Last fall, I had a pocket gopher problem. This pest somehow got into my backyard and started tunneling everywhere. It created dozens of mounds around my garden. Then it started moving toward my trees, which could kill them! So I declared war on the gopher. After watching various YouTube videos, I tried flooding, poison, and traps. Unfortunately, none of it worked; the gopher kept digging. Fortunately, the YouTube algorithm suggested a video for a particularly effective trap. I ordered it, and the gopher was dead within five minutes of setting it.
I thought of my gopher problem when I read these verses in my quiet time last week:
“Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.” — Proverbs 6:28-29
“All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.” — Proverbs 7:22-23
There Are Consequences
These are indeed sobering verses. Proverbs strongly warns against the sin of adultery (especially in Chapters 5 – 7). You see, God has consequences for our decisions (not just sexual, but all areas of life). God’s ways lead to life and blessing. The world’s ways lead to death and destruction.
Of course the pocket gopher should have seen the danger signs. After all, flooding, poison, and traps clearly indicated that my backyard had become dangerous. But the gopher persisted. In the same way, God gives a variety of warnings when we are on a road that leads to destruction. It doesn’t matter what the sin is. Still, it is often too easy to ignore the warning signs and persist in our sins.
May we be wiser than a gopher,
Posted in A Word from the Pastor