Identify five key lessons about rejection from the Ancient Writings (Old Testament) and the truth to make you free.
As revealed throughout the 10 passages about “ostriches” throughout the Bible, we can observe what the ostrich has to teach us about rejection and how it operates.
Ostrich lesson #1: Don’t chew or ruminate on thoughts of rejection. Don’t let rejection become a part of your spiritual DNA (identity, attitude, physiology, life, and/or biology).
“every raven after its kind, 16 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; 17 the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl;”
--Leviticus 11:15-17 NKJV [emphasis mine]
All clean birds you may eat. 12 But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 13 the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds; 14 every raven after its kind; 15 the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after their kinds; 16 the little owl, the screech owl, the white owl, 17 the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the fisher owl, 18 the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 “Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. 20 “You may eat all clean birds.
--Deuteronomy 14:11-20 NKJV [emphasis mine]
The first time that ostriches are mentioned in the Bible, they are described as unclean birds which God’s chosen people were not permitted to take into their bodies. In the Old Covenant, the Israelites were prohibited from consuming various kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creeping things. Many of the Old Covenant laws had spiritual lessons attached to them which are meant to be applied in the New Covenant (a person’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ).
For example, Paul writes that the Mosaic law to not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain was meant to carry a New Testament application: help meet the material needs of your pastors (see Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9-10; 1 Timothy 5:17-18). Oxen represent spiritual leaders who serve others in order to reap a spiritual harvest. In the same way, the other animals of the Old Testament also carry significant meaning with lessons for us to apply to our everyday lives.
When it comes to unclean animals that God’s people were forbidden to eat in the Old Testament, in addition to hygienic reasons, the purpose of such prohibitions was also to inform believers in the New Covenant about how to walk in discernment and to grow in their spiritual maturity as they experience God’s love and put it into practice. Wisdom and discernment is available for any believer in Jesus who will grow in spiritual maturity by yielding in submission to God’s leadership (see Hebrews 5:12-14; Proverbs 2; James 1:2-5).
The deeper we increase in our level of trust and obedience to God’s Word, the more we become like Jesus and the more freedom, peace, and joy we get to experience. The purpose of discernment is to identify anything in our lives that is not of God (anything that hinders love), so that we may get rid of anything in our lives, thoughts and actions that is contrary to God’s character or nature.
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” --2 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV
Ostrich lesson #2: Rejection can be a strong coping or defense mechanism used to numb a person’s pain, pretending to be a “good friend.” Don’t adopt a rejection mindset.
“I go about mourning, but not in the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
29 I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin grows black and falls from me; my bones burn with fever.”
--Job 30:28-30 NKJV [emphasis mine]
As Job suffered terrible trauma at the loss of his property, children, reputation, health, joy, and hope, he wallowed in self-pity and depression. In Job 30, he identified himself as “a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches.” Job’s hope and joy was stolen from him due to what He believed about God through the lens of his painful circumstances. Job had a “rejection mindset” when he believed that God was unfairly afflicting him for His own mysterious, sovereign purposes. Job believed that God was capricious or arbitrary in letting bad things happen in Job’s life for no good reason.
Job believed lies about who God was and what God was up to; consequently, he was filled with anxiety, despair, bitterness, depression, and hopelessness. However, when God rebuked Job for embracing a proud, rejection mindset (which God likened to a spiritual entity called “Leviathan…king over all the sons of pride”), Job repented (changed the way he thought about God). When Job finally humbled Himself and trembled at God’s word, then Job knew the truth, and the truth made him free (see Job 41-42; Isaiah 66:2; John 8:31-32; James 4:6-7).
After Job chose to believe that God is completely good, powerful, loving, just, fair, non-arbitrary, and perfect in all His decisions and nature (no matter what trauma Job experienced or what difficult pain he went through), then Job could finally be filled with God’s love, joy, and peace. No longer did Job have to live with anxiety and fear about anything bad happening to him after He understood the nature of God. He humbled himself and chose to believe that all things work together for the good of those who love God, obey Him, and who let His words transform them from the inside-out.
Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
--1 Corinthians 10:20 NKJV
Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers that he did not want them to have fellowship with demons. According to Paul, it is possible for a believer in Jesus to “have fellowship with demons,” something that Paul did not want the Corinthians to do. In his writings to the Ephesian church, Paul told believers not to “give the devil a foothold” and to stand their ground as they wrestled with invisible satanic entities (see Ephesians 4:27; 6:10-12).
