On the contrary, the Philistines were constantly trying to figure out what the secret of his strength was (see Judges 16). This is about You, not me.”Įven if the Lord has given you a tremendous gift, be it a gift of healing or prophecy, or a gift of singing or songwriting, or a gift of wisdom or counseling, or a gift of preaching or teaching, it’s His gift, not yours.Īs Leonard Ravenhill pointed out in a sermon I heard in 1983, Samson was not some massive, towering, hulk of a man whom God blessed with a little added strength. The power and the wisdom and the riches are all Yours. In the same spirit, when faced with tremendous pressure in the midst of a ministry endeavor, be it financial pressure or the need for wisdom or for impossible doors to open, I will throw all of it back on the Lord: “This was Your idea, Lord, not mine! This is Your work! This is about Your name! This is about Your plan! This is for Your glory! You are the Author and the Finisher of my faith. You’re the Shepherd! Speak to me and I will follow. Very often in prayer, when faced with a challenging situation, I will remind the Lord, “I’m just a dumb sheep.
What a Shepherd! No wonder He is not only called the Good Shepherd but the Great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20). I am the good shepherd I know my sheep and my sheep know me - just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:11–15). The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
He was talking about His own flock and about Himself, the Shepherd of that flock. But they will never follow a stranger in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice” (John 10:1–5).īut Jesus was not just talking about sheep and their shepherd. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.
The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. Their ears are trained to recognize (and ignore) the voice of an impostor.Īs Jesus said, “Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. And he can lead them to green pastures.Īll they have to do is follow his voice. But their shepherd can keep them from danger. They cannot tear a predator apart with their sharp claws, which they also do not have. They cannot kill a predator with their vicious bite and massive teeth, neither of which they have. They are not simply “overly reliant” on shepherds.
This is because they are overly reliant on shepherds for protection after millennia of domestication.”Īnd that’s what this article is about: sheep know the voice of their shepherd. Most importantly, the site continued, “Sheep are not intelligent animals like wolves or dolphins. More realistically, another site notes that “A sheep is about as intelligent as a cow or other farm animals that have not got complex survival skills but can still navigate their surroundings using cognition.” (Did you ever hear a proud parent say, “My child is as smart as a cow!”) So, sheep are “incredibly intelligent” and “incredibly smart”? Could it be that there’s a little pro-sheep hyperbole here? The site also notes that, “In addition to being incredibly smart, they also have wonderful memories! They can remember approximately 50 individuals (sheep and human!) for years at a time.” They experience all of the same emotions that we do including fear, joy, boredom, anger, and happiness to name a few.” They have very impressive cognitive ability and just like humans, they form deep and lasting bonds with each other, they stick up for one another in fights, and they grieve when they lose a friend. To be sure, one website claims that, “Despite the popular belief that sheep are stupid, they are actually incredibly intelligent. Does anyone teach their sheep to sit, roll over, fetch, or play dead? Have you ever seen sheep perform in a show? We’ve seen trained elephants, trained lions and tigers, and trained dogs.
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