When he has put forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.
A shepherd walks in front of his flock, and the flock follows him. Jesus uses that picture just after the leaders threw a healed blind man out of the synagogue, to show who truly leads God's people and how they know Him.
The Lord is not describing sheep wandering off. He is describing a deliberate move out of the old Jewish system, and He takes the first step Himself.
When He puts forth His own sheep He says, "he goes before them." What that meant for Him! He was the first to go outside. Yes, He was rejected, He was crucified, He "suffered outside the gate" (Heb. 13:12). Jesus was going to call a people outside the Jewish order of things. This is what He has been doing for almost two thousand years. He calls souls out into what He has set up, the direct fruit of His own death and resurrection.
This had just happened to the man Jesus healed of blindness.
No doubt they had turned him out of the synagogue. But Christ stamps His own meaning on their wicked act, according to God's purposes. The man had no idea at that painful moment that it was really grace leading him out.
One detail carries the weight here: a shepherd does not push his flock from behind.
People have often noticed that this is one of the most familiar pictures in the world. Shepherds do not drive their sheep, as people do in England and perhaps Ireland. They go before them, and the flock follows.
Going before is not only a matter of direction. It means He has already met everything the road holds.
Before He made the sacrifice, He had gone the path the sheep trod… "When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them" — in the paths of temptation, sorrow, difficulty. We go through our small share of the exercise of faith; He went through everything. Moses refused the treasures in Egypt; Christ refused the whole world. Abraham "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country"; Christ was a stranger in the whole world. In all His path we see Him not screening Himself by His divine power, but bearing everything that a human heart could bear. There is not a trial but He felt it.
The verse states a rule, not a one-off event. So it reaches into every situation a believer meets.
It is always true — true at all times, and true of all saints — that when the Good Shepherd "has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." This is a truth, a divine principle, of immense value, and it touches daily life deeply and widely. It assures our hearts that, whatever happens, He is at hand. He is always near — within sight, as we may say, and within the sound of His voice… It is your safeguard in danger — your victory in conflict — your light in darkness — your strength in weakness — your comfort in sorrow — your fellowship in solitude — your brightest hope in the deepest gloom.
The reason given for following is not clever judgment but recognition. That recognition is itself the protection.
The Lord had already tasted the hatred and scorn of people, above all of the Jews. But He also knew the depths of shame and suffering He must soon pass through, before the open separation of the sheep. So, in fact or in form, Jesus went first either way, and the sheep followed; "for they know his voice." This is their spiritual instinct, as it is their security — not skill in determining or refuting error, but simple cleaving to Christ and the truth.
He brings out all His own — not one stays behind. And none of them knows where the road leads. They know the voice, and that is enough.
When they left Egypt, none could be left behind. Not one of the Lord's hosts stayed in the land, and not even a hoof of their cattle. … Like Abraham, who obeyed God's call and went out, not knowing where he was going, so the sheep followed Him. They knew little of the purpose of the Shepherd's heart for them, or of the large and wealthy place He was guiding them into. They knew only His voice.
- Out — the Shepherd does not stay in the old fold. He puts His own out of it, and He is the first one outside, rejected and crucified.
- Before — He never drives from behind. He walks ahead, so every step the sheep take is a step He has already taken.
- Tested — the road He walked ahead of them was one of temptation, sorrow and difficulty. There is no trial of theirs He has not felt.
- Voice — they follow because they recognise Him, not because they can argue down error. That recognition is their whole security.
- Enough — He brings out all His own — not one left behind — and like Abraham they go without knowing the destination. Knowing the voice is all the map a sheep needs.
But they will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.
A flock walks in the open behind its shepherd, and this verse makes a striking claim: the sheep will not go with a stranger at all. Their protection lies in what they don't recognise.
Many voices call to the sheep. Their safety does not come from being able to identify every one.
The sheep follow Him, because they know His voice. There are many other voices, but the sheep do not know them. Their safety consists, not in knowing them all, but in knowing that they are not the one voice which is life to them — the voice of Jesus. All the rest are the voices of strangers.
A stranger is not always an obvious enemy. He may hold the place of guide and teacher and still be one.
First there was the Stranger (verse 5). He spoke to the sheep with an unfamiliar voice. There was no ring of love in it. The sheep had never met him; he was nothing to them. They flee from such men. There are people like this today. They take it on themselves to guide and teach. But the sheep of Christ instinctively keep well away from them. They do not hear the Shepherd's voice in what these strangers say.
The verse gives the sheep one movement: away. They are not told to win the argument.
No one has to become an expert in error first.
They are not required to know whose voice it is, nor to be learned in theological arguments. There is only one Voice for which they have ear or heart; and from another voice they flee. From anyone who would imitate that Voice, or claim authority over them alongside it, they do right to suspect evil. For the sheep as a rule, apart from what may appeal to them in the need of others, their best safety is in flight.
It does not mean the sheep are unaware such voices exist. It means the voice finds nothing inside them to answer it.
In John 10:5 the Lord does not mean that the sheep should know nothing about these strangers. Clearly, the New Testament writers were well aware of the subtle attacks of the enemy. But they did not "know" the voice of strangers. There was no conscious inward knowledge of this voice. There was no link with these teachings in their minds, and no response in their souls.
The Lord is describing His own sheep here, so the verse also tests who they are. Not everyone standing in the fold belonged to Him.
Not all who lay in that Jewish sheepfold were His sheep. His presence in it tested this and drew the line of separation. His sheep were the ones who recognised the Shepherd's voice. They did not merely know Him by outward evidence; their hearts answered Him as they answered no one else.
Writers also separate a passing lapse from the settled direction of a life.
Someone may say that certain people have followed evil teachers and leaders. But the Lord said His sheep do not follow them, and do not know them! On the contrary, they flee from strangers. So those who do follow them cannot be His sheep. We are speaking, of course, about a person's settled character, not about a sudden impulse. A true believer will be recovered from that.
This verse warns against studying every wrong path in order to avoid it.
They escape the stranger, not because they know his evil teaching, but because "they know not". If we know God's path for His people, we do not need to turn aside and study the evil of every side-path of the destroyer. How many have lost their way while investigating a side-path they know to be evil.
The safeguard is positive: enjoy what the Shepherd has already given.
A good remedy to keep us from the tricks of the stranger's voice is to be thankfully taken up with the things our Shepherd has given us. … Instead, we are often dissatisfied, unthankful and murmuring, like the people of Israel long ago. This is a golden opportunity for the stranger's voice. Let us not give him a chance.
- One voice. Safety begins not with knowing many voices, but with knowing the one that gave you life.
- No response. "They know not" means no inward recognition, no echo in the soul — not ignorance that strangers exist.
- Flee, don't fence. The sheep escape by walking away, not by out-arguing the stranger. For ordinary believers, flight is the wisdom.
- No expertise required. Nobody has to master every error to be secure; that burden was never given to the sheep.
- A test, then. Following strangers as a settled pattern shows whose sheep a person is. A sudden lapse is different: a true believer will be recovered.