Hunting Deer
(and shooting llama)

The hunter’s pulse quickened when he saw a deer run into a cornfield. It was still early on this frosty Saturday morning but already he had been in the field for hours. Novembers are cold in Minnesota. He was aiming to shoot, kill, and get in out of the cold.

“Hopefully that big buck won’t stay hidden in the corn for long.”

Moments later the creature came bounding out into the open. The quick shot was a direct hit. Before the animal even hit the ground the hunter was anticipating getting back to the house, bragging about the kill, and tasting the venison.

As he approached the kill he realized something was wrong. Very wrong. Our hunter had bagged not a white tail deer, but a llama. How did it happen? While the hunter had secured permission to hunt on this land belonging to a friend, his friend failed to warn him about the llama that roamed a field adjacent to his property. Imagine the embarrassment, you go hunting for deer and instead kill a wooly South American pack animal.

But how many of us have made the same mistake of locking down and firing on the wrong target? We get worked up about sin and the next thing you know we pull the trigger and gun down what we think is the correct target. When we approach the carcass we realize that instead of shooting the enemy, we have accidentally hit the wrong target. In other words, we hunt Satan and shoot Christians.

How many of us have been fired on by people so angry about sin that they targeted us instead of the real enemy? So far we have avoided being taken out, but we have seen so many friends who have had the life taken from them by a mistaken hunter. Sometimes the bullets are flying in all directions. The crossfire can be deadly.

May God help us with target verification.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

— Bob Clark

12/7/04