Anyone who has done much gardening will tell you that they dread seeing a groundhog around their area. This brown, furry rodent, sometimes called a woodchuck, is about sixteen inches long and can soon ruin a garden. They love to eat cabbage, beans, lettuce and just about any vegetable that people like to grow. Using their sharp claws, they dig underground burrows with several rooms, and, as we found out, they can do a lot of damage just in their digging.
One year, we had an invasion of these pests. There were burrows everywhere. One groundhog dug his burrow right in my zucchini patch. I put a live trap at the entrance of his burrow and baited it with their favorite food, salted cabbage. Within two hours I had caught the critter.
Isn’t this what Satan did to Adam and Eve? He baited his trap with the forbidden fruit, and then made them doubt God’s warning. Satan argued, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:11Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (Genesis 3:1)), and then he lied to them and said, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:44And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3:4)). They believed the lie and ate the forbidden fruit. That first disobedience brought sin and death into the world. Satan is still baiting his traps today with all the possessions and pleasures of this world to entice men and women and boys and girls to doubt God’s Word which states, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)).
One night that summer, we had a heavy rainfall. So much rain fell that it raised the level of the small lake in back of our house. But the next morning I looked out to see that the level of the lake had dropped four feet! I ran along the top of the dam until I came to a washout that was six feet deep and twelve feet long. The groundhogs had burrowed through the dam until they had reached the lake side. The combination of their burrowing, the raised water level and rain-softened soil had started water rushing through the opening with increasing speed, until it had washed out part of the dam.
At some expense, a contractor was hired to drive in metal pilings and fill up the opening with soil. But this did not solve the groundhog problem. We found a man who would rent us live traps, bait them, and, when a groundhog was caught, carry it out into the country to release it. All told, we caught nine groundhogs that year! Since then, I continue to check the dam face and surrounding areas for burrows and have caught two more groundhogs.
The groundhogs were so busy enlarging their burrow that they were unaware of the danger that they were creating. They had weakened the dam, and in a few moments, they and their homes were washed away!
The days that we are living in are filled with violence and evil, much the same as the days before the flood. When the Lord was here, He warned of judgment yet to fall on this world: “As it was in the days of [Noah], so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that [Noah] entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-2726And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26‑27)).
What about you? Have you taken refuge in the precious blood of Jesus? or will you be destroyed in the coming judgment?
ML-06/23/2002