Rather than assuming that believers in Jesus are unconditionally immune to demonic oppression, influence, deception, temptation, attack, and/or fellowship, Paul and the other apostles tell believers just the opposite. See 1 Corinthians 5:5; 7:5; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 11:14: 12:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 1 Timothy 1:20; 3:6-7; 4:1; 5:15; 2 Timothy 2:26; James 1:12-17; 3:15; 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8--references found by using the BibleGateWay.com search engine for the terms “satan,” “devil,” and “demon.”
Believers can patiently increase their immunity or resilience to demonic oppression, influence, deception, temptation, attack, or fellowship to the degree that they fellowship with God, love God, think the way He thinks, and do what He says. The deeper one connects with God and becomes more like Jesus, the greater the level of victory that a believer will experience against the demonic (deception, lies, guilt, shame, fear, condemnation, envy, addiction, anxiety, depression, etc.). By knowledge the just shall be delivered, and the truth shall make one free as a byproduct of abiding in Jesus’ words (see Proverbs 11:9; John 8:31-32).
Ostrich lesson #3: A rejection mindset lacks understanding, and it treats a person harshly. It can crush a person’s spirit as early as the womb.
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? 14 For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and warms them in the dust; 15 she forgets that a foot may crush them, or that a wild beast may break them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; her labor is in vain, without concern,17 because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with understanding.18 When she lifts herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider.
--Job 39:13-18 NKJV [emphasis mine]
In this chapter, God rebukes and teaches Job about the reality of Job’s situation. Just as Jesus used parables (many involving animals) to uncover spiritual truth, God does the same with Job. Just as Jesus Himself used the “birds of the air” as a metaphor for demons (or “Satan,” see Mark 4:4,15), God teaches Job about the characteristics of various “birds of the air,” “beasts of the field,” and other creatures (see Job 38:39-41:34).
The author of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 classifies “the ostrich” as a “bird of the air.” Just as the ostrich is the world’s largest bird in the animal kingdom today, the spirit of rejection is among the most influential and destructive entities in Satan’s invisible kingdom of darkness. What spiritual lesson does God want to teach his people through this “mystery of the ostrich?:” Don’t be like Job was in Job 30:29; don’t fellowship with spirits of rejection (or adopt a “rejection mindset”).
God often uses spiritual categories throughout the Bible in describing the “beasts of the field,” “birds of the air,” “fish of the sea,” “creeping things,” etc. Bats represent spirits of blindness, ostriches can represent spirits of rejection, and the other birds represent other kinds of spirits. Their physical and behavioral characteristics have spiritual parallels to how other invisible entities operate and exist.
To list just a few other ways that the Bible personifies animals,
Pigs represent “scoffers” (or proud, intellectual know-it-alls). (1)
A “dog” represents somebody who lacks self-control (or greedy, lustful, carnal “fools” who follow their own appetites without self-restraint). (2)
Foxes represent sly, cunning, scheming, sneaky, politically-maneuvering people who try to manipulate others to get what they want while seeking to appear innocent.
Wolves represent [religious] hypocrites, people who may appear innocent [when disguised in sheeps’ clothing] yet are very judgmental and will not hesitate to tear others to shreds when their opportunity finally arises.
Poisonous snakes (vipers, adders, cobras, and/or asps) represent personalities who are filled with envy and bitterness. (3)
Camels can represent rich, affluent, wealthy, successful people who put their security in their material possessions rather than in God. (4)
Crocodiles and/or sea serpents represent how pride operates. (5)
Sheep represent disciples (teachable students) who follow Jesus, or the people who submit to God’s loving leadership.
Job identified himself as a companion of ostriches, and God later instructed Job about the nature of ostriches. What was God teaching Job through His lesson about ostriches? God described ostriches as creatures who abandon their young, neglect to care and nurture them, treat them cruelly, and who leave them vulnerable to all kinds of external threats. God deprived the ostrich of wisdom and understanding in order to provide Job (and us) with a visual illustration about how the invisible spirit of rejection operates.
Why would Job consider himself to be a friend or companion of ostriches? Why would anybody want to make close friends with a cruel person who abandons his/her children? In our human brokenness, we may choose to fellowship with people and personalities that may be to our-long term detriment.
