Morning, August 8, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“They weave the spider’s web.” — Isaiah 59:5

View the spider’s web, and observe in it a most illustrative picture of the deceiver’s religion. It is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud declarations of pretenders, and even the more cautious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose cunning declaration of faith was so soon shattered by the stern rebuke of Peter. Tradition, reputation, praise, advancement, and other flies, are the small game which hypocrites take in their nets. A spider’s web is a marvel of skill: look at it and admire the cunning hunter’s tricks. Is not a deceiver’s religion equally wonderful? How does he make so brazen a lie appear to be a truth? How can he make his tinsel answer so well the objective of gold? A spider’s web all comes from the creature’s own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers; the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their rope twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and carve out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be in debt to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider’s web is very frail. It is remarkably formed, but not manufactured to endure. It is no match for the servant’s broom, or the traveler’s staff. The hypocrite needs no battery of Armstrong cannons to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the cleansing broom of destruction begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, namely that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord’s house.  He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever. Oh, my soul, be resting on something better than a spider’s web. Let the Lord Jesus be your eternal hiding place.