Squirrels Are Not in the Bible — but Storing Up Is, Both Ways

Biblical Dream InterpretationSee all 70 articles in this series

Squirrels are not in the Bible. But the thing squirrels are famous for — putting food away for later — is something Scripture both commends and warns about, in passages a few pages apart.

Holding those two together is the whole of the subject.

Proverbs sends the lazy reader to an insect:

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8)

That is storing up, praised without qualification. No one is supervising the ant and it works anyway.

The same book returns to it: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer. (Proverbs 30:25)

Joseph’s whole administration in Egypt is this principle at national scale — seven years of storing so that seven years of famine do not empty the country (Genesis 41:35-36). Scripture presents it as wisdom, and it saves his family’s lives.

And then a man in a parable does what looks like exactly the same thing.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.” (Luke 12:16-18)

God’s answer is blunt: You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? (Luke 12:20)

So what is the difference? The ant stores and is wise. Joseph stores and saves a nation. This man stores and is called a fool.

It is in the pronouns, and the parable makes it impossible to miss.

Read the rich man’s speech again. I will do, my crops, my barns, my surplus grain, and then to himself: you have plenty grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.

There is no one else in the paragraph. Not a labourer, not a neighbour, not a poor man at the gate. He is holding a conversation with himself about himself, and the harvest came from ground that yielded — the one thing in the story he did not do.

Joseph stored for a country. The ant stores for a colony. This man stored for an audience of one, and the summons came that night.

The closing line names it: This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:21)

The honest caveat first. Scripture contains no dream dictionary and never suggests one exists. Joseph and Daniel both say the interpretation belongs to God rather than to their skill (Genesis 40:8; Daniel 2:27-28). Nobody can say what a particular dream meant.

What can be offered is the tension above, which is genuinely in the text:

Preparing is wise. Proverbs says so twice, and Joseph’s storehouses are the model. Anyone who feels guilty for saving should read Proverbs 6 before reading Luke 12.

Storing for ourselves alone is not. The rich fool is not condemned for the barns. He is condemned for the pronouns.

Anxiety is the thing to watch. Luke’s parable is followed immediately by the passage about not worrying, the ravens and the lilies, which is not a coincidence in the arrangement.

Squirrels themselves carry associations of busyness, hoarding and winter coming. Those are ours rather than Scripture’s, and worth separating — though a dream that arrived while something was being worried about is usually about the worry.

Lord, you gave us the sense to prepare and the warning not to hoard.

Where we have been careless, make us wise.

Where we have been storing for an audience of one, widen us.

And keep us from talking to ourselves about ourselves for very long.

Are squirrels mentioned in the Bible?

No. The animal does not appear in Scripture.

Does the Bible say storing up is wrong?

No. Proverbs 6:6-8 and 30:25 praise the ant for storing, and Joseph’s storehouses save a nation (Genesis 41:35-36).

Why was the rich fool condemned?

Not for the barns. His speech in Luke 12:17-19 contains no one but himself, and the closing line names it: storing up for oneself while not being rich towards God (Luke 12:21).

Does the Bible interpret dreams about animals?

No. It records dreams God interpreted through prophets and says plainly that interpretation belongs to God (Genesis 40:8).

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