Buzzards, Bats, Bumblebees and Eagles
Are You Living Like Bats?
Scriptures: Numbers 13:17-21; 27-33; 14:1-10
Introduction
In my message last week, we look at the buzzards. The main point I want you to remember from last week is that the buzzard needs 10-12 feet of running room in order to take off and fly. This need for a running start makes them vulnerable to cars and other predators. Like the buzzard, there are many Christians who need a "running start" to get their faith activated as we will discuss also in this message. Our need for a running start makes us vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. This week we will examine the characteristics of bats. As with the buzzards, they too have limitations that are comparable to humans. Theirs being physical while ours being more spiritual. Our Scriptural background comes from the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14.
I. Bat Characteristics
When most people think of bats, they think about vampires. The old horror movies gave bats a very bad reputation as the vampires turned into bats when it was time for them to fly. Bats also got a bad name from being associated with witches and Halloween. Every Halloween when you see the decorations, you will see both witches and bats. So what is the real story about bats? First let me say that bats are the only mammals that can fly; they are not classified as birds. But let’s look at a few interesting facts about bats in general.
Primarily come out at night. Bats are nocturnal meaning they primarily come out and are active at night – which, by the way, enhances the belief that they are evil (you seldom see pictures of witches flying around in the daytime.) Because they operate at night, they can see clearly in the dark with sensory perception identifying heat radiating from it’s prey’s body. The vampire bat identifies where to bite a person (or animal) based on the heat radiated from the blood in the veins closest to the skin. Although these bats do feed on blood, they do not attack a person but wait until the person or animal is asleep. The bite is so small that most people do not realize they have been bitten. Bats are extremely small and they do perform some good. Bats eat a lot of insects, their primary source of food. They could eat hundreds of mosquitoes in a single evening.
Hibernate in winter. Bats hibernate in the winter. They slow their metabolism down to the point of near death. They must hibernate due to the lack of insects available for them to eat during the winter. During their time of hibernation, if they are woken up suddenly, they could go into shock and die.
Bats cannot take off from a level surface. One of the main points about bats is that they cannot take off and fly from a level surface. If a bat is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and no doubt painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash. Now you can imagine the problems that this raises for the bat if they are ever found on a flat surface.
II. People Are Like Bats
Now let me backtrack over the three facts I covered about bats and how they can relate to people. The first fact told us that bats primarily come out at night which gives them that air of suspicion that they are evil. Now think about the lifestyle of people. Would it surprise you that more murders, robberies, attacks and other crime in general happen in the dark or "secluded" place? Jesus said in John 3:19-20 that "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." Jesus was talking about spiritual light and darkness but the same applies to the natural. There are many people who are like bats and only "come out" in the darkness to accomplish their deeds. If you are doing your "devilment", as my mom used to say, at night, then just know that one day it will be exposed to the light.
The second fact was that bats hibernate during the winter. Now I know you are wondering how does this compare in any way to people. This may be a stretch for some of you, but there are several ways this applies to us. What do people normally do during the winter? When they do not have to, they stay indoors (they hibernate). When the weather is bad, we stay inside. When it is too cold outside, we will not go out, even to Church, because the bed is just too warm and cozy. Some people go into hibernation spiritually at different times throughout the year based on what is happening around them. They slow their spiritual metabolism down to where it is almost non-existent. What is your spiritual metabolism? It is your ability to take in nourishments and utilize it for energy to get things done for the Kingdom of God.
The bat, because there are few insects for food in the winter, slows its metabolism down so that it does not need to eat since it will not be doing nothing but sleeping. Some people do the same thing. They do not feed themselves spiritually therefore they have no spiritual energy thus they go into hibernation. This was the case in the situation that Moses found himself dealing with in Numbers chapter 13. God had brought the children of Israel to the Promised Land and He directed Moses to send spies over to see the land. I believe this was to encourage the people so that they would be excited about what God was about to give them. Keep in mind that before they ever got to this place, God had delivered them out of Egypt with miracles; when they got to the Red Sea, God held off the Egyptians until they had crossed over. When the Egyptians tried to cross over, He drown them in the Red Sea. All of this had been done in the presence of all of the Israelites and now they were standing at the door of the Promised Land. Look at Numbers 13:17-21.
