FOLLOWING THE CROWD

     Jean Henri Fabra did a study of the processionary caterpillar. It seems that this caterpillar wanders about aimlessly, pursued by many followers who move when he moves, stop when he stops, and eats when he eats. Pine needles are their principle source of food.

    One day Fabra tried an experiment. He filled a flowerpot with pine needles, which they love, and then lined up the caterpillars in a solid ring around the rim of the pot. Sure enough, they began to move slowly around and around the rim, each following the one ahead. They continued this senseless revolving for seven days, never once to stop for food until one by one they began to collapse.

    I was intrigued by this story because it reminded me of the people in Moses generation, that wandered in a circle in the wilderness for forty years never stopping to receive the true manna of God and ended up dying in the wilderness.

    I wonder how many of us Christians today are following the crowd around the flower pot of conformity not discerning the truth from the lie.

    I often wonder where are the men and women who dare to be different. If we are to be like Yahwah the Messiah we will be different. Why do most people have a tendency to follow the crowd? Is it the fear to stand alone and being rejected by popular opinion. Where is the creative nonconformity that made the martyrs of the past? Where is the excitement of taking a stand?

    My friend, it is often not safe to follow the crowd. If you were to live in the time of the Messiah and followed the public mood of the day you would have rejected the Messiah, and that is scary.

When the crowd seen what Yahwah the Messiah could do for them they wanted to make him king. If he could feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish just think how much more he could do if he were king. It's funny how some of us as when we become Christians say now that I'm following the Lord what can the Lord do for me, do we ever stop to ask the Lord what can I do for you?

There was a day when Yahwah the Messiah rode triumphantly into Jerusalem and the crowd shouted his praises, but how quickly the attitude of the people changed. Some of the people who were shouting his praises and who wanted to make him king were also shouting 'Crucify Him"! Why? Because they got caught up in the crowd.

    When it was time to take a stand most of them stood in the shadows. Even the disciples when the time came to take a stand just disappeared. They were afraid to stand alone. They were silent. They might not have said, "Crucify Him", but they didn't have the courage to cry out, "Set this man free! He is innocent"! History has not changed, I believe most of us would have done the same thing.

    The majority, it seems has seldom been right. The majority, except for eight people, rejected the truth in the days of Noah and perished in the catastrophe of public opinion who said it would never happen.

    Elijah stood alone on Carmel against those who thought to take his life. It took courage for Martin Luther to stand before the council who wanted him to retract the statement; "The Bible and the Bible alone is our rule of faith and practice", and say 'I cannot and will not retract....Here I stand, I can do no other"!

    We need to have that courage today to be able to stand in the tribulation that lies ahead. We must not let public opinion guide our path with our walk with Yahwah the Messiah. Let us take heart in the words of Yahwah the Messiah about public opinion; "Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, (following after the crowd) and many there be which go in thereat: because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13,14).