I recently saw a headline (not the one I used) that caught my eye (see news article here). There was a man in Malaysia known as the “Snake King” because of his death-defying stunts where he did performances with deadly cobras for the public. Mr. Ali Khan Samsuddin spent more than 25 years working with king cobras in his shows. On one occasion, he set the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records by living inside a glass enclosure with more than 5,000 scorpions for 21 days. He also lived with 400 snakes for 40 days on a separate occasion. What a knucklehead! But, what caught my attention even more, was that despite all these death-defying stunts, eventually he no longer could defy death. There’s a point to be made about the inescapable nature of death, but that’s not the direction I want to take. Instead, I want to consider the irony of the headline: “‘Snake King’ dies of cobra bite.” Well, duh! You play with snakes, and eventually, you will get bit. Just like the “Grizzly Man” Timothy Treadwell, who lived with grizzly bears until the day he was killed by, you guessed it, grizzly bears.

I can’t help but see spiritual connections to regular stories… Why do people think they can play with something dangerous and nothing will ever come back to bite them? Satan is introduced in Scripture as a serpent (see Gen. 3). A snake bites people. You might slip past him like the Snake King dodged the repercussions for years, but eventually, the snake will bite!

Mankind has a terrible habit of thinking they can pull the wool over Satan’s eyes when in reality, he duped them. He fooled Eve, then Adam, and ever since he has fooled countless billions into playing the game. The serpent of old is not your buddy, he is not your pal, he is not a class pet you keep but only for the weekend. When the snake slips in through the cracks, he will take up residence, and he will slowly drip poison into your veins. He will numb you to the truth, and eventually, he will kill you.

Why do we need this reminder so often? Because we allow ourselves to be convinced by our culture. Folks listen closely: snakes bite; water is wet; air blows; Satan is not your friend; and sin kills.