Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 5th July 1998

From the Pastor: Animal Lessons IV

"And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals." Jeremiah 51:37 One familiar sound in the neighbourhood is the barking of dogs. Some residents can keep their dogs under control, but with others the slightest disturbance sets them off on an interminable "binge" of incessant barking. However, one consolation is that domestic dogs at least make their disturbance by barking, unlike wild dogs, such as wolves, coyotes, and dingoes, which howl. One such howling hound is the jackal: his howling changes key upward with each succeeding breath, usually three, His eating habits are those of a scavenger: he will follow a lion or leopard and clean up what they have left behind, but he will not kill prey himself. The Egyptians deified the jackal: Anibus was in charge of the funery cult. In the Bible, however, the jackal is synomynous with desolation: most of the references in the Old Testament have to do with this theme. As the prophets picture the fall of great nations such as Babylon, part of the scene is the howling lament of the jackal and the hyena amongts the ruins (see Isaiah 13:22; Jeremiah 50:39). Thant mournful cry announces that "the Lord is a God of recompense" (Jeremiah 51:56), but not merely against an ancient city and empire. The same vengance will come against the Babylon of the New Testament, the apostate church, the harlot bride (Revelation 17:1-5), and the great city of God-defying materialism (Revelation 18), from which God's people are urged to withdraw (Revelation 18:4). We may well wonder how long this world has to go. If the threefold howl of the jackal is an indicator, have we passed the second already, with only the last and highest-pitched wail still to go? In that situation it is not enough to be like Lot, to vex our righteous soul about the wickedness (2 Peter 2:8), but to testify against it by word and deed, and thereby call people out before it is too late. It is not the barking of the dog which should worry people, but the mournful howl of the jackal.