Matthew 7:15. Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.
There aren’t many wolves left in Israel today, less than 200. In Jesus day, wolves were a threat to people, but today people are a threat to the wolves. The wolves’ habitat (do you know what a habitat is?) has been taken over by people and their food supply has been depleted. But in Jesus day there were lots of wolves in Israel.
The wolf isn’t the biggest dog in the world, but it is the fiercest. In Jesus’ time, Israel was full of Arabian wolves. The wolf is almost always portrayed in the Bible in a negative way. Why? Because the Arabian wolves of Israel would eat the shepherd’s sheep and the farmer’s cattle. That’s why Jesus called false prophets wolves.
What is a false prophet?
A false prophet is someone who pretends to speak for God, but they are really only speaking for themselves. A false prophet tells lies and tries to trick the people. They might question what God says or twist his words from the Bible. What makes false prophets so bad is that they act like they are sheep, but they are actually wolves. Vicious wolves. They aren’t wrong by accident; they are wrong on purpose. They want people to be deceived and tricked so that they can become rich or popular.
Wolves are scary enough when they look like wolves. But imagine if a wolf could actually dress up like a sheep. Sound like a sheep. Smell like sheep. And then sneak into the flock just waiting for their moment to pounce on some helpless little lamb.
Until Jesus comes back again, we have to be on the lookout for “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” As you are growing up you will hear all kinds of things that sound good, but they will actually be lies that the devil wants you to believe. One of the biggest lies is that you should “follow your heart.” This sure sounds nice, but it will actually get you into all kinds of trouble. God wants us to follow Jesus, not ourselves or our own dreams.
Another big lie from the “wolves” is that God doesn’t ever want you to go through anything hard or difficult. But the truth is that God knows that we need to go through hard things in order to learn how to trust him. Life is hard most of the time, and God doesn’t prevent hard things from coming into our lives. But he does use them to make us more like Jesus.
Don’t forget what we learned on day 20 (Sheep) – God wants us to be sheep and shepherds. We are supposed to protect other sheep from the wolves who would want to trick us all with lies about what God says. How do we protect each other form the wolves? Most importantly by knowing the truth, the truth about Jesus.
Questions: Can you think of other lies that “wolves” might want you to believe about God, Jesus, the Bible? How can you make sure you are able to protect yourself and others from the “wolves” that want to eat up the sheep?
TLICfamily 