When I was ten, my mother talked my dad into letting me raise a goat for 4-H. We had the perfect backyard for such a project: sloping down and large. A young goat was chosen which I named Heidi and my dad built a pen at the bottom of the slope. Goat kids are fun. They have a certain carefree friskiness about them similar to a puppy. They run and kick up their heels and when something catches their eye, they eat it. This quality is good if weeds are a problem. My dad was an avid gardener; weeds were not a problem.
Our yard was a landscaped garden. Even our lawn was special. I remember driving miles and miles to a Japanese nursery that specialized in a fine Bermuda that was coveted for golf course greens. When we finally arrived home with the small box of dead looking shoots, each shoot was carefully placed, watered and cultivated until it leafed out and filled in. This process took months, but in the end, we had a beautiful golf course green for our front lawn.
The lawn wasn’t my dad’s only project. Grapevines were another. He built special boxes for them around our patio. Eventually, they were meant to form an arbor. Flowering shrubs were also his specialty. He chose them according to color and fragrance. They framed the lawns and fences with feathery, green branches graced with blooms.
Can you can guess where I am headed with this story? When Heidi came along, I tried to keep her to the usual diet of alfalfa and corn-mix but it seemed she could and would eat anything she saw. Since she was more a pet than livestock, I often let her out of her pen to play and she would take advantage of the buffet before her. The grapevines were hers and my dad’s favorite. As his lectures escalated so did Heidi’s size and power to pull away from my grasp on her rope. She always headed straight toward the grapevines.
One afternoon, I decided to avoid the temptation of the grapevines by taking Heidi to the front yard. I left her alone for just a minute and she consumed a few branches of a bottlebrush tree. Surely, those are poisonous, I thought. Convinced this was the end of Heidi, I ran to my dad for help. He looked up from his latest project and grinned, “Yes, the bottle-brush trees are poisonous.”
“What can we do?” I cried.
“Nothing, she’ll be fine.” he said, turning back to his project shaking his head.
Not convinced, I waited for Heidi to die. She didn’t. She didn’t even seem sick.
I learned that day that goats can, and will, eat anything. A woman I know uses them to keep down the poison oak on her property.
Jesus knows the goat in us will eat anything. Just like Eve, if it looks good we will eat it. False prophets tempt the goat within us. We look at their signs and wonders and covet a personal blessing. This becomes nothing less than idol worship. Spiritual experiences are what our knowledge of good and evil drives us toward. We reason within ourselves, “If it looks good, I will eat it.”
For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Matt 24:24
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. Deut. 13:1-4
Again, verse 3, “For the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
False prophets are a test of our affection for God and God alone.
We must ask ourselves, “What are we seeking?” If we are seeking Christ only, we may experience signs and wonders, but they are not our focus or our lust. We recognize them as only shadows. Discernment allows us to see through them and know they are meant to point to the Tree of Life; they are not the Tree of Life.
Discernment is a gift found in sheep; goats don’t have it. The goat will say, “I want everything.” Jesus answers, “Am I alone, not enough?”