Never AloneSample

Strength in Numbers

Have you ever watched a nature documentary where a predator is chasing a herd to find its prey?

It’s incredible.

The speed. The agility. The focus.

As the predator watches the herd, it identifies the young one, the one it can isolate from the group.

Then it slowly positions itself, hiding as it moves, when, at the right moment, as the target is isolated from the herd, it attacks.

The prey doesn’t even see it coming, but the herd does.

And as the predator reveals itself, the herd surrounds their young ones and fends off the attack simply by their presence in numbers.

As men, we often identify ourselves with the predator. We think we’re fast. We think we’re agile.

But the most frightening thing is that we think we’ll see the predator coming when it comes for us.

Proverbs 7 has a lot to say about a predator and her prey. It describes a witness looking out his window at the crowd below, and he notices “a youth who had no sense” (Proverbs 7:7).

The witness sees this youth walking toward a certain house: the house of the seductive woman.

This woman saw her “prey”, stalked him, isolated him from the crowd, then “with persuasive words she led him astray (and) seduced him with her smooth talk” (Proverbs 7:21).

What does the man do?

He followed her like “a deer stepping into a noose…little knowing it will cost him his life” (Proverbs 7:22-23).

But did it have to end like this?

What if one friend, a caring stranger, or even the witness himself, had yelled out, “Hey, brother! Let’s go this way instead!”?

What would happen if the herd surrounded the isolated prey so that the predator could not get to him?

Men, in our loneliness, it is easy to be taken by sin.

Don’t let it. Get connected to a “herd”. There is strength in numbers.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You that You see me in my loneliness. Help me connect with other men who will help me in my times of temptation and walk with me in a better direction. Amen.

Reflection: Who is in your "herd"? Find a guy you can trust and be honest with him about your temptations as you look out for each other.