Sheep Among Wolves - Shrewd And Innocent

“I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore, you must be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” – Jesus

These instructions from Jesus didn’t really hit home with me until last week.  We read them that day, after being here in South Asia for almost a year now, and they had so much more meaning than they had before. 

I feel like I have learned a lot about being a sheep among wolves over the past year. 

As for wolves, they are on the prowl, looking for a meal, and looking for a weaker animal to take advantage of.  Many people around us see us as a golden ticket and as people with money growing out of our ears. In a land where resources (food, money, space, etc.) are scarce, we often look like a lone lamb that has wandered from its flock.

Some of the words I have heard as characteristics of sheep are timid, gullible, fearful, needy, and defenseless. They often don’t know where to go or how to take care of themselves. Most, if not all, of those words have described us at some point over the past year. 

We have been those sheep here wandering not knowing where to go, how to do things, how to find the things we need, how to decide which people are our friends and which are our enemies. Often times clinging to the few people that we are only pretty sure are for us and not against us. 

And although I have acknowledged myself as a sheep spiritually and mentally many times, it has driven the point home all the more as we walk as sheep in the physical as well. Praise the Lord though, we have a good Shepherd who has been watching over us guiding, protecting, and providing for us. And what’s more our Shepherd wants all of these wolves (who are really just sheep without a shepherd) to be a part of His flock as well.

SO, I am trying to learn how to be as wise and cunning and shrewd as a snake, yet as gentle and harmless and innocent as a dove. How to be watchful and mindful of the wolves around me. How to make decisions that keep us close to the Shepherd, instead of wandering alone. How, as Matthew Henry says, “to avoid all things which give advantage to our enemies, all meddling with worldly or political concerns, all appearance of evil or selfishness, and all underhand measures.” 

And at the same time, how to steer clear of the arguments and fights that wolves often try to create. How to walk in righteousness instead of retaliation. How to leave my defense and protection in the more than able hands of my Good Shepherd.

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