The Deadly Side of Curiosity
Newsflash. If a snake bites you, do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to the hospital.
You’d think a snake expert would do that. But noooo.
Karl P. Schmidt was a world-renown herpetologist (a reptile expert). In 1957, a snake was brought to the Chicago Natural History Museum. The individual from the Lincoln Park Zoo wanted to know what kind of snake it was. Dr. Schmnidt identified the snake as a boomslang snake, which typically slithers around Sub-Saharan Africa.
Schmnidt had picked up the snake to examine its markings when the nasty little critter suddenly bit him on his left thumb. At this point, any highly educated scientist would do what us non-highly educated non-scientists would do: scream like a little girl and seek medical attention—immediately.
Instead, Karl Schmidt decided to start a journal. I’m all for journaling, but his Bic pen could’ve waited another day or so. Nope, in the name of science, Schmidt wanted to report on the effects of the venom. What he wrote will never appear on a Hallmark card, because the effects weren’t pretty. He was dead in less than 24 hours. The autopsy noted intravascular coagulation, fancy words for excessive blood clotting and excessive bleeding. His lungs eyes, heart, kidneys, and brain were all bleeding. [Source]
I don’t want to make light of Dr. Schmidt’s death, but he knew better. It was so preventable. Yet how often do we dabble with something equally deadly, even when we know better? Sin is deadly. In fact, it leads to a greater death—spiritual death.
We are born with a sin nature. We are drawn to sin. We can be told it has terrible consequences, but we still choose to bite the apple of temptation. We can know that sinful actions have a venom that will kill us, yet we still step into it. Maybe we’re curious what it’s like or we think our experience will be different. Either way, the venom creeps into our lives and takes us down.
We see a picture of this in the Old Testament. While in the wilderness, the Israelites sinned against God, and God sent venomous snakes among them. I don’t know if any of them took the time to journal, but many died. But God was ready to bring them back to Himself.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered” (Num. 21:8-9).
Thay’s what Jesus did for us. Jesus took the venom of our sin upon Himself and died the death we deserve.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-16).
Jesus forgives and sets us free when we look to Him. Now that’s worth journaling!
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