Birds of a feather flock together.
Bible Reading: Job 39:26-30
26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars
and spreads his wings toward the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
and makes his nest on high?
28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home,
on the rocky crag and stronghold.
29 From there he spies out the prey;
his eyes behold it from far away.
30 His young ones suck up blood,
and where the slain are, there is he.”
Reflection: Over two thousand years ago a man in Greece named Aesop wrote fables (stories) that had an important moral to them. These morals have become sayings that we still use today. One of these sayings is “Birds of a feather flock together” and comes from Aesop’s story of the farmer and the stork:
A farmer put nets in his fields to catch the cranes that came to steal the seed he had planted. He caught several cranes and with them one stork. The stork begged the farmer to let him go because he was not a robber crane but a poor harmless stork that did not resemble a crane in any way. The farmer replied that while he did not resemble a crane he was caught with the cranes and must expect to suffer the same punishment because the farmer had every reason to think he was stealing too. After all, “Birds of a feather flock together.”
Questions: What does it mean, “Birds of a feather flock together”? Why wouldn’t the farmer excuse the stork because he wasn’t a crane? How does what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character,'” relate to the fable?
Reminder: People, like birds, hang around with those who are like them. You will be judged by the company you keep.
Journal Writing: What is an important truth from the reflection? Why do you need to know that truth?
Application Prayer: Write out a prayer for God’s insight and help into how you can apply the truth from the reflection.
Week’s Memory Verse: Jeremiah 8:7
7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
It’s like the other old saying people will rub off on you. If you are around good people the things they do might rub off on you.