Listening to Jesus

Why does God say that the earth was made for the devil and his angels and we have to live here with them? A second question, why does God say if we belong to him we can hear his voice? I worry every day because I cannot hear his voice.

I do not know which Scripture verse you might have in mind with your question, but the Bible does not speak of God making the earth for the devil and his angels. What the Bible does state is that God has prepared hell for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).

Jesus did say, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd…My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:16; 27). In the opening verses of John 10, Jesus used figurative language to describe how his followers listened and believed what he said: they listened and followed like sheep who knew the voice of their shepherd.

When Jesus spoke of his followers listening to his voice, he did not mean that our ears will receive actual sounds from him. By “listening to his voice,” Jesus has in mind the idea of believing what he says and doing what he says.

The time will come when Jesus’ followers will hear the actual voice of Jesus. On the Last Day he will say to them, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). What a joy it will be to hear that!