John 10:1-21; 2 Chronicles 8; Psalm 73

“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” (John 10:2-4 NKJV) 

One of the continuing pictures of God’s relationship with His people is the picture of God as the shepherd and His people as sheep. Here, Jesus elaborates by noting that the doorkeeper opens the door for the shepherd, the shepherd can enter and the sheep will respond to his voice. God’s sheep, recognize His voice and follow the Good Shepherd. At the same time, according to what Jesus taught in the following section, they won’t follow the voice of a stranger – they’ll run away from the stranger when they hear a different voice. 

While there are different voices out there, we have a problem in our world today because it seems that we who claim to be followers of Christ can’t agree if what we hear is the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking through someone else, or the words of a false prophet. There are some people whose teachings I follow that other Christians claim to be a false prophet. There are some people that other Christian friends follow that I would label a false prophet and tell you to run from their teachings. The only way to deal with that tension is to make sure that when you hear a “strange” voice, you go back to the Bible and compare what the strange voice is teaching with the Bible. God will never go against His word, nor will He teach us to go against His word. If you hear a strange voice, always know that God will teach you the truth from His word.

Lord, it’s a confusing world out there. So many people are trying to sound like You – many without knowing You. Give Your people wisdom and discernment to hear Your voice in the midst of the world’s noise.