The Story of Moses and the Stool Pigeon
Exodus 13:17-18
Deuteronomy 8:1-16
In 1914 a very sad thing happened when Martha died. Martha was the last of passenger pigeons. One hundred years earlier the passenger pigeons covered the landscape. It was not uncommon for flocks of over one hundred thousand to fly together. They nested up north, especially in Michigan. In fact, there are places in Michigan that still bear the names Pigeon Lake and Pigeon River because the passenger pigeon returned there to nest so often.
The Passenger Pigeon was about the size of a chicken. It was a beautiful and friendly bird. It lived in huge numbers and in huge flocks. In many ways it was like humans because it enjoyed the company and companionship of other Passenger Pigeons. Yet by the first part of the 20th century the Passenger Pigeon died out as a species.
Why did it die out so quickly? I’ll answer that question later as well as explain how the term Stool Pigeon comes from the species of Passenger Pigeon.
Listen now to the Word of the Lord from Exodus and from Deuteronomy.
The children of Israel had been slaves for a long time and had somehow they grown used to being slaves. They had food, shelter, and clothes to wear provided by the Egyptians. They ate at food provided for them. They ate freely from the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic grown in Egypt. The eating free sounds good to me. Certainly they worked hard as slaves, but everyone worked hard. Most people thought that slavery really was better than starving to death.
Imagine the shock the children of Israel must have felt the first time they met Moses and heard his message. “God has sent me to lead you out of Egypt, out of your slavery and captivity into the Promised Land.” I imagine people must have thought or said, “Boy is he an arrogant chuckle head and conceited to boot.”
I hear people saying, “We don’t want to leave. We have free food and plenty of it. My parents are buried here as well as my grandparents. My child is buried here. I don’t want to leave. I like it here. I know this place, but I don’t know about this Promised Land.”
Most of us know the story of the Exodus. We have seen Charlton Hesston in The Ten Commandments. We know how hard Moses had to fight Pharaoh to get him to let the Children of Israel go. Finally after 10 horrible plagues, Pharaoh relented and released the Children of Israel.
For years I thought that was the hardest part of Moses’ task. But now I think a different task was equally difficult. I think Moses had a hard task convincing the Children of Israel that they needed to leave Egypt for the unknown of the Promised Land. We have hints at this during the time after they leave Egypt. That’s why I think this was one of the major reasons that they complained so much while they were on their Exodus. They didn’t all buy into this change.
Moses had two huge jobs, convince the Children of Israel to change where they lived and getting Pharaoh to let them go. After doing all this Moses next had to get the Children of Israel safely out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and into the Promised Land. Moses had a huge job. Sometimes he wasn’t up to it. He failed and it cost him the ability to enter into the Promised Land.
As the Children of Israel neared the Promised Land they sent in spies to check things out. Ten of the spies returned and said that there were giants in the land and there was no way that they could defeat them and take over the land. However, two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb believed they should take possession of the land.
This is how it’s recorded in Scripture, "The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only, do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them." Even when Joshua and Caleb reminded the people that the Lord was on their side the people still refused to enter into the Promised Land.
God’s punishment for their lack of trust in his ability to take them safely and victoriously into the Promised Land was to make them wander in the Wilderness for 40 years until everyone who was over the age of 21 at the time the spies went on their mission was dead. Once Moses and Aaron and all the adults were all dead, then and only then, did God allow the Children of Israel to enter into the Land that he had promised them as an inheritance.
Anyone interested in where the term stool pigeon comes from and how it relates to Moses? Passenger Pigeons were a very interesting species. They had a low birth rate that declined until they could no longer repopulate the vast flocks.
They were delicious to eat and were hunted in huge quantities. They could not adapt to new environments and changing situations around them. Because they mated for life with only one partner, they were often unable to welcome unattached new birds.
They were very friendly with each other. Thousands of them would nest in the same tree, weighing it down, to the point that they overloaded the tree and it would collapse and kill them. None of the birds would find a new place to nest as long as there was room for one more on the tree someplace. Thousands upon thousands died this way.
Because they were so friendly they were vulnerable to the changes in society, a change like a better ability for humans to travel, which brought more hunters to their nesting grounds and made them easy targets for being killed.
