The Lord Can Keep Us From Sin’s Trap, & Free Us When We Become Ensnared
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(5) Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. (6) Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!’ (Proverbs 6:5-6)
We just had an episode in our household where at least one unwanted guest moved in and we needed to evict him pronto. The unwanted guest was a field rat that somehow found its way into our attic, which prompted me to go to the local home improvement store and buy an appropriately-sized cage with a trap door to bait and catch the said miscreant.
Surprisingly to me, the trap worked and the rat was caught – it couldn’t resist the temptation of a ‘free lunch’, the peanuts I placed inside the cage before setting the trap. Now, the plan was to hear the trap go off and the pleas of its prisoner to be released, but instead it was the malodorous smell of a dead rat lying in an attic during a hot Florida summer that indicated something was snared.
While I cleaned up the aftermath of what I consider a partial success, I thought of the rat and how that temptation of a free meal led to his demise, and how we are often ensnared by the temptations we have in life. We are often tempted by what is easy or pleasurable, and either in the pursuit of these things or if we are successful in obtaining them, the trap is then set and we become ensnared by what we desired. Sometimes those things will kill us quickly, as I pray what happened to the rat, or we remain imprisoned for life; both can be the consequence of pursuing sinful desires in our lives.
The context of Proverbs 6:5-6 lines up to this indirectly, as it does warn of the folly of following our sinful nature and not Godly things. What the writer of Proverbs 6:1-19 is conveying in context is the snare of making promises to others without regard to whether you can keep them, or put another way, ‘writing checks that your bank account won’t cover’.
In the application of the actions of the rat, however, we find it’s application to those actions. The rat was tempted by the free lunch, the easy and more comfortable path that seemed good at the time. But the rat was not smart enough to see the trap it was entering, and not strong enough to escape the trap once it was sprung, so it led instead to its own demise, killed by what it was tempted to illegitimately pursue.
In our lives, sin works the same way. We are tempted by that which either seems desirable or easy to obtain. Why work to make ends meet, when stealing items off a store shelf or taking advantage of others for ill-gotten gain appears to be easier? We sometimes perceive our desires of self-gratification will lead to success, but these often are sinful pursuits that in the end place us in a worse position, pursuits of ‘the grass is greener on the other side of the fence’, but as the author Erma Bombeck once observed, ‘the grass is often greener over the septic tank’.
Our weakness ensnares us, and traps us in sin because we are enticed by what is desired and what is easy to obtain. But Proverbs 6:5-6 provides that if we are smart enough, strong enough, and like the gazelle and bird, have the speed and agility to avoid the traps set along the paths of our lives, we may avoid those snares and live our lives in greater freedom and ultimately with greater joy.
The knowledge, strength and agility to escape the snares of sin all come from God, through our Faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. With Salvation, and in walking His path Faithfully in Sanctification, increasing our Spiritual strength and knowledge through our study of the Word, our prayers, and our fellowship with other Christians, we learn the signs and indicators of the traps that are set, and avoid the sins that can entrap us.
We must understand that even with our Faith and belief, we can occasionally fall into a trap that is set by Satan, in order to take us off the path of Christ and onto the highway of ruin. But our Savior is an ‘on-time’ Savior, who unlike the entrapped rat in the cage, can lift the trapdoor for us once we realize what we’ve done and where we are at, and ask Him to rescue us, to free us from the bondage of the sin we fell into.
There may be lasting consequences of that temporary entrapment; a rat with a long tail may be released from a trap, but it won’t be released (if the trapper is smart) where it was ensnared, and the trapdoor may have severed its tail. We may be, in our mortality, stained with the sin we committed, but thanks to our Lord, he frees us to live in abundance of Joy and blessings within our needs when we obey and follow Him (2 Corinthians 9:8), and of course a life of eternity with our Lord after our mortality ends.
The author of Proverbs 6 also provides the example of the industrious ant, which works with his fellow ants to build and maintain his community. The ant, as the Faithful Christian, is not easy to distract from the purpose and assignment it has within the community, staying out of trouble while diligent in performing its tasks. The lesson of the ant is to complete what the Lord tasks us, through our Spiritual gifts by the strength of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill the Great Commission provided by Jesus prior to His Ascension.
Don’t be the rat who is easily distracted by the enticement of a ‘free lunch’, which ends up costing its own life. Instead, be like the gazelle or the bird, who has the strength and agility to escape the trap, through the knowledge of the Word, the strength and skills of the Holy Spirit; and, like the ant, stay in Fellowship to build up and fortify your community of Believers. The fleeting happiness found in sin is ‘peanuts’ compared to the eternal joy and blessings found in the gift of Salvation.
