LED BY HIS VOICE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 18, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 16.

LED BY HIS VOICE.

THE sheep of the Orient are led pre-eminently by the shepherd's voice. While, generally speaking, they know his form, his face, his manner, there are times of storm or fog or darkness when either or all of these stand for naught. To be guided by him through the darkness, or storm, or fog, the sheep must know the shepherd's voice.

Importance of Knowing the True Voice.

There are many voices in this world calling for sin-blinded sheep, wandering on cold, barren mountains of doubt, on parched and verdureless plains of human sowing,—voices calling everywhere out of the fog of tradition and ism, out of the world's storm and darkness. And many, many sheep are astray. There is but one voice of Jehovah, the True Shepherd, the Good Shepherd—Christ-manifested. It is all-important that His voice be known and recognized. Only so may we be led through the mazes of this world's darkness to the path of light and the fold. What we do not need to know is the voice of the false shepherds; for knowledge of the false never helps us to the true. Knowledge of the true shields us from the false.

How We May Know God's Voice.

The great Good Shepherd has given us an infallible standard, one that has come down through the ages, one that does not alter with lapse of time. Pre-eminently God's voice is His holy law. Before it was spoken from the glory-crowned height of Sinai, amid such awful grandeur as sinful earth never saw, God called it His voice. It was to be the test of His people—"If ye will obey My voice." Ex. 19:5. Three days afterward His voice was uttered in the great Decalogue. Moses, after repeating that law, said: "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." Deut. 5:22. That law is God's Voice, the standard by which all other voices must be judged.

The Prophets and Jesus.

Thus when Isaiah speaks of the false prophets and evil spirits, which would lead astray, he points to the standard in these words: "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. Jeremiah calls back the wandering sheep to "the old paths, where is the good way." Jer. 6:16. That this is the law is shown by verse 19, where those who do not walk in the old paths and the good way are said to reject God's law. The same great truth was taught by Jesus: "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will [the law, Ps. 40:8] of My Father which is in heaven." Matt. 7:21. Those who do not do this, "work iniquity," or lawlessness. Verse 23. "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." 1 John 2:3. This is God's voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd; do you know it?

What It Is to Know It.

It is not to know the mere words, tho this is good; for they are the form of truth. Yet we may know them and miss the Shepherd, because in them we may not know His voice. What we know in the Gospel sense we are in harmony with; our souls are attuned to its rhythm, its tone, its voice. To know God's voice, it must be written in our hearts by the divine Spirit. Eze. 36:26, 27; 2 Cor. 3:3. Only so can we know God, but it is the privilege of every lost sheep. "If any man willeth to do His [God's] will, he shall know of the teaching." John 7:17, R.V. "O taste and see that the Lord is good." And thus knowing God's law, we shall hear Him speak in the ten thousand other ways in which He speaks to us in His Word, in nature, in His providences. We will know the preciousness of Christ's words: "I am the Good Shepherd; and I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father." John 10:14, 15, R.V. Precious assurance in this world of darkness and doubt! Reader, do you know the Shepherd? If not, why not?