Beware of those webs

Some people have arachnophobia, a deep fear of spiders. After reading this passage in the Bible and what Spurgeon has to say about it, this might not be a bad idea.

Isaiah talks about the power of God to save anyone and to hear our prayers, but he also says that iniquities make a separation between us and God. Our sins hide His face from us, meaning that sin is a barricade to a saving relationship with Him. Sin can only be fought with truth, so Isaiah also talks about false teachers who have trapped people with their lies and evil ideas. He compares these deceivers to adders and spiders. 

No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. (Isaiah 59:4–8)

Spurgeon points out that a spider’s web is skillfully crafted just as a deceiver’s religion appears equally wonderful. I’ve listened to some of them and marvel that they can make barefaced lies appear to be truth. Their tinsel seems to do for them what only pure gold can do for me. Sometimes I am amazed that they are so contented and happy with that which is contrary to God’s Word. 

Spurgeon points out the source of their “faith” by noting that a spider’s web comes from the creature’s own bowels. A bee gathers her wax from flowers, but spiders suck no flowers and still spin out their gossamer web. False teachers find their trust and hope within themselves and anchor their souls on that which has come out of their own understanding. This is similar to what Paul said about his people who thought they could be saved by keeping the Law.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1–4)

These spiders that Isaiah refers to have turned their backs on grace and the gift of eternal life through faith in Christ. Instead, they lay their own foundation and system of how to be saved. However, as Spurgeon points out, this web of their own making may be “curiously wrought” but it is not “enduringly manufactured.”  As a spider’s web is no match for a housekeeper’s broom, a false teacher’s ideas will come down with a mere puff of wind directed by the power of God. The Lord will not allow cobwebs to remain in His house. He will eventually destroy false teaching and those who spin their webs of deceit.

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God, keep my soul resting on something better than a spider’s web. I know that I cannot make up a faith system based on myself or what I can do. The solid foundation for eternal life is never from human ideas or effort, no matter how good it looks. Instead, the Lord Jesus is my Rock and my eternal life. No spider web, no matter how it appears or seems, can compete with Him.
 
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