 The Ants vs. The Birds
Two creatures that are known for their obsessive collecting habits are birds and ants. As an ant takes time to store food up for the winter, a bird collects just about anything for its nest as well as searching for its food for the day. Both creatures search for and fulfill their needs, yet both creatures are very different in their collecting habits, and both have a specific application to us as we live day to day.
We see the ant as it is described to us in Proverbs 30:24-28 along with three other small creatures. The first thing we learn about these creatures is that they are born with built-in knowledge, which is why they are called “exceeding wise”. These creatures don't need to be taught to store up their food each winter, they are pre-programmed to do it, but we need to learn this idea from them.
Then we have in Matthew 6:26 the birds who collect quite differently. They collect food for the day, as the children of Israel travelled through the wilderness collecting manna. Christ commends the birds, and points to them as an example for believers to follow. They do not worry about the next day or all the troubles of tomorrow, and still their heavenly Father provides for them.
So what does this mean? We ought to learn the ways of the ant and that which God pre-programmed him to do. But we are compared to the birds by our Lord Jesus, and exhorted to follow their example. What is the reconciling point?
Spiritual vs. Physical
Let's take a little closer look at the context of these two sections of scripture. First, in Proverbs, we have the four creatures, all with this exceeding wisdom. When we look at their activities and our exhortation to follow their example, it soon becomes obvious that we ought not to follow them literally. If we were to do that, we would be storing up food for the winter, sneaking into king's palaces, living in caves, and joining gangs.
Then as we turn our attention to the sermon on the mount, we see very practical things being taught, one of which is this very idea. Christ asks the disciples if God has ever not cared for a bird. Of course we know that God cares for His whole creation, but He only died to save man. These things taught by our Lord are very literal and should be taken as such.
So then what is our explanation? I think that it's plain to see that the birds should represent our physical lifestyle, depending on God and ready for the coming of our Lord, for it could be within the next minute that He comes. Then we see that the ant, like all the other little creatures, has a spiritual application. This is how our spiritual life ought to manifest itself, as one producing and laboring for a time to come; preparing for the great day when it shall be separated from its labor in storing up, and finally be with that which it longed for.
Our life as Christians ought to be lived entirely for the world to come. The things we do (ants) should be storing up for our arrival in that world. And the things we don't do (birds) should be a lack of storing up things that have nothing to do with our spiritual walk.
Saving vs. Storage
“Whoa!” you say, “are you saying we ought to sell all that we have and live like John the Baptist, off of locusts and honey in the wild?” I would like to make myself clear as I say that no, that is not how scripture teaches us all to live. In fact, the scriptures say that he who doesn't provide for his family is "worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:8). Thankfully, we also have the exhortation not to "build bigger barns" (Lk. 12:16-21), which gives us a clear comparison.
There is this idea of saving, providing for the needs of those for whom you are responsible. Opposing this is the idea of storing, gathering all that you have simply for the ambiguous future, for that "rainy day". I believe that saving, making yourself ready as Joseph did for the specific seven years of famine, is a wise and very biblical thing to do. But this idea of gathering or having for no reason, simply collecting, is not only unbiblical, but anti-biblical and is taught against in scripture.
|
