Never Hunt Rattlesnakes with Deaf People!

Ray Wallace

(or The Wisdom of Roy’s Wife)

by Ray Wallace

(June 2023)

“There’s a rattlesnake under that big rock!” Roy shouted.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Ron said.
I agreed with Ron.

We were actually hunting rattlesnakes in southwest Colorado and this would be our first of the
day. I stepped on the unstable, four-hundred-pound rock and Roy said it again. “I hear a
rattlesnake!”
Ron said he was probably hearing dry leaves. I again heard nothing. We tried to overturn the
rock, but it was too large.
A third time I stepped on the rock and rocked it more severely, then jumped down, put my face
close to a small hole, cupped my hands behind my ears for better hearing…
This time I jumped back with a jerk. “He’s right, there’s a rattlesnake under there!” Ever the
wise skeptic, Ron got down pretty close to the same hole. Just as he got close, I rocked the rock.
I’d never seen Ron move so quickly! He jumped back like a cat on the proverbial hot tin roof!
“You boys were right, there’s a rattlesnake under there!”
Ok, maybe we were in our 50s, but we weren’t senile—yet! After unsuccessful attempts to
dislodge the pit viper from his den, we went on to find other snakes in the area. Roy (a former
Marine captain), Ron (a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel), and I (their preacher), were
perhaps overestimating our snake discovery abilities.
Yes, it’s a true story, and the names are real. Both men are genuine, long-time friends. We are
educated, experienced hunters, but undetected danger lurked nearby that day simply because our
perception and detection were not as good as we thought.
It happens often that our estimation of our abilities outruns our actual performance. Even the
best educated and most experienced can back themselves into that corner. There is a great
spiritual lesson lurking in our little adventure: We don’t always perceive the evil lurking near us.
Satan can appear as an angel of light. “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel
of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds” (II Corinthians 11:14).
Satan and his servants can be far more hidden, far more deceptive, and far more persuasive than
most Christians realize. Added to that reality is the uncomfortable truth that the majority of
Christians today lack the sensitivity of hearing to recognize neither the danger nor the closeness
of “that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation
12:9).
Let’s focus for a moment on one of the most common ways the serpent deceives us. In Ephesians
4, God’s Word references several sins. To one of those sins, He appends the specific warning
that it allows Satan’s deception to have the opportunity to reign over us. That sin is not anger, for
the verse says, “Be angry but do not sin.” Temporary anger, without an outburst, is not a sin.*
Allowing that anger to continue past sundown literally becomes a sin. Weird, huh? There is no
other sin I can find in scripture that is not a sin when it first happens but becomes a sin a few
hours later if we don’t get rid of it.
Read carefully these two verses in context: “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go
down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26-27).
Did you catch it? Allowing your anger to continue past sundown, is actually a sin that opens a
door to Satan. I see nothing in the context that makes me believe this passage is figurative
language. It simply means what it says!
Is that really possible? Here is a vitally important fact: God has never given us a command which
He has not enabled us to accomplish. Since He has commanded it, we can know for certain that it
actually is possible, as challenging as it seems.

But we usually fail to see Satan’s hand in the mix. We get mad, we blame someone else, we fight
it out, and simply ignore the spiritual realm and let it continue past sundown. In doing so, we
actually (consciously or not) invite Satan into our hearts and into the entire situation.
Like three educated geezers hunting rattlesnakes, who believe (falsely) they can actually hear,
we fail to detect the closeness and the seriousness of the danger! Satan is powerful, we know, but
do we really understand just how deceptive he is?
The wife? It was Roy’s wife. Roy was the one who could actually hear the snake rattle! Her
wisdom? “Never hunt rattlesnakes with deaf men!” The application of that wisdom: Never hang
around with people who will not (or care not to) perceive the closeness and danger of Satan’s
deception!