An old saying goes “birds of a feather flock together.” For instance, gossipers will find and attract other gossipers, and successful people will attract and find other successful people. As the idiom “misery loves company” implies, people with a rejection mindset may attract others with a similar mindset.
Ostrich Lesson #4: A rejection mindset will isolate a person and cut them off from resources and relationships that are vital for health and longevity.
It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation; nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there. 21 But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of owls; ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will caper there. 22 The hyenas will howl in their citadels, and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.”
--Isaiah 13:20-22 NKJV [emphasis mine]
Ostriches are among the creatures that inhabit the city of Babylon when it is destroyed. Such a land lies desolate and rejected as a habitation by people. As they did in Job 30:29, jackals and ostriches show up in all the same passages from Isaiah 13:21-22 onward. Ostriches and owls show up together in the Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 passages, just as they did in Isaiah 13:21. Owls can represent “human wisdom,” which God rejects as futile and worthless when it contradicts reality. (6)
Ostrich Lesson #5: A rejection mindset can produce premature death.
The final five passages in the Bible about “ostriches” below describe them co-existing with “jackals:”
They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses; it shall be a habitation of jackals, a courtyard for ostriches.
--Isaiah 34:12-13 NKJV [emphasis mine]
The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.
--Isaiah 43:20 NKJV [emphasis mine]
“Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, and the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
--Jeremiah 50:39 NKJV [emphasis mine]
Even the jackals present their breasts to nurse their young; but the daughter of my people is cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness.
--Lamentations 4:3 NKJV [emphasis mine]
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches, 9 for her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah; it has come to the gate of My people—to Jerusalem.
--Micah 1:8-9 NKJV [emphasis mine]
Seven of the ten passages of the Bible which mention “ostriches” also mention “jackals” within the same verse or the next verse. Dogs and pigs show up together in some of the same passages, for the personalities whom “dogs” and “pigs” represent have a lot in common. Serpents and scorpions likewise appear together in a few passages, so that God may teach us a lesson about the close relationship between sin (anxious fear) and sickness in many cases. (7) What is the spiritual or practical significance of “ostriches” and “jackals” appearing together so frequently? If “ostriches” represent [spirits of] rejection, then “jackals” represent [spirits of] death. (8)
What is a “spirit of death?” It is an invisible entity, personality, mindset, belief system, and/or attitude that constantly and expectantly awaits death to come upon a person. To see a biblical example of such a mindset, read the words of Job in chapters 3, 14, 16-17, 30, etc. As Job bemoans his dismal circumstances throughout the book, he manifests hopelessness, “bitterness of soul,” depression, and self-pity. Job waits in expectation for death to free him from the pain and sorrow of his earthly life. At the same time, Job bemoans how he has been rejected, abandoned, and attacked by God and the other people in his life.
A rejection mindset may be accompanied by a greater preoccupation with death. Are not suicides often attempted by people who are seeking relief from the tormenting pain of rejection? Survey statistics have shown that the “fear of public speaking” has ranked higher or more frequently than the “fear of death.” (9) Could this be because the “fear of public speaking” is rooted in the “fear of rejection” [by one’s audience]? A person struggling with [grief, sadness, and anxiety from] rejection is inundated with a flood of hormones (cortisol and adrenaline), which long-term (if left unaddressed) could manifest in depression, sickness, and disease. (10)
Ostriches have the ability to disembowel a man or to kill a lion with a single kick. (11) Likewise, a rejection mindset will release a flood of cortisol and adrenaline into a person’s bloodstream when a person perpetually believes that s/he is rejected, unsafe, unloved, unacceptable, and abandoned. (12) Long-term, those hormones can bring disease and premature death to a person whose immune system becomes compromised by that unregulated flood of cortisol and adrenaline.
Having discussed five lessons about how rejection operates from Bible passages about “the ostrich,” how can we overcome the pain of rejection?
Four Spiritual Laws about God’s Acceptance (13)
1. God loves you and created you to belong to Him. He created you to experience and know His acceptance and inclusion as a connected, valuable, and irreplaceable member of His family.
