Barton's Bible Study Notes

Introduction

How do you catch an alligator? Well sir, that’s a very good question! Now before you are tempted to answer, “Everybody knows how that is done. Haven’t you ever watched old episodes of Swamp People?” let me explain this was at least forty years ago or more. They hadn’t even dreamed up that series for TV. Now there were people who did hunt them, but they did not advertise how they did this, seeing alligators were still protected as endangered. Most locals living along the gulf coast in those days, from Texas to Florida would have told you they did not need any protection, and they certainly were not endangered. But those who make such regulations sometimes really don’t...–well, I better not start down that path, so back to alligators!

The Story

There were four of us, Benny Krebs, Don Ellerman, Brad Ball and myself. What we were all doing that day before the call came from Brad’s father I really do not remember. After all, this was over forty years ago and I have problems sometimes remembering what I did yesterday! I was at this time the pastor of Trinity Church, later renamed to Trinity Bible Church, and these were three, young men, members of the church with whom I spent quite a bit of time. Whatever it was we were doing or perhaps going to do that day was put on hold after Brad told us he had a call from his father. It seems there was a problem in the area where they lived.

Now the Balls lived down by Wolf River in an undeveloped area off Bell’s Ferry Road. There were several other families who lived down that way as well. You must know the Balls had a large family, eight children, if I remember correctly. Brad was the oldest. Many of the other families had children as well, who played outside much of the time. Large gators do not play well with children. The problem, it seems, was about nine feet long and grey, Alligator mississippiensis, an American alligator. Mr. Gator–although I do not really know it was a Mr. It might have been a Mrs. or Miss, after all its name is Alligator MISS-issippiensis– Yet whatever its gender, it had been around the area for some time, but not down in the river where it belonged. Needless to say, it was causing not a little concern with the families that lived there. Large gators do not plat well with small children and pets.

What could we do about it? Well, what could we do? You could not shoot it; that was illegal. I’m not sure why they did not call the police, or animal control, if there even was such a thing back then. Who knows? Maybe they did and nothing could be or was done about it. Whatever the case, there we were, headed toward the area in Benny’s old black pickup with absolutely no idea how one goes about catching an alligator alive. And we had to catch it; we could not kill it.

When we arrived, we did not have to hunt for it. It was right in front of us, all nine feet of it, as big as life! It was just lying there not moving. And there we were, just standing, watching it, trying to figure out how we are going to capture this critter. We approached him rather slowly and old Mr. Gator didn’t do a thing, not initially. But there was an imaginary line we did not see, but one, which Mr. Gator was well aware of which marked his threat limit. As long as we stayed back behind that line, he was content to watch us not moving. But when one of us crossed that line, which was about thirty feet or so from Mr. Gator, he began to feel threatened. His response was to threaten in kind. And he was quite effective at this task. For he would lunge toward us, slap his tail, turn his head, open his jaws and let loose, not a roar exactly, but a loud, very loud, raspy hiss. In no uncertain terms he was saying, “That’s close enough!”

Not one of us was about to disagree with him on that point!

Ok, so how were we going to catch this guy if we could not get within thirty feet of Him? That was indeed good question, and we had to have a good answer or at least something of an answer. It became apparent that we had to have a rope. Now Brad said his dad had a sturdy 100-foot rope. While he went to get this rope, we decided on the beginnings of a plan. I say beginnings because it involved only how to put a noose over Mr. Gator’s head. We tied a large overhand knot in the center of the rope leaving about a two ,two and a half foot of open loop. We secured the loop in the knot with a piece of tape. The plan, what there was of it, was simple. It involved two of us holding the ends of the rope and maneuvering the center loop over Mr. Gator’s head then pulling hard to loosen the tape and tighten the loop. Simple plans are the best. It worked! This actually proved very easy to do.

The problem with this simple plan was we had no clue what we were going to do next after we had the loop over his head. The plan did not extend any further than what we had done. I did mention we had the beginnings of a plan, not a complete one, didn’t I?

But you see now, Mr. Gator had a plan, a strategy. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He had a plan that was built in. It was part of his nature, in his gator genes. He did what all good gators do when threatened, as threatened he was. He did what comes naturally to an alligator. He rolled, the alligator roll, twisting and rolling over and over.

I remember I was on one end of the rope; I do not remember who was on the other. However, I remember very clearly that I was being pulled towards that gator as he began to roll. My initial thought was, “This isn’t good!” I certainly did not want to get close to an angry, threatened alligator. However, there was not a lot of time to think about it for it was all quickly over. What we had no clue as to how to accomplish our task, old Mr. Gator took care of himself. His legs were wrapped tightly to his body; his jaws were wrapped shut. In short, he did to himself or herself what we trying to figure out how to do. All we had to do was tape his mouth shut, lift him into the back of Benny’s pickup–it took all four of us to do that! –Then take him to an alligator farm per instructions of a game warden we had finally managed to contact.

The Lesson

Now being a preacher, let me point out this ought to be a lesson for each one of us, myself included. You hear quite a bit of talk about doing what comes naturally as if it was something that we ought to strive to do, something that is right and good. Just ask old Mr. Gator how well that worked for him! When he was threatened, the natural instincts kicked in. He did not stop to reason the situation out or think about things or consider the possible outcomes. Being a gator now did have a bit to do with this lack of thinking of course. He just did what came naturally for Gators. And the result was it got him deeper into trouble. He wanted to get free of the constraint that bound him but ended up wrapping himself up tighter. Point being this now: doing what comes naturally more often than not just gets us deeper into trouble. And that is the Scriptural point, of course.

