Rendered harmless

How do you snake-proof a dog? Unless you’re a hunter, you have probably never heard of this. When a bird dog smells a rattlesnake, his curiosity will cause him to stick his head into the bush and the snake will bite him. Many dogs die from these bites, so hunters use an avoidance training process to snake-proof their dogs. They take rattlesnakes and render them harmless by removing their fangs. Then they put a shock collar on the dog, so when he starts to stick his head in the bush, he receives a shock that is annoying enough that he avoids the snake and runs the other way.

God snake-proofs us too! The blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary removed the fangs from the snake, that is the Devil. So even though the evil one still wants to harm us, God not only gives us built-in protection through the Holy Spirit, He commands us to avoid the Devil, to resist him – and to run, run, run!