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. --John 17:9-10 NKJV
In this passage, Jesus is praying to God the Father about us, the people for whom He was about to bleed and die. Jesus offers eternal life (a relationship with God) for all who will receive Him, know Him, trust Him, obey Him, and submit to His teachings, leadership, and commandments.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
--Ephesians 1:3-5 NKJV
2. At some point (or level) all people have rejected God and the wonderful relationship that He offers, so our original connection that we once had with God has been severed. This breach of trust that broke our connection with God had left us feeling rejected, isolated, abandoned, cast aside, and ostracized.
“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
--1 Samuel 15:23 NASB1995
When we believe that what God says in His Word does not apply to us, or when we reject what God commands or what He says about a matter, then we forfeit our ability to have influence, authority, order, peace, and stability in our lives. When we reject the truth of God by doing things our own way apart from Him, then we may face the sting and pain of rejection, failure, setback, disappointment, and defeat.
“If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”
--John 12:47-49 NASB1995
Jesus Himself does not condemn us when we mess up or fail to take Him seriously. However, we still experience condemnation, rejection, guilt, shame, and fear from our own accusing consciences as a byproduct of not listening to God, not taking Him seriously (at His word), or disobeying Him (see Romans 2:1-16; Revelation 12:9-11).
If our rebellion, rejection, guilt, shame, fear, and accusing conscience keeps us separated from God the Father’s love and accountable to His divine judgment, then how can our rebellion, rejection, guilt, fear, a tormented (or stressed) conscience, and condemnation be removed?
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only solution for rejection. Through Him alone we can experience God’s unconditional love and acceptance into His family.
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
--John 3:35-36 NASB1995
“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
--Isaiah 53:3-4 NKJV
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
--Mark 8:31 NKJV
4. It is not just enough to know these truths. We must receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to know God’s acceptance at the core level of our being. Then alone can we be free and joyful in spite of any rejection that we experience in life.
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”
--John 1:10-12 NKJV
“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
--Ephesians 2:13 NASB1995
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,”
--Ephesians 2:19 NASB1995
The following is a suggested prayer for beginning this journey of freedom from rejection. One’s actual words do not matter compared to the attitude of your heart:
Father,
Thank You for creating me to enjoy a relationship with You where I belong to You. [Psalm 100:4; John 17:3] I praise You for fashioning me and for declaring me a masterpiece [Psalm 139:13-16; Ephesians 2:10]. You created me to be Yours--to be Your beloved child and highly valued possession with full access to Your protection and provision as I cling to You in trust and obedience. [1 Peter 2:4-10] Thank You for valuing me at a great price--at the cost of Your very Son, Jesus [1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; 1 Peter 1:17-19]
I choose to believe that Jesus was rejected so that I could be accepted. I recognize and renounce the ways that I have rejected Your leadership in my life; it is clear to me that I have broken Your commandments as I have not loved You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. [Feel free to be honest and specific with God about anything on your heart that is keeping you from feeling close to Him or in right standing with Him].
Now I choose to turn away from those old ways of thinking and behaving in my life that were not pleasing to You. I confess aloud that “Jesus is Lord;” I give You “the driver’s seat” of my life as I submit to Your words, commandments, and plan for my life. I choose to believe in my heart that You (Father God) raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Thank You that the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has come to live inside of me. Now I am adopted into Your family, accepted, and celebrated by You! [see Luke 15; Romans 8:14-17]
Father, thank You for making me free from rejection. I love You and agree with what You say about me. As I grow rooted and grounded in Your love, thank You for making me more like You!
In Jesus’ name, so be it!
Conclusion:
“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”
--Colossians 2:6-7 NASB1995
“Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”
--Romans 15:5-7 NASB1995
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
--Matthew 5:11-12 NKJV
To learn 75 characteristics of a “fool,” see “The Fool Detector Test.”
See “Dog.”
See “Envy is Like a Viper.”
For more information about what owls represent biblically, see Spiritual Zoology 101: The Great [Horned] Owl.
For more information, see Spiritual Zoology 101: Serpents and Scorpions.
That jackals represent [the spirit of] death I first heard from a YouTube video by John Eckhardt. Other animal comparisons have come predominantly from my own biblical observations.
http://juliapardo.com/fear-public-speaking/ Accessed 1-15-2023.
For more information, see “Exploring Questions about Anxiety and Depression.”
https://wildexplained.com/are-ostriches-dangerous/ Accessed 1-15-2023.
Four point-format based on Would You Like to Know God Personally? A version of the Four Spiritual Laws, written by Bill Bright.
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