Yesterday, as I was going to the brook next to our mobile home to cut grass to feed our chicken with, I was THIS CLOSE to stepping on a very thick and dangerous viper…
I ran to my father for him to kill it, but by the time we got back to that spot the snake had vanished.
My father then told me:
Snakes know by instinct that we humans hate them and want to kill them, and they hurry away whenever they see us. They never expose themselves unnecessarily to danger, but they crawl away from it as soon as they can.
That is their wisdom that was given them by their Maker, so that they may see another day…
And that is the wisdom that Jesus referred to when he told his apostles:
“I am sending you in this society as sheep in the midst of wolves: Be therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”
(Matthew 10:16).
And he went on to say:
I have no experience with pigeons and doves, and I cannot tell you what we are to learn from them, but I can tell you what God wants us to learn from snakes, that is… not to not expose ourselves unnecessarily to danger!
If you know that people want to harm you in one place, move to another place, if it is at all possible.
Do not tell yourself: “God will surely protect me, for I trust in him!”. No. Run away to a safer place, just as Jesus did whenever he learned that the religious or political rulers wanted to kill him before his time had come.
Similarly, do not allow yourself to be in a place or a situation where you know very well that you are in danger to fall into sin.
God urges us to avoid such a place or situation at all cost, because we are weak, and once near the fire, our spiritual determination to remain holy and pleasing to God starts melting away, by the heat of our fleshly desires and we will most probably give in to the lust or whatever else is tempting us.
“The spirit is willing to do the right thing in God’s eyes, but the body is weak”, Jesus told Peter and us all in Matthew 26:41.
I have done just that, my father said, ever since I committed myself to follow Jesus, 51 years ago, at the age of 23.
I have avoided being near women and lived much like a monk when I was without a wife (being single for some 20 years all in all) and because of this, I managed against all odds not to ever fall into this sin that I am particularly most weak: my attraction to women…
That is what my father told me.
I know he is right, and I intend to follow his example.
Let us all learn from the “wisdom of snakes” that Jesus told us about.
1 Peter 5:7-8
“Control your bodies and stay alert because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, holding by all means to the faith.”