Separating the Sheep from the goats

““But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”” Matthew‬ ‭25:31-46‬ ‭

One of the lessons I heard during the Holy Land tour was that the sheep know the shepherd’s voice and are easier for the shepherd to manage. Some of the shepherds also have goats; they are harder to care for, as they can be naughty and rebellious by nature. We would see some shepherds sitting on a rock relaxing while others had to be up and about trying to control their goats.

The passage above talks about the Final Judgement and separating the sheep from the goats. I couldn’t help but think of the pastors that were part of the group, and those I have sat under through the years. I pray that they are leading more sheep than goats in their congregation. At a time when so many pastors are leaving ministry, I can’t help but see the correlation in how ragged we often run those that we have chose to lead us spiritually.

We are called to be equipped by our pastors to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16) to obey and submit (Hebrews 13:17).

Prayer- Lord, I prayer is that I am a sheep, following both my pastor’s lead and ultimately the voice of the Lord. I pray that my goat tendencies have ended, because I know that I have that stubborn, naughty and rebellious streak.