In Loving Memory of Dick Steele (11 Sept 1915 - 2 Oct 2010) - Psalm 116:15

I was planning to use the following devotional thought for my next blog post. I will go ahead and use it, though now it holds two meanings. My dad used it as his bulletin article this week. I was touched because of the man who told this story. He was a retired music teacher and rancher of many years. He and his wife were instrumental in my great love for music and especially singing. He was an amazing man who was still running his own cattle into his eighties - albeit on a four-wheeler instead of a horse. Dick was 95 years old.

In Loving Memory Of

Richard (Dick) T. Steele

September 11, 1915 - October 2, 2010

"Precious in the sight of the LORD

is the death of his saints." 

 

Following the Goat

Thoughts by Dick Steele

When I was 8 years old I lived in Coffeyville, KS. My grandfather lived in Collinsville, OK and was in the cattle business. There were no local markets for selling livestock in those days. This was before there were trucks to haul livestock. There were no sale barns. If you moved cattle it was on foot or on horseback or for any distance it was by railroad cattle cars. He had several carloads of steers to ship to Kansas City to be sold at the Union Stockyards. Well, he asked me if I would like to go along. Does a horse eat oats? Of course I did!

The highlight of the whole trip was a tour through the Cudahay Packing Co. in K.C. We systematically went through all the steps of the livestock packing industry. The final exhibit was the sheep slaughter. A flock of sheep would be brought into a pen with an outlet leading up an incline where they were slaughtered. I noticed that the sheep were not too anxious to go up that chute. They just milled around in a bunch and wouldn’t move. They seemed to know what was waiting for them at the top of that incline.

Then, from an upper walkway, in jumped an old goat. He walked over to the flock of sheep, they rubbed noses and got acquainted and he then headed up the incline with the whole flock following after him – every last one of them. That goat had no help whatsoever. When he and the sheep got to the top, he just jumped up on his walkway and went back down for the next load. Those sheep were led to slaughter by a goat!

I had many a dream about that event. How many of us have been led astray by a human goat?

I have a feeling that the Lord must have created sheep so that we could be compared to them. Next to a turkey, a sheep is just about the dumbest animal there is. And sometimes we humans are just about as dumb as a sheep. You just can’t “drive” a sheep like you can cattle, but they will follow most anything. By the way, they called that goat Satan.

Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” We are so like sheep! To those sheep, that goat looked like them, thought like them, and probably smelled just like them – so they felt secure and trusting. If he could go up that ramp it must be all right for them.

How many of us have trusted a human “goat” and followed into something we shouldn’t have? It’s not too hard for our so-called “friends” to gain a bad influence on us and lead us astray.

When I was a boy there was an oft-used expression to “follow the wagon off”. This referred to the seeming natural instinct for a dog to follow a team and wagon on the road. And often when a wagon went by, the family dog would follow the wagon off. Do you know anyone who has followed the wagon off?

We’ve all heard of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. In modern lingo, this is also sometimes known as peer pressure. We are influenced so often by our peers - our friends, our companions, our buddies, our associates, our classmates – anyone with whom we come in contact can be that figurative goat. We feel secure because we think just like a sheep does and often follow the goat off.

Through the years I have so often recalled this event in my life and likened it to my own temptations and those of others. In the scriptures the words sheep and people are used interchangeably. We are likened to sheep and sheep are likened to us. In both the Old and New Testaments much scripture is devoted to the comparison of people to sheep and like sheep need a shepherd to guide them, so people need a Shepherd to guide them in the paths of righteousness.

The well-known 23rd Psalm starts out with, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We all need the help of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who can help us in our decision making and save us from being led away to slaughter. We are all so often tempted by goats, wagons, or acquaintances who want to lead us astray.

As happy as I am that Dick has gone to enjoy being with Jesus and the wonders of heaven, I am terribly saddened and hurt because I will not be able to in person give my support to a most wonderful lady who holds a very special place in my heart. 

Betty, I love you and wish I could be there to hug you and share in the memories and conversations. Each time I sing "When All of God's Singers Get Home" (one of my favorite hymns) I will think of you and Dick and realize that some of them are already there.