In 1829, Mary Howitt published a little poem which eventually became an often misquoted a classic. “Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly, “‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I’ve a many curious things to show when you are there.” “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain, For who goes up your winding stair – can ne’er come down again.”
Solomon’s children, like children everywhere, eventually left home. They left the protection of their parents, and they began to make decisions entirely on their own. Let’s say that Solomon tried his best to raise his children in “the fear and admonition of the Lord.” “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.” Eventually, wearing the finest apparel and ornaments their parents could provide they walked out the front door of their childhood homes. Some were prodigals; some were Josephs; some were Ruths. But they were on their own with only their parents’ instructions echoing in their hearts. Perhaps one of the last they heard was, “My child, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”
Every beautiful, little Blue Bottle fly has its own predatorial spider.
Every son has a sinner who wants to entice him into his web – perhaps hundreds of them. It is not as common here as it is in other parts of America, but most of us have seen a spider’s web early in the morning dripping with dew. Every strand of the web is clearly visible because it is encased in moisture pulled from the saturated air. And for a couple hours before the heat of the sun evaporates that dew, all the little flies know that the net has been laid for their capture. Let’s personify that little fly and give him more intelligence than he actually has. Let’s say that his parents have taught him to avoid spiders, because they are the fly’s mortal enemy. Ah, but some of those spiders are exquisitely beautiful, alluring and enticing. It is probably rare, but let’s say some flies are so stupid that they fly directly into four of the eight arms of the spider. In such a case, that silly fly’s chance of survival is zero. But it is far more likely that the fly will be caught in the spider’s web than her arms.
During the night, while the fly is asleep, the spider will jump off a tree limb trailing a gossamer thread. If that spider catches another branch, she will glue her thread to the new branch, creating a bridge between the two. And from that bridge, she will spend the next few hours creating an intricate net between those limbs. As it nears completion that night and after the dew burns off, during the next day, it may entangle lots of silly flies, which then become meals for the spider and her family.
Every son, every child, is a beautiful little Blue Bottle fly to dozens and dozens of hungry spiders. Or to change the metaphor, each of us are a moth, just as easily caught in the spiders’ web. But we are also attracted to a burning fire “as moths to a flame.”
“My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.”
For the sake of argument, let’s say that both spiders and flies are insects. That may not be scientifically accurate, but for children and housewives who find either in their kitchen, it is. Both the spider and the fly, or the spider and the moth, are “bugs.” And whether the son of verse 10 wants to admit it, or whether the parent wants to admit it…. There is very little difference between the fly and the spider, the victim and the predator.
That is because there is a gossamer thread which reaches between spiders and every fly in the world. There is an almost invisible cord which ties the two creatures together, even if it has not yet been engineered into an intricate web. Until yesterday, I never considered the “sinner” of verse 10 to be anything but someone outside of the son, trying his best to seduce him. But isn’t it true that there is a sinner who lurks in every heart? There is a seducer within us all.
Isn’t there a gossamer thread which ties every fly to sinful spiders? For example, from where do evil thoughts come? Blame it on evil music, Hollywood movies and Madison Avenue advertizing – you are not entirely wrong. But the Saviour said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts.” “The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Generally speaking, the sinners we must silence first and hardest, are those who live within us. If we have no control over them, the sinners who are without, will have an ally, a traitor, on whom to call. If we can’t silence the inner sinner, we’ll just walk out on that spider’s thread on our own accord. We’ll cross the bridge the spider has built, ambulating straight over to the Black Widow’s parlor.
“My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.”
There are people who think that arachnids are the most beautiful creatures in God’s creation. “Beauty,” as they say, “is in the eye of the beholder,” and not everyone thinks spiders are ugly. Similarly, I see a young woman with purple hair, 16 piercings on her face, a tattoo of tears coming from one eye, and I am not inclined to say that she is beautiful. However pretty she may have been before she started abusing herself, I can’t see it. And yet to someone else, even in her modified condition, she may be gorgeous. Solomon might have pointed to a hooker, a “woman of the night,” a harlot, asking his son, “Do you think she is pretty?” She may be eaten up by drugs, disease and sin, but some people think she is good-looking. The drug trafficker with his fancy car, gold ornaments, and a handful of hookers draped all over him, apparently is quite appealing to some young sons and daughters. “My son, just say ‘no!’” “If sinners entice thee consent thou not.”
I think the word “entice” is interesting. The Hebrew word “pathah” (paw-thaw’) is used 28 times in the Bible, but it is translated 7 different ways. “Entice” is the most common, followed by “deceive,” “persuade,” “flatter,” “allure” and a couple more. “My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.” “My son, if sinners (try to deceive) thee consent thou not.” “My son, if sinners (try to persuade) thee consent thou not.” “My son, if sinners (flatter) thee consent thou not.”
The world and its Satanic king have more kinds of enticements than Heinz has pickles. And many of them are sweeter than all the varieties of ice cream sold by Baskin Robbins. Some look good; some sound good making luscious promises; some are thrilling; some are flattering. Some are cheap and some are expensive, but they are all costly.
“My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.”
“My son, if sinners entice thee I need you to react in an entirely different way from those people.” They may flatter, tease, and try to persuade you with their logic and wonderful offers. The strength of those sinners may lie in their gradual approach; their trickery; their repetition. But don’t respond them with logic, arguing the potential consequences, while trying to maintain their friendship. Get bold; get blunt; get mean if you have to – “consent thou not.” Put your foot down and refuse their advances. “Here is a can of pepper spray. If they don’t leave you alone use it.”
Have you ever had a gossamer strand of spider’s web across your face? No matter how hard you try to remove it you can’t do it; or at least it seems like it is still there? It IS still there; it will always be there. Solomon is not guaranteeing that if you will consent not, you’ll be forever rid of the spiders. As I have said, our hearts are handcuffed to sin by the silk of our fallen natures – our depravity. The only way that we will ever have true victory in our “consenting not” is through our Saviour. He says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Remember that He was enticed beyond measure – beyond Joseph’s temptation, and David’s – but He consented not every time. Only as we surrender to the Holy Spirit of Christ will we be able to successfully control the spider’s strand.
But we can’t casually, ignorantly and blissfully stroll through life leaving the Lord to brush away all the spiders. “My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not.” Solomon’s exhortation was not simply “My son, if sinners entice thee pray for the Lord’s protection.” While that is important and helpful, we have some responsibility about the webs we run into. We need to study to show ourselves acquainted with spiders, and with the God who kills spiders. If we know that Black Widows are in some places, we need to avoid those places. If we live in places where spiders and scorpions like to climb into our shoes overnight, we need to prayerfully wake up and clean out those shoes every morning. And if we must put our hands into dark corners where the Fiddler Spiders are, then we need to prepare ourselves with gloves. It’s our business to call the exterminator and periodically spray our lives against spiders.
My son, if they say, let’s play a dirty trick on the neighbor…. If they lurk privily for the innocent… If they suggest that there is some precious substance available for the taking. “My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path.” “They lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.”
In the case of these spiders, the fly who gets caught in their web, will become just like the spider that caught it, and they will both be destroyed together by the God who hates this special kind of spider.