A Close Encounter
It was a beautiful, warm spring afternoon. A neighbor was coming home from work. He saw a car pulled off to the side of the road. A teenage girl stood over something in the middle of the road. She was taking a picture.
As the neighbor got closer, that something turned out to be a large rattlesnake. It was agitated, coiled and ready to strike. The girl was within two feet of incredible danger. He pulled in behind her, and quietly exited his vehicle.
Neighbor: “Ma’am, please start backing up very slowly.”
Teenage girl: “But he’s so pretty.”
Neighbor: “I beg you. Please start taking steps back, slowly.”
Teenage girl: “I’m just taking his picture!”
Neighbor: “That snake can change your life forever. Please start backing up.”
At that point the girl stomped off, got in her car and drove off in a huff. The neighbor stayed to watch the four-foot timber rattlesnake disappear into the woods.
Giving Danger Its Distance
How often we act similar to that young lady. We see how close we can get to imminent danger, rather than seeing how far away we can stay. Twice in Proverbs (22:3 & 27:12) Solomon tells us:
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” (ESV)
Benjamin Franklin once said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” God’s Word is filled with warnings to keep us from danger. The good news is that He has plans for us, to prosper and not harm us that we would have a future and a hope.
The bad news is that Satan also has plans for us, but his are to kill, steal and destroy. He is the father of lies. When we first encounter him in the Garden of Eden, Satan’s first recorded words in Genesis 3 were “Did God really say you won’t die? You will be like God.” If I recall correctly, there was a snake involved in that story, too.
Don’t Ignore the Warnings
Truly pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Perhaps it is Satan’s lies that deceive us into thinking that no harm will come to us. Perhaps it is our fallen sin nature that pridefully drives us to see how close we can get to danger. Perhaps it is the world’s lure to death-defying adventure. Perhaps it is some combination of all of the above.
But from Adam and Eve to the present day, people have been ignoring the warnings of Scripture only to find out, many times too late, that the wages of sin is still death. The death of marriages, of reputations, of careers, of relationships and ultimately physical death.
While there are many hazards against which God’s Word seeks to warn us there are two that receive special attention.
1. Adultery
The first is adultery. Proverbs 5, 6, & 7 describe this sinful hazard in graphic detail. It warns us that the adulteress will hunt for the precious life, and that she lies in wait at every corner. It also warns that adultery begins with flattery, flirting, and physical attraction.
How many marriages and homes have been destroyed by relationships that began innocently between co-workers or clients in an office, or parents at an after-school practice? A neighbor or a fellow choir member?
How many times has the Holy Spirit tried to bring conviction, or even good friends warned us that we were getting too close to that person? But the world, the flesh, and the Devil convinced us otherwise.
2. Alcohol
The second is alcohol. Throughout Proverbs, Solomon warns against alcohol, asking “who has woe, sorrow, contentions, babbling, wounds without cause and redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at wine and who seek mixed wines.”
Interestingly, he continues to say alcohol “at last will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder.” Once again the Devil asks did God really say? The flesh claims it can handle it. And the world bombards us that we are being too narrow minded.
Get Back
A coiled snake can strike to a distance of ⅔ of its length, meaning the four-foot rattlesnake could have struck that girl from 32”. She stood 24” away. It is arguably a miracle of God’s mercy and grace that she was not bitten.
How many times has His mercy and grace protected us from ourselves, the world and the Devil? Thank you Lord! Perhaps going forward the best question is not how close can we get to danger without a bad outcome, but rather how far away can we stay.