The Silence of the Leeches

"The Leech has 2 Daughters: Give & Give!"

Proverbs 30:15

 

I don't suppose I've ever heard a sermon on this verse. Maybe the brevity and obscurity of the saying causes it to be passed over for easier texts. Or possibly the meaning is too clear. Maybe the spirit of the leech clings so closely to all of our souls that the obvious implications are too painful.
 

I see the leech and her daughters. I see it in the lack of contentment with my circumstances that often rob me of all present joy. Man has that blessed capacity to imagine. But corrupted by sin, too often my imagination fashions ideas of circumstances and situations far better than I currently enjoy. Thus a lust for something more robs the joy from everything here right now. Wretched leeches of discontentment, sucking all the life out of the present day by wishing for a better tomorrow.



I see the leech and her daughters. Sin is never satisfied; it never ultimately disconnects from the soul, but keeps on sucking the life out of their victim. Whenever I think I have killed any sin...then inevitably the cry is soon heard: Give and Give! Sins may lay still for a time, but they never remain silent forever. They want more. Unlike the sword, whose presence immediately strikes alarm and concern, the leeches of sin suck slowly, kill slowly, and ruin the soul slowly. Little habits of sin, left unchecked, will kill me just as surely as the greater sins. While I may lock the door against the lion of lying and murder and idolatry, I nevertheless foolishly allow the little leeches of lust, jealousy, envy, selfishness, greed, prayerlessness, Godless talk, ambition, carelessness, clutter and fear to attach themselves to my heart and suck the spiritual life from my walk with Christ. Oh what a deceptive leech is sin! 


The text does not appear to give the antidote to these leeches of discontentment and sin. But maybe, in a subtle way, it does. The cry of the leech is "give, give!" The cry of the Christian should be "take, take!" That is, a life given back to God and to the service of others is the best defense against this insatiable desire for "more." Spurgeon put it this way: "You say, “If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.” You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled." 

So today – let me think “take” – that is, “take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee.”  How can I invest myself today into others?  What might I have that someone needs?  Does someone need a kind word, a little encouragement, a spiritual reminder of the dangerous leeches of discontentment and sin?  Take it.  And maybe, coupled with prayer and the power of Christ, we might silence the leeches.