There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise….Hyraxes—they aren’t powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks. [Proverbs 30:24,26 (NLT)]
High in the mountains live the wild goats, and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes. [Psalm 104:18 (NLT)]
Making the point that wisdom is better than strength, the sage Agur spoke of the wisdom of ants, locusts, lizards, and sāphān. Often translated as badgers, rock-badgers, hyraxes, conies, or marmots, the animal’s exact identity is unknown but commentators suspect it to be the Syrian rock hyrax. Looking like a cross between a rabbit, guinea pig, and meerkat, these social animals gather in colonies of up to 80 individuals. Sleeping and eating together, they live in the natural crevices of rocks and boulders or take over the abandoned burrows of other animals.
Although hyraxes are mammals, like reptiles, they rely on ambient warmth to help regulate their body temperature. To warm up in the morning, they spend several hours sunbathing on the rocks together. Once warmed up, they head out to eat a little and then return to rest again on the rocks. If the sun gets too hot, they take their afternoon siesta in the shade.
Since hyraxes spend most of their time sprawled out resting on rocks in full view of any predators, these defenseless critters seem anything but wise. Looks, however, can be deceiving. Hyraxes never venture far from a safe crevice into which they can dash in an instant. Although these vulnerable animals appear to be asleep on the rocks, their eyes are open and, at the first sign of trouble, an alert is sounded. Within seconds of that alert, these agile and speedy animals will disappear deep into rocky crevices. When hyraxes forage for food, the ever-alert animals form a circle with their heads pointing outward to keep watch for predators. I suspect it was their ability to both detect and escape peril while living openly on dangerous cliffs that caused Agur to call the hyrax “exceedingly wise.”
As a shepherd, David would have been quite familiar with the hyrax. As the likely author of Psalm 104, he even mentioned how the “rocks formed a refuge” for them. Like the hyrax, David and his men found security in the rocks and caves when they were hunted by Saul. The psalmist’s safe concealment in cliffs and caves may be the reason so many psalms refer to the rocks and cliffs as places of refuge. In Psalms alone, we find more than fifteen metaphors of God as a rock serving as the psalmist’s place of safety.
Since we’re not small and vulnerable animals who spend most of their time resting in the sunshine, what are we to make of Agur’s observation and David’s rock metaphors? Even when it looks like they’re asleep, the hyraxes never close their eyes to their enemies—the hungry lion, leopard, hyena, and eagle. Like the hyrax, Christians must be alert to their enemy, Satan—the one who prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour. [1 Peter 5:8] Despite its vulnerability, the hyrax doesn’t conceal itself in the dark like a mole; neither should Christians. Rather than hide in the dark crevices, hyraxes boldly sunbathe in the open on the rocks because they have a secure refuge in the rocks. As Christians, we can be as bold and open in our faith because we have a secure refuge in our Triune God. Indeed, He is our fortress, deliverer, stronghold, shield, redeemer, and salvation! And, like the hyrax and David, when we’re in jeopardy, we can quickly flee to the Rock! As hymn writer Augustus Toplady wrote, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee!”
The above words are from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. For Lewis, those first moments of wakefulness were the most important ones of the day because they set one’s frame of mind. When God is our first thought of the day, we begin the morning with a sense of peace and power – peace because we know the day is in His hands and power because we know that through Him we can get through anything it throws at us. It’s as if an invisible barrier has been set up between us and the desires, troubles, and cares of the world in which we live.
In the Gospel stories of the two miraculous catches of fish, experience told the disciples that fishing in the light of day was the wrong time and casting a net from the right side of the boat was the wrong way to do it. Nevertheless, that’s exactly how Jesus told them to fish. If we look at those stories more figuratively, we see that night time was man’s time and the boat’s left side was man’s way. Those miraculous catches, however, tell us that the right time is whenever God says it is and the right way is however God says it’s to be done!
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” [John 21:15 (ESV)]
After using Peter’s boat as a preaching platform, Jesus told him to take the boat out to deeper water and let down his nets. Fishing was a way of life in Galilee and Peter, Andrew, James, and John probably started fishing with their fathers when they were just youngsters. Can you imagine their reaction to this inexperienced carpenter’s son from Nazareth telling them how to fish? Didn’t the rabbi know that net fishing was done at night when the fish were more active and less likely to see the linen nets? Having fished all night, the men were tired. By that time, they’d cleaned their nets and hung them to dry; they were ready to go home, eat, and get some sleep. Experience told them that if they’d caught nothing that night, they certainly weren’t going to catch anything in the light of day! Nevertheless, even though Peter balked at Jesus’ unusual command, he and his partners reloaded their gear, took out their boats, and let down their nets.
In Sharon Garlough Brown’s novel, Two Steps Forward, a character choses to pray the Hebrew word hineni during Advent. When another character calls it a beautiful but “costly” prayer, I grew curious about this word. Hineni is composed of two little words, hineh and ani. By itself, hineh is usually translated as “behold” but, when combined with ani (meaning “I”), it usually is translated as “Here I am,” “I’m here,” or “Yes.” However, like shalom, the Hebrew hineni loses the depth of its meaning in translation.
Devotions of the Heart 