It’s as if God created the animals, and creeping things to teach us lessons of life and to use as corrections for us.
Adults often use animals, in story books to teach lasting and life long lessons to children.
God also used an array of animals to to teach lessons to grown men; many of us will know the story, how God used a donkey to teach the prophet Balaam the lesson of obedience, loyalty and faithfulness (Numbers 22:16-41, 31:16).
The Bible speaks of the Rock Badgers, also known as the Coneys, we are told in scriptures that, “The rock badgers (Coneys) are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags.” (Proverbs 30:26)
We will know that the crags are rugged but secured holes in rock areas, like fortified mountain sides. The Coneys or Rock Badgers are small animals, about the size of rabbits, and their feet are not designed for digging, yet for protection and security these small and feeble creatures builds their houses in the rocks, to protect themselves from predators; the Bible speaks of them in this way, “The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks“. (Pro. 30:26)
There is great wisdom in the behaviour of this creature, it’s made feeble by the design and wisdom of God, but it surrounds itself in fortified structure, in places not easily accessible to predators.
The same chapter of Proverbs declares that, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise.”
I have told you about the Rock Badgers (Coneys), so next we turn to the ants.
The scriptures says of them “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” When the going is good and easy they make preparation for the harshness of winter, for they know winter’s coming; I wonder who taught them that!
We could go in for ever citing other creatures that teach us to be wise in our lives, so we will survive and thrive, regardless of external circumstances.
I could speak of the locusts and the spiders; but this is what scriptures says of them; “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” We are been taught here, by these creatures, that although we may be small in size as individuals, if we organise and conglomerate our bodies and resources together, we can become almost unstoppable.
And, “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” Spiders are creature, whose appearance, furry tickleness and silent stealth, puts fear and discomfort in even some of the bravest men. Kings would like to exclude the spiders’ presence from their dwellings and palaces, yet despite best efforts and them being unwelcome, the spider 🕷, is a permanent resident in the King’s bed chamber.
A friend, who has a huge weeping willow in her garden, tells me that, during this infamous Lockdown, she was looking at a pigeon perched on what appeared to have been a very thin and flimsy twig of a branch; it was not long before another pigeon landed a couple feet away from the first, on the same flimsy branch, and slowly began to shuffle closer to the first pigeon, who shuffled away in the opposite direction – it must have been the mating season – the second pigeon was not getting anywhere close to the first, so it flew off and landed on the other side of the branch, no doubt trying another angle to get attention. When it landed, it landed heavily on the flimsy twig, which seemed to oscillate violently, up and down like elastic spring. As both pigeons bobbed up and down, on what seemed to have been a flimsy and unstable branch, my friend thought the branch was about to break, THE PIGEONS COULD NOT STABILISE THE BRANCH, so it kept on bobbing up and down, up and down, then suddenly the pigeons did something amazing, they stabilised their own oscillation and instabilities, and by doing so, almost immediately, the apparently flimsy branch did not break, but, in STOPPING THEIR OWN MOTIONS, the pigeons stopped the branch from oscillating and all was stable and still; so what lesson can those two wood pigeons teach us, well, you may not be able to control the storm, and you may not be able to do to the pandemic what Joshua did to the sun and moon, when he said, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” Josh 10:12
No, it might not be our call to do so, nor yet God’s will for the plague, the pandemic to stand still, wherever it is, but it’s certainly his will for us to stay calm, rest in his peace, and stabilise our nerves whilst the twig oscillates.
Let us remember the scriptures we often read, and the hymns we sing, and put them all into practice, making them our own realities and testimonies for the world, for who knows if we were not born for such a time as this, to be Light to the world and Salt to the earth, to cause men to see the positive impact of God in our lives and to give him glory.
“ When my soul is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
“Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
Still ’tis his hand that leadeth me.” And somewhere in there it says, “His faithful follower I would be, For by his hand he leadeth me.”
Shalom:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”John 14:27
Alfred