Christians everywhere are asking and seeking the question how to survive this world. I get it. The speed at which COVID changed the face of the world was astounding no doubt. Personal rights and anxious thoughts mingle in minds everywhere. Yet the questions remains, how do we as Christians move forward “post” COVID? I want to know is there really a “post” COVID life? Will this thing ever end; will we ever return to the “normal life” we once knew? And what does God say about all this? What Bible verses do I cling to, to make it to the other side, whether that is the other side of COVID or the other side of eternity?

God woke me up at 2:50 in the morning to answer this for me; in my life where I am right now. What He told me in the early hours of the morning I believe applies to us all. He said be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I knew He was referring to Matthew 10:16 but at 3:30 in the morning what I didn’t know was what that really meant. Now thanks to the internet, my Bible and some good coffee (yes I am drinking coffee again, and at 3:00 in the morning none the less) I believe I understand just what God was speaking to my heart.

First, we need to understand some terms from Matthew 10:16. The verse reads as follows, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” From this verse we see that God is sending you, me, us out. What does that sending entail and what does it mean to be “sent” by God? The word sent is Apostello in the Greek. It’s a verb that closely connects the sender with the sendee. Meaning God is sending us but not without Him going with us which is extremely goodness since we are being sent as sheep among wolves. You see, sheep are innocent animals who are completely defenseless. And wolves, well they are ravenous animals with an appetite to devour sheep completely without even the tiniest shred of guilt for doing so.

The next word we must look at is wise. The word wise here means our personal perspective that regulates our outward behavior. We get our English word diaphragm from this Greek word. It denotes being savvy or shrewd.

Lastly we look at the word innocent. It is the Greek word akeraious and means unmixed, pure; not a destructive mixture because it is not tainted by sinful motives.

Now with those words as our anchors we must look and understand the animals in this verse. I am for the most part a city girl. The most I know of sheep is that they can cause you to sit in your car for a long time while they cross the road. A lesson I learned on a mountain rode in Peru. I know that in the Bible we are called the sheep and Jesus is the Great Shepherd. I really have no personal experience with sheep, other than the knowledge I have gleaned from others who do have that hands on experience. And according to Commentator Matthew Poole, sheep are feeble animals with no natural armor to defend themselves. Wolves I think I know even less about. I know they are or maybe were becoming extinct in Colorado where I live. I know that pictures of them howling at the moon are common place in southwest & mountain art. Basically I knew nothing of great value about them until today. I learned that they are a natural predator of sheep. Wolves are rapacious creatures. Second to last, the dove. The one animal I thought I knew the most about, after all a pair of them lives in the pine tree across the street from my house. I often watch them fly back and forth from my yard to their tree. I know they are symbols of peace which is refreshing after learning about the big bad wolf. I know they are faithful and loyal type animals based on the story of Noah. The dove is the bird that kept coming back to him on the ark after the rain stopped and eventually brought him an olive branch to show him new growth had started on the earth. Lastly, everyone’s favorite, the serpent. I don’t mind snakes as longs as they don’t mind me. I have the opinion that we can both live around each other as long as we never have to see one another or interact with each other. However, I was most fascinated with learning about them. They aren’t evil per se. In fact, according to this verse they have some good traits we can borrow from. The serpent uses various arts and stratagems for its own preservation. It does its best to protect its head, its most vulnerable body part when attacked. Interestingly the Bible says of the serpent from the Garden of Eden that it will strike Christ’s heel, and Christ will stomp its head. Our mind is where the enemy often strikes first. Just an observation.

Ok so now we know the meaning of some key words, and have new understanding of the animals in this verse. Let’s put it all together and understand what Jesus is telling us.

He is the one sending us, and in that sending we should always stay in close proximity to Him; because we are sheep and left to ourselves we WILL be devoured by our enemy. And let’s face it, like it or not we live among our enemy. The Bible describes the devil (our enemy)as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and as prowling around seeking whom he can devour. See Matthew 7:15 and 1 Peter 5:8 for references on these. We are called to do 2 things among the wolves where we have been sent; first be wise as the serpent; and second, be as innocent as the dove. Those two animals don’t go together in case you didn’t know that. It is a tension we are called to live between, a wonderful tension. Commentary Jamieson Fousset Brown calls it “unflinching zeal and calm discretion”. The wisdom of the serpent saves us from exposure to unnecessary danger, and the innocence of the dove from sinful situations. In Barnes notes on the Bible he says it this way, “Most people would foolishly destroy a serpent be it ever so harmless, yet few are so hard-hearted to kill a dove.”

So we live in this, “post Christian society” “post COVID world” with the wisdom of the serpent – avoid unnecessary dangers and the ability of an innocent dove to fly away from sinful traps. We live as sheep who fully trust the Shepherd to keep us from being eaten by the wolf. We don’t worry, and we don’t strike first. We don’t stir up trouble or strife, but if we can’t avoid it we keep our heart as innocent as we can while we watch where the Shepherd is leading us.

We don’t live in fear because we have a good Shepherd that we walk next to. We use the wisdom God gives us to maneuver around traps, and dangerous places; all the while keeping the innocent mindset that goodness does exist. And all people have the possibility of being radically saved.