Oct 12
26
Spinners and Other Lures: Rod Taylor
Fishermen know that getting fish to bite can sometimes be a challenge. Besides natural bait, like worms, fish eggs, crayfish, etc., there are a myriad of man-made lures, flies and combinations of ornamented hooks made to deceive fish into believing they are about to enjoy a delicious snack. Just like cheese in a mousetrap or any tempting bait, the illusion of an “easy meal” is just that. As the saying goes, “there’s no free lunch”.
That great man of wisdom, Solomon, who so wisely wrote the book of Proverbs and so stupidly lived as if God’s immutable laws could be violated without serious consequences, said, “the foolish young man falls into adultery, pursuing the adulteress…just like a bird wandering into a snare…he doesn’t realize it will cost him his life.”
We live in an age of major deception. All that glitters is not gold. All that shimmers is not water. All that promises happiness does not fulfill or satisfy. We all have known the pain of disappointment. The pleasure of eating candy can be offset by the pain of the dentist’s drill. The glory of acquiring knowledge can be offset by the loss of wisdom in some of our “institutions of higher learning”. And certainly, as Solomon so aptly noted, the momentary thrill of illicit sexual pleasure can become the pain and anguish and shame of being discovered or receiving in one’s body the consequences of sin in painful sexually-transmitted diseases.
Every person who falls for a shiny, spinning lure, who chooses to believe in the tempting myths of wealth through the lottery, of selfishness without consequences, of following temporal lusts and then being shocked when the pleasures are so temporary—these people are “fools” according to Solomon. And the fool—it says in scripture—says in his heart that there is no God. The fool puts all his money on the lottery, on prostitution, on his mansion mortgaged to the gills, on his shiny automobile. He comes to believe that the shiny things of the world, the money unjustly taken from his neighbor, the promise he never bothered to keep, the violated wife, the boss from whom he steals both time and money—he comes to believe that “there is no God”. That God “doesn’t see”.
Today the courts are again agreeing to review society’s strictures against prostitution. In even taking the time to examine our laws with the possibility of making prostitution an “honourable profession”, the unwise judges are saying, “there is no God”. “His laws do not affect us and hold no terror for those who violate them.” When we reject the fear of God and walk proudly in defiance of His laws, we also exclude ourselves from His promises. We “make the promises of God of none effect”, as the King James text reads.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If there is no fear of God, there is NO wisdom. Don’t run after everything shiny. Follow hard after God. Pursue Him. Seek to please Him and in so doing, you will reap a great reward.