Ridiculous Raccoon

Reading for Today: Proverb Chapter 5

Gold Nugget

Verse 22: “His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin.”

Commentary

There is an old belief that you can catch a raccoon with just a shiny object. When I was a kid I read the book and saw the movie, “Where the Red Fern Grows”. In this story, a shiny object, like a ball of tin foil, was placed in a can with a hole drilled through the top. A couple of nails were then driven in at an angle. It is true that raccoons have great attraction to shiny objects. Although I’m not country enough to prove the validity of the book or even know if anyone else has ever succeeded in doing this, it’s believed that the raccoon will reach through the hole to grab the shiny object. The problem is he doesn’t have enough room to back his hand out. His hand grasped firmly around his treasure requires more room than the tiny hole will allow. According to the folks that support this as fact, the raccoon will not let go of his treasure to save his life. He is absolutely trapped by his refusal to let go due to his desire for a piece of worthless tin foil. We may find this ridiculous and assume it is the difference between a stupid animal and a more “intelligent” creature like ourselves. Oh, if that were true.

The reality is we are more like the raccoon than we care to admit. We too, have a habit of being trapped by our desires for worthless things. They may not seem worthless to us, but from a more “intelligent” perspective like God’s, He sees a rolled up ball of tin foil. He wants us to let go of our sinful desires and be set free, but we, like the raccoon, hang on with everything we’ve got. Today’s “gold nugget” says, “His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin.” Like the lie that leads to more lies, our sins begin to entrap us. This is not what Jesus suffered on the cross for. He died on the cross to set us free from sin's hold on us. It isn’t appropriate for those that have been set free to be trapped again. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage”. (Galatians 5:1)

Prayer

Lord, we do not do you justice when we get entangled with the cares of this world and bound by foolish and sinful desires. You died on the cross to set us free and the payment was sufficient to free us indeed. Let us walk in freedom from sin and be a testimony of the power that you accomplished through the cross. Amen

If you are reading this devotional in an e-mail and would like to post a comment, click on this link http://proverbfortoday.org/