Revelation 12
The world is a dangerous place even though it looks pretty beautiful a lot of the time. Take this lovely pink flower for example. It kind of looks like a flower doesn’t it. But in fact it is an orchid mantis on the hunt for insects. It appears to blend in with the flowers. But its bright color attracts insects. Apparently insects associate bright color with nectar. So they land on what look like petals which allows the mantis to grab hold of them with its spiked forelegs.
Or take this delightful little cat. It’s actually called a margay. It likes hunting monkeys in South American jungles. But monkeys hang out high in the trees. So the margay cat mimics the cries of baby monkeys. When the monkeys hear what sounds like a cry from one of their own, they creep down out of curiosity. Then this cat with 6 times better sight than humans at night, pounces on the monkeys.
Then we have this lovely little fish called an archer. He seems harmless. But he contorts his tongue against the roof of his mouth while compressing his gill covers. Then he fires a burst of water at an unsuspecting insect or small animal perched at water’s edge. He hopes his water blast will startle the insect so that it falls into the water where the fish can catch him.
Then there is the harmless looking chameleon who changes colors based on her surroundings. But she actually has an amazing hunting tool in her mouth. Her tongue is actually longer than her own body. Can you imagine having a tongue that was taller than you? So when an insect flies by a chameleon, it thinks it has lots of room away from its little tongue. But the chameleon shoots out her tongue like a bungee cord coated with honey. Then it retracts back into its mouth with prey attached.
The world is a dangerous place. Beware of the orchid mantis, margay archer fish and chameleon. But there’s one more creature we need to beware of. To him, we are the prey. He is the devil and he wages war against the people of God.
There is a cosmic battle going on between God, His angels and His people versus the devil, his angels and the people under his influence. This battle is goes on every day.
It can touch us very personally through some of our life experiences, troubles and challenges. If you’re a Christian here today, you are automatically part of this battle.
