Huntsman Hunting

I am not terribly fond of spiders and I refuse to share my home with them. Upon visiting my sister’s this week at her farm at Tamworth, I screwed my nose when I saw a large spider on their 'loungeroom' wall. It was five inches across and was quickly scuttling about here and there. I asked why they suffered such a creature in their home.

“Oh, he keeps the other spiders away”.

Turns out it was a Huntsman, an arachnid famed for harming humans when threatened and causing them various unpleasant conditions from their venom. It cheerfully attacks other spiders that dare enter the house as well as keeping low the fly population. A small price to pay, my sister evidently thinks, to accomodate so perilous a house guest. Suffice to say, I checked the floor very carefully before making nocturnal toilet trips, and withdrew my uncovered feet back under the duvet lest that monster took a liking to my toes. As I hid away from the 5-inch menace, I pondered its meaning.

In scripture, the devil, though a dangerous, roaring lion and furious dragon, is permitted by God to prick His people. Job is the most obvious example, but the apostle Paul and the Corinthian lothario were both vexed by the devil that some greater good might come thereby. Much as I unappreciated the Huntsman’s presence, I would have recoiled all the more from the dozens of spidery denizens his absence would have allowed. Satan is God’s unwitting fool. Smart though he is, cunning and clever he may be, the sovereign God uses his ill-designs to fulfil His own purposes. Thanks to him, the Lord Jesus was tempted and proved righteous, betrayed by Judas and found guilty, executed by Romans so that sinners might be redeemed from his very own dark kingdom.