Impact Christian Church

Ravished Entrapments

Wayne Rice once shared an interesting scenario of Eskimo hunters. According to tradition, Eskimo hunters had a clever method of killing wolves:

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. He then adds layer after layer of blood until the blade is completely concealed by the frozen blood.

Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, the wolf licks the blade in the cold Arctic night. His craving for blood becomes so great that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue. Nor does he recognize the instant when his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite continues to crave more until in the morning light, the wolf is found dead on the snow!

The enticements of our heart create similar behaviors in our lives. For the same reason the wolf begins to lick the blade, we find ourselves being attracted to the passions of our flesh. It seems safe and delicious at first- although it never truly satisfies and we are unable to dismiss the urge. The gravitational pull of lust for more becomes so intense that we can’t stop as we find ourselves at the point of an unrecognizable appearance of our own self - doing things that we thought we’d never do,  interrogating ourselves; trying to uncover the pathway that got us to this point.

One small step away from Jesus has the ability to lure us into the endless abyss of our fruitless flesh. In John 15:5 Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches. Unless we are connected to Him we will continually find ourselves at the same point of returning to undesired actions.

Connect to Jesus and step away from the ravished entrapments of your heart.

(Eskimo Wolf Hunters story was adapted from Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice, 1994 Youth Specialties, Inc.)