Hebrew Legend
There is a Hebrew legend that tells of a rabbi journeying on a mule
through a wild country. His only companion was a rooster whose shrill
crowing at sunrise awoke him to his devotions. He came to a small town
at nightfall and sought shelter, but the inhabitants turned him away.
Outside the village he found a cave in which to sleep. He lit his lamp
before retiring, but a gust of wind blew out the light. During the night
a wolf killed his rooster and a lion devoured his mule.
Early in the morning he went to the town to see if he could buy some food.
To his surprise he found no one alive. A band of robbers during the night
had plundered the settlement and killed all the inhabitants.
"Now I understand my troubles," said the rabbi. "If the townspeople had
received me, I would now be dead. Had not my rooster and mule been killed,
the noise or the light of my lamp would have revealed my hiding place.
God has been good to me."
Taken from "Words of Promise"
copyright 1996 Concordia Publishing House.