Sheep Among Wolves – Part 1 Series

No recriminations, no blame, no anger, no animosity.

Amazing!

The children lived and died what they believed, what they had seen modeled by their family and their community, and what they had been taught from their earliest moments on earth to be what the Christian life is to be about. Those surviving them are living it out as well. Their testimony is not only being widely publicized but widely accepted as well, even if it is incomprehensible to many. The character of Jesus Christ and the reality of His love is being manifested to millions the world over.

Jesus told His disciples that day he commissioned them to go out by twos and preach the Gospel that they were being sent out as sheep among wolves and that they were to behave in a particular way when the ravenous beasts fell upon them. His message is not only to them, but to us as well.

Let’s look at it a bit more closely.

To get an idea of what this word picture really means, I want to use some things I learned about sheep and wolves from a book by Phillip Keller, titled, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. Not having very much exposure to sheep myself and realizing that we are referred to as sheep by our Lord on several occasions, I am deeply grateful to Mr. Keller for his insights.

He said that sheep need to be protected from predators, poisonous weeds, weather, parasites, all kinds of diseases, and insects. In fact, there is a certain type of fly that lays its eggs on the mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose. As the hatched larvae work their way up the nose, the sheep have been known to beat their heads against rocks or trees, sometimes to the point where they are dead as a result. The advanced stages of infection from those flies often cause blindness. Sometimes the sheep panic and stampede in an attempt to escape the flies. When they become that agitated and distressed, they often become exhausted, lose a great deal of weight, and some even die.

The most severe enemy of sheep is the predator – the carnivorous wild animals such as wolves, coyotes, and cougars. Mr. Keller wrote, "Two [wild] dogs have been known to kill as many as 292 sheep in a single night of unbridled slaughter. Ewes, heavy in lamb, when chased by dogs or other predators will slip their unborn lambs and lose them in abortions. A shepherd’s loss from such forays can be appalling. One morning at dawn I found nine of my choicest ewes, all soon to lamb, lying dead in the field" (p. 37).

"On several occasions [cougars] came in among my sheep at night working terrible havoc in the flock. Some ewes were killed outright, their blood drained and livers eaten. Others were torn open and badly clawed.... Some had huge patches of wool torn from their fleeces. In their frightened stampede some had stumbled and broken bones or rushed over rough ground injuring legs and bodies.

"Yet despite the damage, despite the dead sheep, despite the injuries and fear instilled in the flock, I never once actually saw a cougar on my range. So cunning and so skillful were their raids they defy description" (pp. 108-9). Wolves are just as deadly.