Over the course of this struggle I have been thinking off and on about three verses from Matthew 25:31-33:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left".
I understand that those on God's right hand will be those who are saved, while those on God's left will be the ones who are banished from His presence. But I wonder why one side is categorized by the shepherd as sheep, while those on the left are the goats? What makes them so different that they need to be separated? The obvious answer is the salvation that comes from Christ -- that is completely true. If you are not saved, scripture tells us that heaven can not be attained through good works (Ephesians 2:8-9, Luke 18:18-30). But there has to be more to being a sheep versus a goat that God wants me to take away from those verses.
I did a Wikipedia search on what a goat was -- and came away surprised by the way a goat's behavior is described... surprised because I think it is a pretty good definition of what we as humans resemble without the saving grace of Christ:
"Goats are extremely curious and intelligent. They are easily housebroken and trained to pull carts and walk on leads. They are also known for escaping their pens. Goats will test fences, either intentionally or simply because they are handy to climb on. If any of the fencing can be spread, pushed over or down, or otherwise be overcome, the goats will escape. Being very intelligent, once a weakness in the fence has been exploited, it will be repeatedly exploited until they determine it can no longer be overcome. Goats are very coordinated and can climb and hold their balance in the most precarious places".
Let's leave aside the comment about being easily housebroken (I assume I was easily toilet trained) and focus on what we know about goats:
Extremely curious and intelligent: Isn't that what Adam and Eve demonstrated in the garden? But don't kid (!) yourselves, intelligence and curiosity are two things the enemy loves to exploit among non-Christians... or even among us as Christians... "Oh come on... you've ALWAYS wanted to do it... what's the harm in trying?" or "They don't know what they are talking about... you're smarter than that, just GO for it". Eve was curious -- so was Adam -- they were made that way by God. And the enemy used those very same qualities to get them to betray God (Genesis 3). The enemy lured them into a trap by suggesting that God didn't take their curiosity and intelligence seriously... that He who had created the world had a hidden agenda to deny them knowledge. Funny thing, they listened. And we all bear the scars of that moment of frailty. There is nothing wrong with being intellectually curious and intelligent, but it is when that curiosity and intelligence are lead astray that we have a problem. On our own, those two qualities are a potent combination -- they can lead us to explore things that God never intended for His children to explore... new religions, alcohol, drugs, new groups of people, quick fixes to make money... the list is truly endless.
Goats will test fences: How many barriers in your own life do you test? Do you push the limits of what you know God would not permit versus what the world might permit? I'm certainly guilty of that -- like a little goat I like to push my head against a few loose boards to see how far I can get... and a few times, I have managed to push myself out of the pen and run wild. This has lead to misery and hurt. But thankfully, God has always lead me back to the pen. It doesn't mean I don't keep at those loose boards though -- sometimes I do... but I am certainly trying with God's help to keep myself focused on what I know to be right: staying within the pen and enjoying being cared for and protected under His watchful eye.
Goats repeatedly exploit weak fences: I've done it. We've all done it. Everyone has different fence boards that are weak -- for some it could be pornography, for others maybe it is drugs or alcohol, for others it is sex, for others it is seedy movies, poor company, cursing, lying, gambling, etc. The reality is sometimes those weak fence posts are awfully appealing... and how often do we tell ourselves, figuratively at least, that it doesn't matter if we push the board of the fence right out, we can always put it back? Or to drop the metaphor, how often are we known to say to ourselves that we can stop a bad habit or activity by our own power? Just as though a goat isn't able to put back a fence post once it's been pushed off, so too are we unable to stop those habits -- and to truly be free of them -- that are destructive to us personally, professionally, emotionally and spiritually without God's hand.
Hebrews 9:13 speaks to the cleansing power of God in our lives - the power, if you will, to repair every weak fence post: "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[a] so that we may serve the living God!" Take it from someone who has pushed against a few of his own weak fence posts... you can not - NOT - break these things on your own. Go to the One who can.
Goats can hold their balance in the most precarious of places... sometimes, but only for a time...: I added that last bit myself - because no matter how good of a balance a goat thinks he/she may have, eventually they will lose that balance. Likewise, we can balance ourselves on a pin of living absent of our God for a time -- I've done it and claimed to be happy. But there comes a tipping point where a strong wind blows and everything you have built comes crashing down... because, as it says in Matthew 7:26-27, a man who builds his house on sand (that is, absent from God) will find it all very temporal and destructible at the first blush of a heavy rain.
