It’s that time of the year again when our homes play host to some of God’s most interesting creatures. With the colder autumn evenings, they are attracted by the warmth of our houses and so we find them in the bath or, worse still, the bed. Spiders! Love them or hate them they’re here again. This year’s weather, the experts are telling us, has been ideal for these arachnids, and so not only are they more numerous than normal, but also larger! Thanks to ‘global warming’, we are told, one or two ‘foreign spiders’ are taking root in the UK, and although they are not venomous like the ones you might find in Australia, one or two people have been hospitalised following a nasty bite. Something to think about as you clobber the next big one you see with your slipper!
But, hang on a minute! The Bible speaks to us about spiders in more than one place, so perhaps we should learn from them before we remove them, by fair means or foul, from our houses. In Job, a book that is very rich in its descriptions of the animal kingdom, we are warned that the “hope of the hypocrite”, and “the paths of all who forget God” are like “a spider’s web” (Job 8:14). There are few things more beautiful on an autumn morning than seeing a spider’s web in the garden, particularly with frosty dew on it. But put your hand on it and it will collapse. Beautiful but fragile! How right the book of Job is. And yet many people are just like that. They live their lives as though God doesn’t exist, and even if they pay lip-service to God, their lives show that it is just hypocrisy. Though their lives might have an outward beauty, on the Day of Judgement they will be lost. Is that how it is with you?
Another Old Testament book that constantly encourages us to learn lessons from God’s creatures is Proverbs. That’s not surprising because we know that not only was its author, Solomon, blessed with the gift of great wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15), but he was an expert on all living creatures (1 Kings 4:32-34). In Proverbs 30:24-28, he points us to four things “which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise”. One of those is the spider, about which Solomon says “The spider skillfully grasps with his hand, and it is in kings’ palaces” (Prov. 30:28).
The great J C Ryle, writing to children more than a hundred years ago, said this about that verse; “The spider creeps into grand houses. And there she spins her web. There seems no keeping her out. Your mother comes and brushes the web away. The spider sets to work at once, and makes it again new. No insect is so persevering as the spider. She does her work over and over again. She will not give up! Now I want you to make the spider your pattern about your souls. I want you, like the spider, to persevere in sticking to what is good. I would like you to determine that you will never give up. I want you to keep on trying not to do what is evil—and trying always to do what is good, and pleasing to God.”
So put that slipper down and think again!
