Beware Hell's Employ

No man is made unfit to be of worth;
Each can earn honor; each lofty success.
You have to select a mission on earth,
Miss no golden chance that your pathway bless!
You should beware the serpent's ugly fate,
Whose beauty and reason were most extolled;
He lost by will or force his first estate,
Till Satan chose the snake to be enrolled!
He walked upright, unafraid, until then;
Fairer than creatures of forests or fields
Was he, until he assisted Eve to sin;
After, not safe behind a thousand shields;
His head the target of the heels of men!
Let not your body be hell's to employ,
Lest the same reward be yours to enjoy!

Snakes excite more fear, hatred, and repugnance than any other creature. There is an instinctive dislike in humans for them, instilled by God because of the role played in the sin of the first man and woman inthe Garden of Eden, The serpent was beautiful, walked upright, and the most intelligent creature, other than man. Satan was there, too; he could have approached the couple by any other strategem, but he chose to put himself in the form of the serpent.

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden?"'" (Genesis 3:1)

By a deliberate mixture of truth, half truth, and lies, Satan succeeded in convincing Eve to partake of fruit from the tree that God had forbidden them to eat. Adam was with them during the whole episode; he disobeyed as well, Eve probably would not have succumbed if Adam had not been present. This action was the beginning of science, for from this point on, man's curiosity about why things are as they are originated. Even the question of God's very existence dates from this sin.

"So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will pur enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'" (Genesis 3:14-15)

It hardly seems fair to the serpent, but he may have permitted Satan to use his body without protest. However, it is a grim reminder that similar punishment can be applied to us if we allow Satan to use anything belonging to us to entice people to sin. Example? The head of the Texas lottery, worried about declining lottery ticket sales, ordered his workers statewide to concentrate on increasing tickets sold to high school and younger aged children. How do you think God feels about that?