“The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry.
“There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:
the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water,
and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’”
Proverbs 30:15-16 (NIV)
Have you ever had people tell you that there is not fire in hell, that fire is just a metaphor?
I have found it wise not to argue but to ask them to read the verses that talk about fire in hell and concede that it is possible that fire as a descriptor of hell (which is eternal separation from God and everything good) could very easily be a metaphor. Then I point out that if it is a metaphor, it scares me worse than fire does, because fire is terrible enough but fire needs fuel to burn and eventually it burns out. Our Lord’s description of the fire of hell is that it can’t be quenched, it will never be put out - honestly, that is terrifying to me.
Proverbs 30 lists fire as one of the four things that are never satisfied, the wisdom in this list becomes evident very quickly if we just take a moment to think about the characteristics of those four individual items. The open mouth of the grave provides business plans for funeral companies and pension actuaries, the disappointment and lack of solace that a barren womb brings to a woman’s life is so true, the never-ending need of land for water is evident to anyone who grows anything, and the requirement of fuel for a fire is evident to anyone who burns wood, or who enjoys a campfire.
If these are but metaphors for what awaits those of us who refuse to bend our knee and call out for salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ – then hell is terrifying - for people who end up in hell will be in a place that consumes and yet is never satisfied.
I don’t want to meet the leech with two daughters and I don’t want to end up in hell.
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