What does Word of God say about this? Listen to a few passages.

Some things just come to us naturally. It happens without us thinking about it. It is a reaction, a part of our nature. You do not have to be taught. Do you have to be taught how to be jealous of someone else? Not at all! When have you ever had to take a class in how to become angry and express it outwardly? Classes are offered in anger management, how to deal with it, but not in how to acquire it. Anger is a natural part of our makeup. We all have it. We all become angry without having to be taught how. How often do we open our mouth and say the wrong thing in anger or frustration? Do we need instruction in how to do this? I think not.

The point of this is that we, just like Mr. Gator, have a built in response to many situations in life. We do not have to think how to act, we just react, no need to plan! Our nature takes over and we respond.

For example, someone criticizes something that we’ve done. What is our first response? I will not speak for you, although I firmly believe we react the same way, after all it is our common nature! When someone criticizes me, my first reaction is to become defensive! I want to defend myself. I want to speak up and show them, prove to them that what I did, when I did it, how I did it and so forth was the right and appropriate thing to do. I want to show them their opinion is mistaken, and I am right. Hey, it is the natural thing to do! After all, if I did it, I had good and reasonable cause to so act. Now you may act differently (Do you?), but that is my first reaction. I can tell you my mind immediately begins to think of things to say to justify my actions. It is the built-in natural response.

Someone insults us. What is our first response? Again, I will not speak for you, only for myself. When someone insults me, my first reaction is to return the favor, but just a bit more intensely. It of course is the application of the Golden Rule, you must understand. You know this rule, don’t you? Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. Well, they did it to me, and I assume they are applying the Golden Rule and believe it. If they did it to me, they surely must want me to do it to them. So being the good person that I am, I return the favor, usually many times over. Seriously, when someone insults me, my mind immediately, without being instructed to do so begins to come up with all kinds of insults to return to them. It is the natural thing to do. It comes without effort, without being taught. It is part of our old nature, the flesh as the Word of God names it.

We are approaching a stoplight that just turned red intending to make a right turn. Since there is little traffic coming, we will have no problem making a right on red after stop. But then someone cuts right in front of us and stops, but they do not want to turn right. They want to continue down the road. Not only did we have to brake suddenly, but also now we have to wait for the light to change to green and that wonderful person in front of us to move out of the way before we can turn. What is our response? I will not dare to speak for you, but I know what my response will be. If that would happen–I should say when that happens again, for it will–I will see red. I’ll not only get mad, I’ll be angry. If I do not stop to think I will probably say something, not so loud the other person will hear, but loud enough for my wife to hear. Just ask her, she will tell you. My first reaction is to get angry and say something unkind. Do I have to plan it out? Not at all! It just comes naturally. It flows out of me. The anger just comes. I did not have to be taught how to work it up.

But doing what comes naturally is not the best response. What did it do for Mr. Gator? It achieved the opposite of what he really was trying to do. He wanted to get free of the noose but ended up wrapped and tied. And just like Mr. Gator, more often than not, our natural reaction will not achieve the best end.

When I am criticized and respond defensively, I might miss some truly helpful advice. It is not the natural thing to do, but listening with the view of learning something just might be the right thing to do. Criticism coming from an enemy or someone who only wants to belittle or shame us sometimes can be of benefit more than the criticism of a friend and might have some truth in it which we should hear and possibly heed. You see friends are positive and look for the most part at our strong points. They, just like us, are often blind to our weakness. Not so for the former group, they want to see the weaknesses and problems, the contradictions and inconsistencies. True they might well manufacture things that are not there, they might be tempted to stretch the truth, but I guarantee you, if there are weaknesses, contradictions or inconsistencies which we cannot see, they will not miss them. It is always helpful to see yourself through the eyes of an enemies or the opposition. Don’t be like Mr. Gator, before you respond naturally; consider what response honors our Lord and what is actually the wisest course of action.

When I respond naturally and easily with an insult to an insult consider this. Of first importance is the fact that this is exactly what our Lord told us not to do. 1 Peter 3:8-9 states:

Our response should be unnatural! It is what the insulter does not expect. That in itself would be another reason not to return an insult! And think of all the wasted time saved. Have you ever stopped to ponder all the good and positive things accomplished by insults? Won’t take you very long now will it.

Now about anger. First of all, we all have it. It is an intrinsic part of being human. In itself it is not evil or bad being an emotional response to a perceived wrong. Even our Lord grew angry at times, but His anger never controlled his responses. He instead controlled His anger. The Scriptures tell us to do the same. Ephesians 4:26: “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” The problem we face is when we become angry, we just do what comes naturally! And this according to James 1:19 does not have a good result because …the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Instead, the results may be far from anything good or righteous. At the very least we’ve raised our own blood pressure and increase our anxiety level. Or we go on to act rashly and stupidly, usually with few good results.

Doing what comes naturally, that is, acting without asking, is this the best response, is this the response that honors our Lord and the response that produces the best outcome, is the wisest course of action. How do you catch a gator? Easy! You put a loop around his head and let him do what comes naturally to gators. How does Satan catch us? The same way! He drops a loop over us of some sort and then waits for us to do what comes naturally for us as fallen human beings. But we need to act supernaturally not naturally. Instead of doing what comes so easily to us because we are flesh and blood we need to act through the divine power and wisdom that God has given us. We have already read the verse. Galatians 5:16: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.