15. Don't be like the mule. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which

must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Psalm 32, 9. Picture

God's people as a farm yard of all sorts of animals. God cares for His animals, He

shows them where they need to go and supplies a barn for their protection. But there

is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely the mule. He

stupid and he stubborn, and you can't tell which comes first, stubbornness or

stupidity. Now the way God likes to get His animals into the barn for their

food and shelter is by teaching them that they all have a personal name and then

calling them by name. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

Psalm 32, 8. But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without

understanding. So God gets in His pickup truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit

and bridle in the mule's mouth, hitches it to the truck and drags him, stiff-legged and

snorting all the way into the barn. That's not the way God wants His animals to come to

Him for blessing and protection. One of these days it is going to be too late for that

mule. He's going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightning and when he comes

running the barn door is going to be shut. Therefore don't be like the mule. Be not like

a horse or a mule without understanding which must be curbed with bit and bridle. Instead

let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found Psalm 32, 6.

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins

and to accept as needy little farm yard chicks. The direction of God into the barn of His

protection and provision.