So we know that in the context of scripture, just looking at a basic definition of what makes up a goat, we see that it is somewhat like we are when we are living for ourselves: willful, selfish, disobedient, curious, disrespectful of boundaries. Godless. Not, you would agree, something that we should strive to model.
But, you may be saying to yourself, why would God use an example of sheep to His right as something we would want to emulate? For that answer, I went back to Wikipedia for a quick idea about the typical behavior of sheep:
"Sheep are... animals with a strong gregarious instinct... natural inclination to follow a leader to new pastures .... All sheep have a tendency to congregate close to other members of a flock...."
Sheep have a natural inclination to follow a leader to new pastures: God is the ultimate leader - Scripture refers to Him as a shepherd numerous times. And, as the definition states -- and as we appreciate with God -- when we are truly FOLLOWING HIM, we WILL be lead to new pastures... pastures that are more abundant, safer and nourishing then where we currently reside:
Isaiah 40:11: "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young".
Numbers 27:17: "... so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd".
Psalm 23:1 (through to 6): "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want".
The point being is this: Shepherds protect their sheep. God protects HIS sheep. He scares away the bandit and the enemies, He always is watching out for them, leading them and caring for them. While goats are pushing against weak fence posts, sheep find themselves comforted and cared for in a pasture that is green with quiet waters (Psalm 23:2). As Christians, when we entrust our care and worries to the Great Shepherd, we will find all our needs met. There is something profoundly gratifying about that -- but most of us still have that billy goat instinct to try it our own way first.
Sheep are animals who are gregarious and tend to congregate together: This idea brings to mind the necessity of the Body of Christ. God's Body of Christ is an extension of Himself and something that we as Christians need to draw close to not only for comfort but for support, for fellowship and for direction. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).
Think about the example of the Disciples AFTER Jesus died - they didn't stop what they were doing because they lacked a leader (a Shepherd). Rather, they rallied together - in prayer - to carry on His work... just as their Shepherd would have wanted. (Acts 1:12-14). Or think about the example of Thomas who didn't believe that Christ had rose again because he had not seen it with his own eyes. Instead of leaving the fold altogether, Thomas continued his fellowship with the disciples... fellowship that may have saved him from becoming a goat (John 20:24-28).
The key point I am making here is this: while God is our shepherd and the one who leads us and guides us, we have an obligation to stay in community to ensure we are appropriately supported and guided in our faith and walk with God. There are too many worldly pressures and dangers for a sheep (read: Christian) to walk alone... the lion prowls afterall... best to stay in the fold under the eye of the shepherd, together with your community of believers.
While this last one is not mentioned specifically in the definition, I want to put it out there: sheep - when in community - care for one another. We see it by the way ewes feed lambs, by the way rams defend their families, by the way a mother sheep will charge anybody coming near their babies. The reality is that sheep care about each other. Taken to our context as Christians, Christ calls us to "feed his lambs" (John 21:15). In fact, in John when He is talking to Peter, Christ stresses on three separate occasions the need for Peter -- and indeed, all of us -- to stop living for ourselves and start living for ALL those sheep who require help getting to the pasture.
Hurt and lost sheep are everywhere, aren't they? They are standing on street corners, they are lying in the gutter of despair and heartache... it's the broken family, the pregnant teenager, the spaced-out addict, the angry lady next door, the homeless guy you ignore on your walk home from work... they are all there, and we see these lambs every day... we see them wandering around aimlessly but we choose - CHOOSE - to not see them. Isn't it time that we started to make sure these very sheep are fed, clothed and given something to drink?
We have a choice that we can make in our lifetime -- we can either choose to be a goat, to go about things the way the world wants us to go about it... to be curious and selfish, stubborn and proud, and we can live a life consistently pushing against fence posts. Or, we can choose the comfort of being a sheep, with a Shepherd whose rod and staff are comforting (Psalm 23), who calls us to unite in community and bring other lost lambs into His pasture.
But the choice is ours.
Choose to be a sheep, not a goat. You'll not only enjoy a pasture of abundant love and comfort, but you may find a lot of goats you know being transformed into lambs because of your example, and because of the endless love and sacrifice of the One True Shepherd who will never abandon His flock.
Goats can hold their balance in the most precarious of places... sometimes, but only for a time...: I added that last bit myself - because no matter how good of a balance a goat thinks he/she may have, eventually they will lose that balance. Likewise, we can balance ourselves on a pin of living absent of our God for a time -- I've done it and claimed to be happy. But there comes a tipping point where a strong wind blows and everything you have built comes crashing down... because, as it says in Matthew 7:26-27, a man who builds his house on sand (that is, absent from God) will find it all very temporal and destructible at the first blush of a heavy rain.
