Sin... Hot Irons... Bare Hands

(This reading is based on Proverbs 14 and is read in accordance with the Revived by His Word initiative of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.)

"Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident." Prov. 14: 9, 16

Growing up, we ironed our clothes by using specially made irons that had to be heated mainly in coal pots and sometimes on open wood fire flames. When things got a tad easier later, we sometimes stole a heating from a gas stove. Having a number of irons, in the fire (especially on a coal-pot). Irons tended to become overheated; rendering then too hot to be used at the point of extraction from the flames. It is suspect that it is from this situation that the expression, "Too many irons in the fire," originated. In order to keep ironing sometimes irons had to be taken out and just put aside to cool. When this happens, sometimes you forget how long ago an iron was taken from the fire, and you consequently sometimes touch it with your bare hands, in order to establish the level of heat. Sometimes you assume the iron is cold and you hold it with your bare hands. Either way you're likely to get burned (I've gotten a few such burns). After a while it became conventional wisdom that if ironing is taking place, assume that all irons are hot, so no bare hands; it'd be foolish to assume otherwise and not use a piece of "protective cloth" in handling them.

                                           

All sin are instances of handling hot irons with bare hands; acting outside the protection of God's expressed will. He told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they'd die (maybe not immediately - as the serpent would have likely demonstrated to Eve; and Eve, afterwards, to Adam), but they'd die. Well, they ate and are dead - a destiny that faces us all, being sinners. But thank God for Grace, this first death is not final, because Jesus died our eternal death so we may yet choose to live and not die eternally. But to be saved we must repent (sorrowfully turning our backs on sin) and be baptized (Acts 2: 38). We must use the protective gear of God's instructions to escape the burning of sin. Anything less is constitutes arrogance, bigotry, and utter foolishness.

Today Lord, we submit to the wisdom of Your word and seek to enjoy the protection it offers, because therein only lies our safety. Amen.

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