willing to lay down their lives for the sheep or for their cows. The shepherd typically will never take his sheep to feed in and destroy another person’s farm. But our local herdsmen are destroying people’s farms, the source of their livelihood with their cows. Secondly, the shepherd sincerely loves his sheep. In our own case, their role as herdsmen is clearly for profit because, at the end of the day, they have to sell the cows and make money. Therefore, the herdsman does not really love the cow, he loves the money the cow represents. Unlike the shepherd, herdsmen are actually hired hands protecting the cows, which is why they have to be equipped with AK47 riffles.

But Jesus says He is the Shepherd and He takes care of His own to the extent of laying down His life for His sheep.  When you look at the sheep, the only redeeming characteristics of the sheep is that they are able to recognize the shepherd’s voice and follow him. A sheep cannot defend itself, sheep cannot fight, sheep are not very intelligent, they are actually a little bit dumb, sheep are helpless, and sheep do not have a lot of strength. But the sheep has one strength and the strength of the sheep is its hearing. The sheep can hear his Shepard’s voice. A follow-up strength is, sheep do not only hear the voice, but it also follows the shepherd. A lot of people want to hear God, but they do not want to follow God. That is a challenge when it comes to our safety. God compares us to spiritual sheep, right? Which means we have no power, no strength of our own. Our strength is that we can hear Him, and we can follow Him.

The principal safety of the sheep is in recognizing the shepherd’s voice and recognizing the stranger’s voice and refusing to follow the stranger. The sheep must recognize two voices; the sheep must recognize the shepherd’s voice and the sheep must recognize the stranger’s voice. If a sheep does not recognize the shepherd’s voice, it cannot survive. How do sheep recognize the voice of the stranger? By elimination; the sheep knows its shepherd’s voice and does not follow any other voice apart from the voice of his shepherd.

Prayer: Jesus, You are shepherd and I am Your sheep, I know Your voice and I listen for Your voice. The voice of another I will never follow, in Jesus Name. Amen!