Men have not evolved from animals; we have all been specially created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27). However, we often seem to “devolve” into animalistic behavior. As our text says, all of us are like stupid sheep, going our own way instead of God’s way. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider” (Isaiah 1:3).

With some men it is even worse. The hypocritical Pharisees were compared by Christ to “a generation of vipers” (Matthew 23:33) and “false prophets” to “ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15).

Apostate teachers in Christian churches are even worse than false prophets and hypocrites, for they teach their lies in the name of Christ. As Peter says: “It is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (II Peter 2:22). In fact, He says they are “as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed” who must eventually “perish in their own corruption” (II Peter 2:12).

Now the dog and the sow, the sheep and the ox—even the viper—are just natural brute beasts, and their behaviors are instinctive, not volitional. But when men or women choose to behave like animals, they deserve the fate of animals. Many even claim an animal ancestry through evolutionary development to justify gross animalistic behavior, which, of course, has its own fitting reward. Nevertheless the Lord Jesus Christ has become “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), and “the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” so that He “taketh away the sin of the world.” HMM