"When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he said to them, ’Go up there into the Negrev; then go up into the hill country. And see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many. And how is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications. And how is the land, is it fat or lean? Are there trees in it or not? Make an effort then to get some of the fruit of the land.’ Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, at Lebo-hamath."
You would think that with everything they had experienced coming out of Egypt that their faith would be high, yet for ten of these spies, that was not the case. They had seen God move on their behalf but they did not think He could take them into this land. Our faith goes through times of growth and if we are not extremely careful, times of hibernation. Our faith is growing, hibernating (when there is neither growth nor death) or dying. If we are not feeding and exercising our faith then it is not growing. If we do not use our faith for long periods of time based on our life’s circumstances, our faith will begin to hibernate. If we do not quickly take it out of hibernation, it will begin to die. Our faith must be exercised if it is to grow.
When the spies returned from scouting the land, ten of the spies’ faith had went from growing to hibernating in a matter of 40 days (the amount of time they scouted out the land). Look at verses 27-28; 31-33.
"Thus they told him, and said, ’We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there’……But the men who had gone up with him said, ’We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.’ So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they spied out saying, ’The land through which we have gone in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Ten of the twelve spies did not have the faith to go in and take the land. Look at their transition. They left Moses full of faith to go spy out the land. While they were in the land, they saw how blessed the land was and how "big" the people were. When they thought about going up against such great peoples, their faith wavered – a bad sign. Finally their faith got to the point of being dead. The last verse demonstrates this clearly. The men said that they became like grasshoppers in their own sight AND in the sight of the men of the land. Do you know what happens in a battle when one sides senses the other side is scared? It gives that side an advantage. When someone thinks they cannot win, they end up losing. These ten spies could not see how they could win against these great men. They totally left God out of the picture after everything God had done for them in bringing them to the Promised Land. Consider this; they searched out the land for 40 days. When they refused to take the land, you remember how long God let them wander in the wilderness? He let them wander for 40 years, one year for each day they spied out the land. During those 40 years, all of the adults over the age of 21 died and did not enter into the Promised Land with the exception of the other two spies, Caleb and Joshua.
The final point I made about bats was that they could not take off from a level surface. In order for bats to fly, they must throw themselves off something and into the air in order to fly. This is why bats sleep upside down hanging from something. This way they can just let lose and immediately be airborne. If they slept on a flat surface, they would not be able to take off and fly and would fall prey to other animals. Bats must have certain conditions met in order for them to be able to fly. Once they are in the air they are very agile in their flying capabilities. Many of us are the same way. We have to have certain conditions met before we can step out and trust God. These conditions provide us with the "truth" we require in order to believe that God is truly working in our midst. How many times have you asked God for a sign in order to believe Him? "God, if you will let such and such happen then I will know that this is what you want me to do." That is a prescription for failure in a lot of cases because Satan has the ability to "fulfill" the sign we are requesting of God. And what happens when Satan fulfills our signs? We think God has given us His blessing to do whatever it is we want to do. When the situation does not work out, then we are angry at God because He "gave us a sign" that it was okay to do something and then it failed. Many are those whose faith in God was shaken because they acted on a sign that they thought was from God.
Our faith should be like Joshua’s and Caleb’s. When the spies gave their negative report showing that they had quickly lost their faith in God, Joshua and Caleb stood strong. They did not need conditions to be met in order to believe God. They knew what He had done and what He was capable of doing. When the spies were giving their negative report, Caleb said "….We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it." (Numbers 13:30b) In the next chapter Joshua and Caleb pleaded with the Children of Israel not to listen to the other spies and have faith, knowing that God would deliver the land into their hands. The other spies had influenced the whole congregation to rebel against God in not moving forward to take the land. Joshua and Caleb were the only adults who were over the age of twenty-one when this event happened to enter into the Promised Land forty years later. They did not need certain conditions to be met in order for them to exercise their faith; they believed what God told them and then stepped out and did it.
Like the bat, we have been conditioned to fly (step out in faith) when certain conditions are met. We make it a daily habit to believe something only after we have received sufficient information to determine the likelihood of a positive outcome. However, also like the bat, when we are flying, we too are very agile when our faith is put into motion. We do not live in a world where our faith can be activated sporadically, when we can "know" the outcome will be positive. If we must be thrown in the air or pushed off a cliff before our faith is activated (the equivalent of a bat flying) we are a prime target for worrying and stress.
Are you living with bats? Are you a bat? Next week we will examine the bumblebee. May God bless you.
