Goats are exactly what we as Christians are called NOT to be - rebellious creatures. When the door to the pasture is left open, they escape. When a bucket full of oats is left in their reach, they will eat themselves to death. They, as all animals, live after the flesh and mind the things of the flesh. I won't even get started on goat bucks (males) ... suffice it to say that they are about as stinky and obnoxious as a mammal can be.
These are perhaps some of the reasons why the 'Goats' are at the Lord's left hand in our Lord's discourse in Matthew 25.
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." (Matt. 25:31-33)
Goat lovers evidently find this characterization rather 'unfair', but, having taken care of goats for four years, I completely agree with Jesus's characterization here. Goats are stubborn, rebellious and naughty creatures which will very eagerly disobey and escape if they are given the chance. Sheep, on the other hand, will follow the shepherd and not stray from the herd.
Therefore, if we would endeavour to learn anything from these creatures, it would be negative exhortation - stuff not to do! If we were to hold these animals up to a moral standard (yes, this is rather laughable, but hear me out), they would fall short in the following ways:
Walking after the flesh, doing that which they desire, and never willingly acting contrary to their fleshly instincts, something which Paul condemns in Romans 8:13.
They generally establish a top-to bottom hierarchy, in which the top goat is never bullied, the second from top goat will be bullied only by the top goat, and so on, and the bottom goat is bullied by absolutely everyone. This is rather contrary to the scriptures, where we are commanded to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, and forgiving (Eph. 4:32).
Having said that, Goats are cute and adorable. Despite the fact that they are brats (to put it crudely), they are very entertaining creatures. Besides enjoying them, we can learn a lot from them (specifically concerning what not to do).
To cap off this short discourse, I will treat my readers to some pictures of my baby goats, which were born late this afternoon. This is the mother of the babies:
This is a picture of the twins. The white one is a male, while the brown is a female.
This is another picture of the twins:
This is a closer-up picture of the female. We were very glad to get a female, as our two other goats who have birthed gave us only males, and we were beginning to be concerned that we would only get male babies this year.
I hope you enjoyed this rather different post. For those of you who are more interested in deep theology than goats, I am writing another post which (do not worry) will not contain any pictures of goats. But, then again, it is sometimes good to be reminded that there is more to the Bible, Christianity, and life itself than endless theological matters. While we may immerse ourselves in theology, we must remember that God created and cares for even the fowl of the air (Matt. 6:26).
Let us not become so caught up in the logistics of Christianity that we miss the point. Christ died so that we may live, and His love is an everlasting love which endures to all generations. Our faith is not merely an academic exercise of the mind, but a reality that transcends all realities. Let us not be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3). The gospel is not meant to be complicated - it is a call which even the simplest of people should be able to understand. I'll probably get around to writing a post on this topic sometime soon, so thank you for putting up with my rambling. God bless!
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