Wisdom's Corner
A Table Before Me #2

There is another way that the shepherds in Palestine used to prepare the table for their sheep (Psalm 23:5).

There are very poisonous vipers that live in the middle east. Some of these vipers live in holes underground. When sheep are grazing, these vipers will come up and bite the sheep on the nose. The sheep will die.

The shepherd will keep the sheep out of a new field where he believes there might be some vipers. He will go all over the field raking the grass with his staff to uncover any holes. When he finds a hole, he pours hog oil all around the hole. The viper cannot slither over the oil, so he cannot get out of the hole. And the sheep do not like the smell of the oil and will stay away from the hole.

After the shepherd has covered the whole field and is sure that it is safe for his sheep, he will bring them into the field. The sheep eat in safety from their enemy the viper. The shepherd prepared their table before their enemies.

Jesus teaches us to stay away from things that will harm us. He instructs the leaders of the church to keep out false teachers that would feed us the poison of false doctrine. The leaders are to make it impossible for these false teachers to bite our ears with their teachings. This allows God's sheep to eat the good pasture without the chance of being poisoned by the bite of a false teacher.

The only way to know what is false teaching is to study God's word, the Bible. Keep reading and studying your Bible. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1999

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)