The hunters learned from the Passenger Pigeons and figured out how to kill them easily. Passenger Pigeons always followed a leader. Their leader would scout out a place for them to nest and they would all follow that leader to the place the leader selected. The leader would make certain that every bird had a place on the tree, and that each bird was welcomed in to the new location.
The problem came when the leader chose a rotten tree that would often collapse under the weight of all the nesting birds. Frequently, the food or water supply would run low or give out. Yet, not one bird would leave the tree for fear of leaving one of the other birds behind and loosing one of their friends. Unless the Leader Pigeon moved on, none of the Passenger Pigeons would move on. Over time, the Leaders of the Passenger Pigeons became so attached to the flock that they would rarely move at all for fear of loosing one of the other birds.
When hunters figured this out they knew the bird’s weakness. Hunters would capture a Passenger Pigeon and tie it’s legs together with a string and then tie the string to a stool.
When other Passenger Pigeons would fly over, the hunters would pull on the string to make the captured Pigeon dance about. The flock would see the captured Pigeon jumping around and because they were so friendly and loved to be with their own kind they would land to be with it. Once the birds landed the hunters only had to walk among the birds and hit them with clubs to kill them.
The captured Pigeon used as a decoy came to be known as the “Stool Pigeon”. At the mid point of the 19th century, the naturalist, James Audubon, noted how many hundreds of thousands of Passenger Pigeons there were. How was it possible than in a little more than 50 years the Passenger Pigeon could become extinct?
1 The Passenger Pigeon could not adapt to an environment that had changed on them.
2 Passenger Pigeons were un-willing to allow new birds to join their established flock.
3 The Leader Pigeons were unable to change the way that the flock was led and thus allowed the leader to be manipulated into destroying the very flock that they loved.
So what does Moses have to do with a Stool Pigeon? In both of our illustrations, the survival of a group depended on the ability of a leader or leaders to change and the ability of a group to adapt to the changing environment around them.
In the case of the Passenger Pigeon, their leaders could not change. The pigeons could not adapt to the new situation and the new environment. That’s how in less than 100 years several million Passenger Pigeons died. The Pigeons themselves refused to change and their leaders refused to change. The result of their refusal to change was no more Passenger Pigeons.
Look at story of the Children of Israel. God spoke to Moses and gave him the job of helping the Children of Israel change. If you have read the story you know that Moses had to be convinced to the point of almost being forced by God to accept the responsibility and the challenge. Finally Moses accepted the challenge.
First, notice that Moses had to become a new kind of leader. He couldn’t do it the way he had done it in the past. No more could he kill people with whom he disagreed. Second, observe that Moses had to convince the Children of Israel that they needed to change. That must have been a huge challenge.
Let’s face it no one likes change. Most people resist change and only change when someone grabs them by the hair and pulls them kicking and screaming through the change. That’s one possible way that Moses convinced the Children of Israel to leave Egypt.
Moses third challenge was to convince pharaoh to let the Children of Israel go. It took God sending 10 plagues on the people of Egypt to accomplish this task. Finally the Children of Israel were free to leave Egypt. Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last.
Friends, we have a choice today. We can either be like the Passenger Pigeons or like the Children of Israel. Society has changed around us. The Presbyterian Church has failed to notice the change and adapt to the changes.
Society has changed so much in the past 50 years that churches have found that doing things the same old way will not work any more. What worked in the 1950’s when the entire social system cooperated with the church will not work today. That is why the Presbyterian Church nationally has declined in membership over the past 30 years.
Friends, we have to decide for ourselves and for our church. Do we want to be like the Passenger Pigeon who was unable and unwilling to change? Or do we want to be like the Children of Israel who set out for the Promised Land with little more than the assurance that God would protect them? I hope we all choose to be like the Children of Israel.
As for me, as your pastor, I don’t plan on being like the Stool Pigeon. I will not lead this local congregation to her destruction. I don’t plan on being a leader who cannot adapt to the changes in society. I will not lead this church and her members to her death. My plan is to lead you like Moses led the Children of Israel. Are you a Passenger Pigeon or one of the Children of Israel?
