SHEEP

By

Hossca Harrison

2020

 

Humans are often referred to as sheep, most likely because of religious teachings. Christianity is just one religion whose history refers to people as sheep. You can search the ancient Hebrews, Egypt, Islam, and ancient Greece when sheep were used as a sacrifice to their gods.

Some of you may remember the Bible story (Genesis 22:1-18) about God telling Abraham to kill his son to please God? And just in the nick of time, an angel said, stop, kill the ram stuck in the bushes; this will please me. How many cultures have used sheep and rams, a male sheep, in the last 4,000 plus years when Abraham supposedly lived.

Over half of the world’s population practices one of these three Abrahamic religions.

When you think of a sheep, you think of a warm fuzzy animal needing guidance, a shepherd. When they do not have a shepherd for guidance, the following can occur. In 2005 in Turkey, a suicidal sheep jumped off a cliff. What happened next was shocking even to the shepherds eating their breakfast and not watching the sheep. 1500 sheep followed the first sheep jumping off the cliff to their death.

Perhaps this is why a Tibetan proverb states, “It is better to live for one day as a tiger than to live for a thousand years as a sheep.”

Sheep are timid, nervous animals and defenseless against predators like coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions. It makes one wonder how many politicians are predators?

Sheepherders will often state once you have caught a sheep, they will usually relax and give in to you if you have control over their head. I find this very symbolic.

Sheep are mentioned over 500 times in the Bible, more than any other animal. Why? We can look at the ancient Hebrews who relied on sheep, but also we can search the Bible and see how sheep are referred to symbolically as God’s people. Abraham, Moses, and King David are described as shepherds. Even the Prophet Mohammed was a shepherd.

One can look up references to these three Abrahamic religions and how they view sheep, how they sacrifice sheep on their alters, or how to this day many will eat lamb on Easter or the Muslim festival called Eid al-Adha, which means Festival of Sacrifice.

Many claim sheep sacrifice first took place when Israelite slaves in Egypt slaughtered their lambs and put its blood on their doorpost. This was done, so God or his emissary named the Destroyer (depending on what history you believe) would know which house to pass over as he killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt. Was this revenge? One can study history and find that 80 years earlier, the Egyptian army killed all the newborn sons of Israel, two years or younger.

Suppose one were to search deep into history, you might find Passover did not start in Egypt on that fateful night of murder and mayhem, but rather the story begins with the Canaanite ritual worshiping the Pagan god Baal. But that is another story.

I could write on and on about sheep and religious history, but the bottom line, humanity is referred to as sheep. Is humanity simply followers? We can look at the history of leaders who lead their people into oblivion. Does humanity not think for itself, or are we simply followers of the loudest speakers. We can certainly look at the news media. They do not educate but rather control what they want the masses to hear and respond accordingly. Who controls the news media? You can look at many multinational corporations that own the primary news media and its abiding politicians. Do we follow ancient gods and their ancient traditions thinking it is new or sacred? What did that do for Ancient Greece who had a slew of gods to worship, or were their gods used as political pawns? Are we followers of political parties, followers of the most popular movement of the time?

As the next waves of fear are presented to the world, we have a choice, follow the embedded history of our genetics, or follow our heart, creating our reality versus the reality of mass consciousness. When the dust settles, we can ask ourselves the question, who or what did I follow, the shepherd, or my heart?

Something to always remember, the sheep lives its entire life fearful of the wolf, but in the end, it is the shepherd who leads the sheep to the slaughter.