Behold I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves
When my mother was a young girl she lived on a farm in a small town named Lublin, Wisconsin. My grandfather with the help of neighbors built the small farmhouse. At night as she was trying to sleep she and her sister would hear the lonely call of wolves in the distance. He and my Ciocia [Aunt] Sophia would shiver and were frighted at the sound. Even as adults the two of them remembered their eerie call. It was scary, because of the stories they heard of what wolves did to livestock and people. Neither one of them ever forgot the sound.
Today Jesus in today’s Gospel says, Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
Jesus’s word are a warning but also a promise. He also says, do not worry about how you are to say, for it will not be you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Is Jesus trying to scare us or give us comfort? What is He promising?
In truth, it is some of both. There will be pitfalls and evil things that happen in our lives, but the Holy Spirit will be there to guide you. Saint Paul speaks of keeping your eye on the prize and running the race. The end to a worldly person is not the end to God.
Those wolves have not won. Sin has not won. Even though we sin and have other gods in our lives. God still loves us freely. However, He wants us to repent and depend on Him.
In our first reading from Hosea which says, We shall say no more , ‘Our god’,to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion. I will heal their defection, says the Lord, I will love them freely.
In both passages the scripture is saying don’t depend on your own efforts. It is God’s efforts through the Holy Spirit that get you through the wolves. God loves us even though we sin and turn from Him with other god’s. The god and idols that each of us have in our lives as sinners are wolves waiting to destroy us.
God’s intentions are clear. He is always ready to take us back.
We can prosper spiritually by turning from sin and realizing that our prosperity only comes from our dependence on God.
Hosea further writes, Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them, Straight are the paths of the Lord, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.
God will love us freely, forgive our sins and all we have to do is recognize the gods in our life and repent. We have many wolves in our life and some are of our own making. Jesus has sent His Spirit to our life and all we have to do is depend on Him and the Spirit will lead.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
