"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do
what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:7
In the third chapter of Genesis sin is likened to a serpent, a sly, sneaking, subtle serpent, that slips into our garden and strikes us with its fangs. In the fourth chapter sin is likened unto a tiger that looks as if it were asleep on the door step, but is really waiting, crouched ready to spring in and destroy all that is in the house as soon as the door is opened.
You know what a parasite is. It is something that feeds on others. It prowls around like a bandit and attacks others. All our diseases really come from little unseen parasites that get into our flesh and blood and live on our life. A parasite lies in wait at the doors of houses and nests and looks for a chance to enter and destroy. Well, sin is the worst of all parasites.
Did you ever hear of a golden wasp? It is a very beautiful creature and gets itself up in elegant garments of green and gold and pink and purple. It goes about among the flowers and garden glories like a miniature humming bird. It does not look like a parasite, a thief, or a robber, but it is. It is a dangerous, though very attractive looking criminal. The golden wasp is just as lazy and as good-for-nothing as it is beautiful. It is a bandit and a brigand. It steals. It waits around at the door of the fly-hunting wasp, that has been off in the fields searching and toiling for food, and waits until it comes home with some dainty morsel for its children. The golden wasp cannot break into the house, for it is safely closed, and it does not know how to dig or work. So it waits its chance and when the fly-hunting wasp returns and opens the door the golden wasp like a sneak thief enters also and hides away in the back of the nest. When next year comes round the children of the fly-hunting wasp, for whom the house was built, are all gone, and instead the children of the golden wasp are in possession. The golden wasp’s grub devoured the grub so carefully housed by the fly-hunting wasp. What a criminal it is!
The world is full of beautiful looking animals that are parasites and live on the life of others. A friend of mine passing along the highway one day heard a bird making a piteous noise. It kept flying to him and then back to the tree and he knew something was wrong. He stopped and followed the flying bird to the bushes and on the ground he saw a little bird. There was a thin streak of blood on its breast. He picked it up and with his handkerchief wiped away the blood stain, and was about to put it back in the nest when a great snake lifted its head from the nest. No wonder the mother bird was calling and crying. A snake was in her nest feeding upon the little birds. My friend watched the snake and wondered how it had got into the nest, for it was many feet above the ground. He saw the snake crawl along the limb out to the farthest branch and there hanging by its tail, swung itself back and forth until it was able to touch a small tree into which it leaped.
But it did not escape. He killed it, and you can see that snake in the Museum at Washington and Jefferson College.
Sin is just a parasite coming like a Snake to bite, or like a wasp to sting, or like a tiger to destroy. There are two things for us to do. First, we must keep the door tightly closed, keep the entrance barred and bolted to all who seek to do us harm. This is what the Bible tells us to do, “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life."
Second, let us make God the keeper of our lives. He can keep us safely. The 121st Psalm is called “The Keeper’s Psalm,” and it has the promise “The Lord is thy keeper.” One of the great missionaries of Africa said, “I have locked the door of my heart, and Jesus has the key.” That is the way of safety. Kerr
“Except the Lord keep the city
The watchman waketh but in vain.”
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| "Garden of Eden Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted." 2 Corinthians 11:3 |
