When I am not studying the Cycle and not writing this blog, I take some fun time to read through a list of one hundred classics that I never got to read in engineering school long ago. Right now, I am thoroughly enjoying Aesop’s Fables, written hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth. Each fable is short, witty and deep in wisdom, with a memorable moral at the end. Think “The Hare and the Tortoise.” You know the moral of that story without my repeating it here.
So today, I would like to write a short fable about the Cycle as it emerges in 1 Kings 9 to 11, and I would challenge you to take time to read that passage right now before reading my parable.
Okay…finished? Here is my parable.
Once upon a time, an owl was given the gift of so much wisdom that he became the wisest animal on earth. He was so wise that he had no fears of predators – none dared challenge his swift, silent flight and powerful talons. God told the owl he would rule forever, if he always obeyed God’s commandments. But the owl decided to marry a hen, even though God specifically told him not to intermarry. So God became very angry with the owl and vowed to strip his wisdom away from him and give it to someone else. Meanwhile, the hen laid her eggs in a dangerous place and a hard-working border collie quickly ate all the eggs rather than attack the owl. Soon the owl died childless and the loyal collie became ruler of the entire realm.
Moral: The wisest one on earth is sooner or later the dumbest without God.
Okay, so I am not Aesop. I pressed my animals into service in a bit of a rush. But still, this fable begs a question.
Is this parable and an ancient or modern one?
Clearly, I modeled the parable after Solomon’s folly in Chapters 9 to 11, where unity with God meets temptation, disobedience, disunity, warnings, and judgment.
But it is modern, too. We might say today, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Or, maybe, our rich and famous candidates are “too big to fail.”
In America today, who might the owl represent?
I was struck by this question because I don’t see an owl anywhere in our leadership today. One of our potential leaders could suddenly be chosen by God as Solomon was, or more importantly, a new, hard-working border collie servant of the people could emerge, chosen by God, to appear at the proper time.
Do we see anyone today who might encourage God to reach out and not judge America for literally removing Him from the public square, where we are now well into worshiping foreign gods?
In our journey through the Old Testament, we are not far now from the theme verse of this series called “If My People” – 2 Chronicles 7:14. It fits our need this very moment:
“[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.”
Right now, brothers and sisters, join me in humility and repentant prayer to forgive our nation’s walk away from God.
Pray without ceasing for that hard-working servant, chosen by God through “we the people” who will heal our land!
So today, I would like to write a short fable about the Cycle as it emerges in 1 Kings 9 to 11, and I would challenge you to take time to read that passage right now before reading my parable.
Okay…finished? Here is my parable.
Once upon a time, an owl was given the gift of so much wisdom that he became the wisest animal on earth. He was so wise that he had no fears of predators – none dared challenge his swift, silent flight and powerful talons. God told the owl he would rule forever, if he always obeyed God’s commandments. But the owl decided to marry a hen, even though God specifically told him not to intermarry. So God became very angry with the owl and vowed to strip his wisdom away from him and give it to someone else. Meanwhile, the hen laid her eggs in a dangerous place and a hard-working border collie quickly ate all the eggs rather than attack the owl. Soon the owl died childless and the loyal collie became ruler of the entire realm.
Moral: The wisest one on earth is sooner or later the dumbest without God.
Okay, so I am not Aesop. I pressed my animals into service in a bit of a rush. But still, this fable begs a question.
Is this parable and an ancient or modern one?
Clearly, I modeled the parable after Solomon’s folly in Chapters 9 to 11, where unity with God meets temptation, disobedience, disunity, warnings, and judgment.
But it is modern, too. We might say today, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Or, maybe, our rich and famous candidates are “too big to fail.”
In America today, who might the owl represent?
I was struck by this question because I don’t see an owl anywhere in our leadership today. One of our potential leaders could suddenly be chosen by God as Solomon was, or more importantly, a new, hard-working border collie servant of the people could emerge, chosen by God, to appear at the proper time.
Do we see anyone today who might encourage God to reach out and not judge America for literally removing Him from the public square, where we are now well into worshiping foreign gods?
In our journey through the Old Testament, we are not far now from the theme verse of this series called “If My People” – 2 Chronicles 7:14. It fits our need this very moment:
“[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.”
Right now, brothers and sisters, join me in humility and repentant prayer to forgive our nation’s walk away from God.
Pray without ceasing for that hard-working servant, chosen by God through “we the people” who will heal our land!
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