Psalm 12:7-8; Proverbs 4:14-15; Matthew 26:41; Luke 11:4;
Romans 13:14; 1 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Ephesians 4:27; James 1:14; 1 Peter 5:8-9; 1 John 2:15-16
My father hunted. I don’t hunt. I sleep during hunting trips. Mom would bundle me up in, as Bill Cosby would say, 27 snow suits, until I had so many clothes on that I looked and moved like a teddy bear. I’d toddle over to the jeep, sit next to my dad, who drove, with my feet tangled up in the gear boxes, and promptly fall asleep. He’d wake me when the trip ended. Once I slept serenely while he fired twice from his jeep seat. Never woke up.
Once, too tired even for a jeep-sleep, I declined a hunting invitation. That night he shot two leopards, probably husband and wife.
When these heartless hunters return, I see the glass-eyed deer in the net at the back of the jeep, and feel sorry for them. Of course, after the hunters have winched them up and take off their (the deer’s, not the hunter’s) skin, I’ll willingly slice off some meat and roast it in the fire. So will I still. Just invite me over when you’re having venison steak, roast, stew or burgers.
Once in Montana I visited several different churches over the space of ten days and EVERY family served venison. I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. Of course, that wouldn’t be a deer heaven.
The song “Peace In the Valley” says “the wolf will be tender…” Does that mean we wolf down wolf in the New Jerusalem. I don’t think so.
“The lion will lie down by the lamb, oh yes.” But that’s a normal lion, not the Lion of Judah or the roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That last is Satan, whom we are to resist, firm in faith.
Watch soberly. When you hunt lion or leopard or tiger, you are also the hunted. My dad can tell you stories about that—watching the bait from the machaan, and suddenly discovering that the big cat supposed to be eating the bait is instead crouching behind, contemplating you.
Satan, unlike an ordinary lion, can disguise himself as an angel of light. This wolf in sheep’s clothing isn’t tender, but will just be well-done someday eternally—a rare thing. So give no medium—no foothold—to the devil.
For starters, don’t love the world system or its components. Everything in it—bodily and visual desires and human pride, come not from God, but from the world system. The bad old days produced the bad old order, but God protects and guards us during these times. On every side evil prowls and vileness preens, but we won’t walk that way even one footstep. We’ll take another route.
We must watch. (You can observe a lot just by watching.) We must pray that we don’t succumb to temptation. Our inner person wants to do right, but bodily desires get in the way, tempt and entice us. Provide no way for these desires to reach gratification. If you say you have no problem with this, take special care that you don’t embarrass yourself by falling in precisely this problem.
