Serpents

Dear Boys and Girls,

“You are free to roam the grounds of the hotel,” the man behind the counter assured as he straightened his silk tie and smiled at them. He held up a warning finger, “but,” he continued, “it isn’t always safe to venture into the thickets and grasslands beyond the hedges. We keep our lawn very short and encircle it with river rocks. We haven’t seen snakes in a very long time, but what happens beyond the hedge is out of our control. Do you understand, young man?” The man looked at Robert, who was staring at him doubtfully. Would there really be snakes in Texas that were venomous and dangerous?

The man held up his hand again and began to count on his fingers, one by one. “We have copperheads, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes, and coral snakes. Rattlesnakes can be divided into several types: Mojave, Timber, Western Diamondback, Massasauga; we have them all…Texas has ninety-six species of snakes, of which fourteen are poisonous.” He smiled at Robert’s mom, who looked dubious. “Don’t worry, Ma’am. Our grounds are quite safe. Enjoy your stay!”

Robert loved everything about Texas except the heat. There were so many things to see which he did not see at home: the fields of blue cornflowers, the magpies that squawked at him from the roof, the ash trees, and pecan trees…He hoped very much that he would meet an armadillo during his stay. Robert wiped his forehead. How very hot it was! He liked the feel of the short grass and the cool river rocks on his bare feet. He wiggled his toes into the hedge. The spacious lawn was not enough for Robert. It only took a moment, then he was standing in the middle of the wild, knobby shrubbery that grew in a sandy soil. Tall grasses whispered together, and Robert looked around. Before he could decide which way to head, a searing pain shot through his ankle. Robert gasped and moaned, grabbing his foot with both his hands. He felt hot, dizzy, and sick all at once. Too late, he saw a long, menacing shape slither away…snake!

Solomon writes about a venomous snake in Ecclesiastes 10:8b: “Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” What does Solomon mean? Sin is like a snake’s bite. The result of a snake’s poison is death, and the result of sin is eternal death.

What is a hedge? The hedge is something meant to keep you safe, something that should not be broken through: your conscience, that little voice which tells you when you are about to do something bad; the law, which tells you what is right and what is wrong; your upbringing, which is the way your parents taught and raised you; the Truth, which can be found in God’s Word—these things can protect from sin.

It began with a snake when the devil spoke through one to Eve, tempting her to sin, and she did. She broke through the protection and commandment which would have kept her happy. Why could she not take of the fruit? She reached for it anyway, although the Lord had told her not to. It was just as though she was “breaking through a hedge.”

Was she much more wicked than you? No, we are all bitten by the snake’s bite of sin. No boy or girl can think a good thought, or speak a good word, or do a good action, or take one step in the “narrow way” which leads to eternal life. No one lives a holy life. Sin has filled the heart with deadly poison which causes every boy and girl to love, by nature, what is wrong, and hate what is heavenly and spiritual.

The sad effect of the serpent’s bite is lasting. The serpent’s bite not only brought death, and misery, and the grave, but a never-ending eternity of woe to every sinner who dies without a God-given repentance and knowledge of the Truth. When a person is bitten by a snake, his body suffers much. This is a picture of a sinner dead in sin. Every person comes into the world born in sin and suffering from the consequences of the bite of sin—the venom runs in every vein.

When we break through the hedges of our speaking conscience, the law, God’s truth, and our upbringing, we are falling into sin. Do you pray to be kept from sin? Do you pray that you might not be left over to yourself to break holes through the hedges so that you are swept away? Sin is evil, powerful, quick, and sometimes takes a person by surprise.

When a person is bitten by a snake, several things happen: 1. It is a sudden, quick bite to an unsuspecting, carefree person; 2. The venom courses through the person’s veins, spreading to the rest of the body; 3. When a person realizes he is bitten, the first thing he does is look around for a remedy.

If a person is completely careless about sin, he might be like the man in Florida of whom I once read. When he was bitten by a rattlesnake, he took revenge by biting the snake’s head; in the process, he was bitten six more times. That’s how sin is—it bites, it causes misery, and the more you mock with it or do not see that you need a remedy, the more it will bite. That bite ends in death.

We fall into sin, we follow sin, but even worse—sin courses through our entire being. We are sinners, and what can be a remedy for such a serious venom?

A remedy…who does not think of the brazen serpent, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus taking the form of man to take sin upon Himself? There is a hymn which states, “None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good!”

The only cure for the malady of sin is the Lord Jesus, who is the Great Physician, and who can apply what the Bible calls “the balm of Gilead.”

Deep are the wounds which sin has made,

Where shall the sinner find a cure?

In vain, alas! is nature’s aid;

The work exceeds all nature’s power.

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