On Shelob the Spider

We have a pet spider at our house. Ok, she’s not really our pet, but she’s been chilling out by our front door for the past several months. We call her Shelob, after the gargantuan man-eating Spider in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. If you could see her, you would understand why. She’s about as fat as my thumb.

She’s kind of like our guard dog, sitting by the front door waiting to pounce on any ill-intending stranger that walks up our front porch steps. It’d be a bad day for that thief when Shelob pounced on him. How would you like to have a giant spider sucking on your face with venomous fangs? That’s what I thought. Perhaps I can train her…

While she may not be a man-eater, she is quite a unique creature. She crawls out from behind the front porch light by our front door every night, right around sundown. She then proceeds to spin an intricate web (which is quite beautiful, I must say). After she finishes the construction, she sits down right in the middle and waits for food to come. And come it does. Flies, gnats, mosquitos, people…all get caught in her web. Then she eats them. When the sun comes up, she packs up shop and heads back behind the light, waiting for nightfall again.

When I watch Shelob, I think about what Peter said concerning Satan, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Like Shelob, our enemy’s plan is to capture us and consume us. Their tactics are similar, as well. Just as Shelob spins her web and waits for her prey, Satan spins webs of deceit, lies, and greed, waiting for us to become entangled in a life of sin.

Yes, Shelob is beautiful. But she is also deadly. So is Satan. He is a master of deceit, the fallen angel who makes the evil things appear wonderful. And just as you begin to approach that beauty, you see the terrible monster lurking in the shadows.

I’ve never been one to blame a lot on Satan. I think people too easily pass their troubles off him without taking responsibility for their own actions. Nevertheless, Scripture reminds us on several occasions that he is a very real presence. Just like I don’t always see Shelob, I know she’s there. We may not see Satan or feel him, but he is there, waiting to consume us. That is his purpose. That is his desire.

So keep an eye out for Shelob. I’m trying to teach her to attack right now…

But keep an ever more watchful eye out for our spiritual enemy. He need’s no training or incentive to attack.

He already wants to consume you.