Let's talk about leeches. Yes, I said leeches on this
week's edition of Liberty at Home.
Hello there, everyone. Pastor Adam Rivero here, and I'm
back with our latest Liberty at Home episode here on Easton
Community Access Television, a nonprofit community access
provider with not just one, but count them four channels, public
education, government and essentials.
I bet you didn't know that, but here's something you may know.
I'm the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church here in Easton
and we remain Easton's newest congregation where you'll always
be greeted with a smiling face and you'll always hear the word
of God over the opinions of man. As we get to today's passage of
Scripture, we're rapidly coming to the end of the book of
Proverbs with only one more chapter remaining to study after
today's episode. So let's get to it with one of
the most intriguing and initially most perplexing verses
in all of the Bible. We'll read Proverbs chapter 30
beginning in verse #15 which says the horse Leech hath 2
daughters crying. Give, give.
There are three things that are never satisfied.
Yay 4 things say not it is enough.
The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with
water, and the fire that sayeth not it is enough.
The eye that mocketh at his father and despise it to obey
his mother. The Ravens of the valley shall
pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
When I was in college studying to be a pastor, I had a summer
internship in a small town called Holden, MO, about an hour
southeast of Kansas City. I'm not surprised you haven't
heard of it, in fact, I'd be more surprised if you had.
For this city dweller, living in a whole summer, a town of 2300
was an eye opening experience, but one I deeply enjoyed.
I love living a different kind of life than I've ever been able
to live in suburbia. One example, the simple pleasure
of getting to go to a church members farm and fish in his
stock pond on a lazy summer day. Now look, I'm no angler, but I
enjoyed wading into the water and catching a few fish over the
course of several hours. One problem though, and it was a
big one. The first time I got out of the
pond I realized I also caught a few more things than fish.
Blood sucking leeches that had grabbed hold of my skin.
Needless to say, that day taught me why people wear waders when
they fish. Now getting back to our text,
I'm intrigued by the very first verse we just read that says the
horse Leech hath 2 daughters crying.
Give give. Now you may be wondering what on
earth does this mean and why you might think this verse is
obscure. I assure you that not only is it
not obscure, but it's an incredibly relevant verse to us
today. You can go online and look up
the horse Leech. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Did you find it? If you did, you'll see that this
specific Leech is called the horse Leech because of its
tendency to enter the noses of livestock.
Now, the horse Leech has two suckers on it, which the Bible
calls daughters, and it's these suckers that draw blood from the
horse. Now, here's where it gets really
interesting. The horse Leech can gorge itself
up to two to three times its typical size.
Once it's attached to the horse, however, the more it drinks, the
more it wants. And the more it wants, the more
it drinks. The end result?
It's suckers can't hold anymore and the Leech falls off the
horse. And then it ends up getting
trampled by the horse and dies. In today's passage, we learned
that an insatiable sinful appetite will only end up
leading us to destruction. You know, I've counseled many
people over the years dealing with sinful desires and habits,
and almost all of them say the same thing.
Pastor, I know when to stop. I'm in control.
It's no big deal. Like the horse Leech, they keep
wanting more. They cry out, give, give, but
yet in the end, the very thing that they desire ends up being
their downfall. These verses stand as a stark
warning. Beware of sin.
Don't coddle it, cultivate it, or cherish it.
Be sure that while there is pleasure in sin for a season, as
the Bible says, this same book also says be sure your sins will
find you out. By the way, this isn't some kind
of scare tactic from a vengeful God who doesn't want anyone to
have any fun. Rather, it's a loving warning
about the deceitful nature of sin.
Just like the Leech can't control itself, and it's that
very lack of self-control that leads to its downfall.
In the exact same way, our fleshly nature will keep
partaking in sin over and over and over again until the
consequences are disastrous. So what do we do?
Heed the Lord's warning and confess your sins to Him today.
So leeches, while not great when you're fishing, are good for one
thing, at being a vivid example of how sin can ruin a life.
Well, it's time to close out this week's episode of Liberty
at Home. But in the meantime, I want to
remind you to come see us sometime soon at Liberty Baptist
Church, 800 Washington St. in the O2375 part of Easton.
We meet every Sunday morning at 11 AM, Sunday night at 5:00 PM
and Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. Check us out and find all of our
digital platforms at my libertybaptist.org.
I'm Pastor Adam Rivera, signing off today from ecat and
reminding you as always that where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there's Liberty. See you next week right here on
Liberty at Home.