The Dove - Symbol of “peace” and “innocence.”

The Bible has much to teach us about life in all its complexity.  One of the truths it teaches is found in Hos.7:11, where reference is made to the “silly dove.”  This is a strange description of the bird that, for many, represents true peace. 

But there is another side to the dove that we do well to remember.  This feathered friend displays its madness, its lack of wisdom, its innocence, its naivety, and lack of concern for others, in a remarkable way.  How?  By not clinging to what it knows to be its duty, and that it to put others before self.  Like Israel of old, and God’s people of today, the dove illustrates peace and concord, but it wants these at any price.  Even if a predator attacks its nest and eats its young, what does it do to maintain its personal peace?  It simply flies off, builds another nest, produces more young, and when another predator comes, flees in the face of danger or challenge – anything for a quiet, peaceful life. 

As the dove betrays its foolishness by fleeing in alarm from its nest, so mermerised by keeping its own peace is it that it falls into the net of the fowler.  Likewise Israel, and God’s professing people of today, even though warned that foreign alliances would be their ruin, rushes into such alliances with their known and sworn enemies.

The dove, then, is a picture of the “peace at any price” brigade.  It represents, in picture form, what is essentially a selfish type of person, the person who will not allow anything, no matter how bad or distressful it might be, to upset his personal peace.  Such a person will not take a stand for what is right, but will melt away into the background, keeping his head down.  This is a very apt picture of the self-centred individual who pretends to care about others, but in reality is concerned only to maintain his own ‘peace’ at all costs. 

Next time you look at, or think about, the dove, this symbol of ‘peace,’ think also about what it will do to preserve its peace, and keep a great distance between you and that "silly" attitude.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is described in the Scriptures as the Prince of Peace.  True peace means thinking as He thought, and living as He lived.