Decisive or Not?

Decisive or Not?

He was tiny, adorable, very loveable and I just had to buy him. I was working at the time near a busy pet shop that perpetually drew my avid attention. I was a newly wed and my very patient husband was starting to find a growing menagerie in our home. I added to our collection, a very cute and very sweet and very black puppy, whom we named Jeremiah. He fast became my husband’s dog, going every where with Michael. When Jeremiah was about two years old we moved onto a large sheep and cattle property in a rural Australia. Here Jeremiah’s loyalty and devotion to Michael grew stronger, as each day he went to work with my husband; sitting enthusiastically in an old milk crate attached to the back of a motor bike. My husband was a landscape gardener caring for  25 acres of picturesque gardens and rolling green lawns around the main homestead on the farm. Jeremiah enjoyed the great outdoors, faithfully following Michael around the gardens, chasing the birds with a quick dash, and a sharp bark, and killing snakes. Yes, Jeremiah was a snake dog.

Australia is known for it’s dangerous snakes. We have snakes here equipped with venom more toxic than snakes anywhere else in the world. On that sheep property we had our fair share of poisonous snakes that we regularly saw. I grew up in the bush and I had a healthy fear of them. Michael grew up in New Zealand, islands that blissfully contain not a single slithering creature, and they made Michael nervous. Jeremiah took on the role of protector, but it was a game. A snake dog, however, is known to be a dog that will one day get bitten. It’s a serious game of life and death, a Russian roulette between dog and snake. Jeremiah had his many battles, leaping aggressively forward at just the right moment, teeth clenched firmly behind the back of the scaly snake’s head and with the serpent writhing in desperation, Jeremiah would violently shake the snake until the game was won. Week after week, game after game, the play went on. 

One afternoon Michael and Jeremiah came roaring up the dirt road on the motor bike, dust swirling high, they were home for the evening. Michael placed a bowl of  dry dog food before Jeremiah, patted him lovingly on the head and came inside to wash up. However, Jeremiah wasn’t feeling so well. The food didn’t interest him, he lay quiet and still, huddled in a small ball by his kennel. We suddenly realised something was dreadfully wrong with Jeremiah. We went outside to anxiously attend to him, only to discover he was stiff and labouring in his breathing. He sadly passed away not long after that. He was a snake dog. He had given his final shake and lost.

That year the drought was bad, the dams on the property were drying up, the sheep were being sold off as the paddocks turned to dust, and the snakes were thirsty. They headed for water, and the greatest water source was the lake in front of our house. The snake population increased. We kept the family well protected through prayer and keeping the area around our house snake free. Thankfully, most of the snakes were not too aggressive and would wriggle away from the sight and sound of humans. Michael and I were walking on our dusty drive when my snake instincts kicked in and I leaped automatically away from where I had been walking. That one leap disturbed the venomous snake and it quickly slid through a small crack in a low stone wall and hid inside an unknown cavity within. That stone wall was within metres of our house and definitely not a suitable place for a deadly snake. Michael grabbed a shovel and I grabbed the hose. Pushing the hose into  another small dark hole nearby; with the water pump on, we forced lake water into that secret place. Michael stood courageously on the low stone wall, shovel poised in mid air and waited and waited and waited. Eventually an inky black head poked out, a forked tongue flickered in and out tasting the dirt, picking up a scent for safety and Michael struck with an immediate and resounding deadly strike. The snake was no more.

My girls sitting on that low stone wall with their pet chooks.

I wonder at times, do we play with the devil like Jeremiah did with the snake, just giving him a shake and not really being decisive, dancing around the fringes of the boundaries? Jesus crushed the serpent’s head at his death. It was decisive, conclusive and sure. Do we claim that promise and in earnestness allow Jesus to have the victory in our own lives? The great controversy is a biblical theme not just in the realm of the cosmos but in each of our own lives, personally and daily. What is God calling to me to say no to in my life today that I have been playing around with? Will I choose to say no?

1 Cor 15:57 ..but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Rom 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.