So we know that in the context of scripture, just looking at a basic definition of what makes up a goat, we see that it is somewhat like we are when we are living for ourselves: willful, selfish, disobedient, curious, disrespectful of boundaries. Godless. Not, you would agree, something that we should strive to model.
But, you may be saying to yourself, why would God use an example of sheep to His right as something we would want to emulate? For that answer, I went back to Wikipedia for a quick idea about the typical behavior of sheep:
"Sheep are... animals with a strong gregarious instinct... natural inclination to follow a leader to new pastures .... All sheep have a tendency to congregate close to other members of a flock...."
Sheep have a natural inclination to follow a leader to new pastures: God is the ultimate leader - Scripture refers to Him as a shepherd numerous times. And, as the definition states -- and as we appreciate with God -- when we are truly FOLLOWING HIM, we WILL be lead to new pastures... pastures that are more abundant, safer and nourishing then where we currently reside:
Isaiah 40:11: "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young".
Numbers 27:17: "... so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd".
Psalm 23:1 (through to 6): "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want".
The point being is this: Shepherds protect their sheep. God protects HIS sheep. He scares away the bandit and the enemies, He always is watching out for them, leading them and caring for them. While goats are pushing against weak fence posts, sheep find themselves comforted and cared for in a pasture that is green with quiet waters (Psalm 23:2). As Christians, when we entrust our care and worries to the Great Shepherd, we will find all our needs met. There is something profoundly gratifying about that -- but most of us still have that billy goat instinct to try it our own way first.
Sheep are animals who are gregarious and tend to congregate together: This idea brings to mind the necessity of the Body of Christ. God's Body of Christ is an extension of Himself and something that we as Christians need to draw close to not only for comfort but for support, for fellowship and for direction. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).
Think about the example of the Disciples AFTER Jesus died - they didn't stop what they were doing because they lacked a leader (a Shepherd). Rather, they rallied together - in prayer - to carry on His work... just as their Shepherd would have wanted. (Acts 1:12-14). Or think about the example of Thomas who didn't believe that Christ had rose again because he had not seen it with his own eyes. Instead of leaving the fold altogether, Thomas continued his fellowship with the disciples... fellowship that may have saved him from becoming a goat (John 20:24-28).
The key point I am making here is this: while God is our shepherd and the one who leads us and guides us, we have an obligation to stay in community to ensure we are appropriately supported and guided in our faith and walk with God. There are too many worldly pressures and dangers for a sheep (read: Christian) to walk alone... the lion prowls afterall... best to stay in the fold under the eye of the shepherd, together with your community of believers.
While this last one is not mentioned specifically in the definition, I want to put it out there: sheep - when in community - care for one another. We see it by the way ewes feed lambs, by the way rams defend their families, by the way a mother sheep will charge anybody coming near their babies. The reality is that sheep care about each other. Taken to our context as Christians, Christ calls us to "feed his lambs" (John 21:15). In fact, in John when He is talking to Peter, Christ stresses on three separate occasions the need for Peter -- and indeed, all of us -- to stop living for ourselves and start living for ALL those sheep who require help getting to the pasture.
Hurt and lost sheep are everywhere, aren't they? They are standing on street corners, they are lying in the gutter of despair and heartache... it's the broken family, the pregnant teenager, the spaced-out addict, the angry lady next door, the homeless guy you ignore on your walk home from work... they are all there, and we see these lambs every day... we see them wandering around aimlessly but we choose - CHOOSE - to not see them. Isn't it time that we started to make sure these very sheep are fed, clothed and given something to drink?
We have a choice that we can make in our lifetime -- we can either choose to be a goat, to go about things the way the world wants us to go about it... to be curious and selfish, stubborn and proud, and we can live a life consistently pushing against fence posts. Or, we can choose the comfort of being a sheep, with a Shepherd whose rod and staff are comforting (Psalm 23), who calls us to unite in community and bring other lost lambs into His pasture.
But the choice is ours.
Choose to be a sheep, not a goat. You'll not only enjoy a pasture of abundant love and comfort, but you may find a lot of goats you know being transformed into lambs because of your example, and because of the endless love and sacrifice of the One True Shepherd who will never abandon His flock.
what an amazing teaching! Yup ... I was definitely a goat. Thank you for sharing this.
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