I had been invited to a friend’s house for dinner. While we were eating, I happened to see a spider on the wall. I hoped my friend would not notice it or she might be upset.
Another time I was visiting friends for a weekend. The family’s three children and I took a walk. When we returned, we found a big spider on the floor of the front hall. The children made quite a commotion over it, and one of them quickly stomped on it and squashed it.
I’m sure you could find a spider in my house right now. And I think you might even be able to find one someplace in a king’s palace, if you ever had the opportunity to visit a palace.
Some people are frightened of spiders, and they won’t go near them. Others think they are ugly and make them shiver, so they kill them. But spiders are really very wonderful and clever. If you will look closely at their webs, you cannot help but be amazed.
I want to tell you about a spider that saved a man’s life. This happened during a terrible time in history. King Charles IX of France did not like the Huguenots, who were Christians. On Saint Bartholomew’s Day in 1572, he ordered, “Kill them all so that not a single one be left to reproach me!” Thousands of Huguenots were killed before it all ended.
One man who was saved was a baker. King Charles’s soldiers were hunting for him with orders to kill him, because they knew he was a Christian.
The baker knew they were hunting for him, so he climbed into his big oven, which was not heated that day, and closed the door on himself. As soon as he did, God sent a little spider along to help him. This little spider spun a web all over the oven door.
When the soldiers searched the bakehouse, one of them suggested that the baker might be hiding in the oven. But another soldier said, “No man, he is not in there. Don’t you see the spider’s web all over the door?” To them the spider’s web meant that the oven door had not been opened for quite a while. So they went away without opening the oven door, and the baker safely escaped.
There is a verse in the Bible that says, “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces” (Proverbs 30:2828The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. (Proverbs 30:28)). What do you think it means? I’m sure it wasn’t put in the Bible just to tell us what we already know -that a spider can be found in a fancy palace as well as in a plain little bakery. There must be another reason; God must have some lesson to teach us from this verse.
We know that a spider is little and weak and even ugly. But it is wise and takes hold with its hands and climbs into a place of safety.
Let’s just change the word spider to sinner and think about it for a minute. Isn’t a sinner little and weak? And in God’s sight there is nothing uglier than sin! Then think about this - why does God, the Creator of the whole universe, think we are worth anything or even notice us?
This is truly a miracle! In spite of how worthless we are, God loves us! His love for sinners is so great that He sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
Let us be wise like the spider. Let us take hold of the Lord Jesus Christ with hands of faith, accepting His love. He promises a place of safety in heaven from the punishment that is coming soon for sin.
“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:89).
ML-01/08/2006