It was a warm summer evening, perfect for a picnic in the hills. We gathered some food and drove up into the hills above town to watch the sun go down. After a steep climb over the bumpy, gravel road, we found a good picnic spot with a nice view. We parked and got out our chairs, food and binoculars, using them to scan the hillsides for wildlife as we ate. We saw deer grazing in a field and a few elk appeared as well. We always look closely at the grassy hillsides and brushy valleys for predators, hoping we’ll catch sight of a coyote, bear, cougar or even a wolf pack.
As the sun set in the west, we looked down and identified familiar roads and farms off in the distance. The different crops looked like colored squares, with irrigation sprinklers throwing silver threads of water across the patchwork landscape. Too soon it was time to gather up our supper things and head back home, having been refreshed by the beauty and quietness around us.
Taking a different road down, we saw a few more deer feeding in the ripened wheat. As we rounded a bend, to our surprise we came upon a large group of about seventy elk, very close to the road! Frightened by our car, they leaped over a fence, crossed the road in front of us and bounded away. When they had passed, we slowly started forward again. As we got near to the spot where the herd had run across the road, we were startled to see that one elk calf’s forefoot was caught between two strands of the barbed wire fence. The frightened animal was frantically shaking its leg, trying to get loose. We knew it would be foolish for us to go close to an elk; it wouldn’t know we wanted to help it and could hurt us badly with its sharp hooves. As we sat in the car wondering what to do, the young animal pulled its leg out of the wire fence in a violent fit of shaking. We breathed a sigh of relief as it raced off to join the herd.
In thinking about the young elk, I was reminded of the traps of sin and how often it is the young that get caught in them. The Bible has a book of Proverbs that spells out clearly the snares that Satan lays to catch careless, unsuspecting people, including teenagers. Some of these snares are drunkenness, drugs, morally sinful living, peer pressure, rebellion against authority, and loving money too much. But Proverbs 14:2727The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:27) also assures us of help to avoid Satan’s temptations and snares: “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.”
Although this elk was just following the herd and the rest of them cleared the fence, it proved to be a trap to the young one. It might have been good for that smaller elk to go around the fence, if possible, or find another way. But seeing the rest of the herd clearing the fence, why wouldn’t he clear it too? However, we know God has not given animals the ability to think things through like we do. The young elk didn’t expect to get caught.
If a sinner is caught in Satan’s snare and cries out to God for help, He will save him from that snare and set him free to follow Him. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:1313And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:13)) was the simple prayer of a man long ago who knew he wasn’t ready to meet God with his sins unforgiven. We will see that man in heaven.
If a believer in Jesus wanders away from the Lord and gets tangled up in the snares of sin, God can free him from these too. “If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)). The traps may leave scars in this life, as the barbed wire probably did on the elk’s leg, but in mercy and grace, God will bring all His own safely home to heaven. Unlike the instinct that God had given the elk calf to pull itself out of the fence, you and I can’t free ourselves by our own power. God will untangle our feet from the snares of sin if we call to Him for help, and we will gratefully thank Him for setting us free. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee” (Isaiah 41:1010Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)). What a loving, caring God we have!
ML-12/08/2013