How did God react to the wolf spider building a kingdom of cities and the tower? “Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Gen. 11:7). He forced the nations to spread out by changing their languages so they could not understand each other. This was an instantaneous act of grace. Why was this the case? The only thing the people had in common besides their language was their depravity. What was this wickedness like? “There were none righteous, no, not one; There were none who understood; There were none who sought God. They had all turned away from Him. They had all together become involved in perverse behavior. There was none who did good, no, not one. Their throats are like an open tomb filled with the stench of death. With their tongues they practice deceit. The poison of snakes is under their lips. Their mouths were full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet were swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery were in their ways; And the way of peace they did not know. There was no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).
We recognize these words as coming from the New Testament, but we may not realize that the origin of this list was taken from the Old Testament. This culture unified the people along with their language. Sin manifested itself through pride – the praise of self, and the lust for the praise of others and for power – the lust for possessions and unrestrained sexual fulfillment (1 Jn. 2:16). This is why God said that nothing that they proposed to do would be withheld from them. What did they desire to do? They desired to raise the level of sin to the highest degree possible. This would have led quickly to a dreadful annihilation of the human race. The people would have destroyed each other.
As an act of mercy, God changed the languages. He forced the people to spread out into clans of families, and ultimately to build borders, and then small armies to contain and control the power of sin, thus preserving the human race. The Tower of Babel became the source of the old spider’s great masterpiece of deception – religion. Religion is Satan’s do-good system, blinding millions to God’s grace (2 Cor. 4:3-4). “There is a way that appears to be right before men, but the ends thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). Grace and religion are polar opposites. Religion says that there is a spark of good in everyone and given the right encouragement, education, and the right environment, it will blossom – bringing peace and safety to all. This was obviously not going to happen. Sin is a heart problem. “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked – who can know the depths of it. I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer. 17:9-10). The tower gave the appearance of being a heavenly gate to God, but in fact it was a horrible door to hell. The old spider had struck a serious blow.
Where did the wolf spider get the name? The mother spider appears to have hair all over her body – like a wolf. She carries her egg sack on her abdomen. When the little spiders hatch out, they congregate on the mother’s body, covering her like a blanket. Their tiny legs give her the appearance of a hairy wolf, hence the name. It is obviously the mother spider’s plan that these baby spiders leave her in an orderly manner and start their own brood. However, if she is ever threatened, the little ones (scores of them) scatter from her body, running in every direction to find cover. This is exactly what happened to the wolf spider’s brood. God, by changing the languages, forced the nations to scatter.
The rumor of the false resurrection of Tammuz absolutely shot this paganistic system around the world at warp speed. Small ziggurats—miniature pagan worship centers—were erected all over the ancient world. They were called “high places” and are mentioned at least 73 times in the Old Testament, from Leviticus 26:30 to Habakkuk 3:19. The Babylonian religious system grew into the worship of Marduk and Ishtar, the god and goddess of fertility. The wolf spiders crawled into Syria as the worship of Baal and Astarte, into Egypt as the worship of Ocirus and Isis, into Greece as Aris and Aphrodite, and into Rome as the worship of Cupid and Venus. This is only a short list of the number of these gods and goddesses. They literally covered the earth. This was the origin of Satan’s sway over the earth (1 Jn. 5:19).
Wolf spiders are wolflike in their ability to hunt and destroy. The Bible classifies Satan’s people who prey on God’s people as wolves. Ezekiel described rebellious leaders in Israel as wolves tearing the people apart (Eze. 22:27). Zephaniah said the same about the same rebellious religious leaders of Israel (Zep. 3:3). Jesus said to his disciples, as He sent them out with the message of the kingdom, that He was sending them out as sheep among wolves (Matt. 10:16; Lk. 10:3). Paul used the symbol of the wolf, saying that after he left the church, savage wolves, (meaning false teachers), would come in, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29). A most graphic text concerning the wolf is found in the Gospel of John. There the Good Shepherd speaks of hired hands watching the sheep rather than true shepherds. When the wolf comes to destroy and devour, the hired hands run for their lives rather than protecting the sheep. The substitute shepherd does not truly love the sheep and abandons them to save his own skin (Jn. 10:12).
Last are the words of our Lord following His explanation of the broad and narrow ways (Matt. 7:15). He said broad is the way that leads to destruction and many choose that path. In contrast, narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be who find it. The broad way would be the old spider’s smorgasbord of religions to choose from; the narrow way would be the simple gospel of God’s grace (Acts 4:12). He described false prophets who come into the flock wearing sheep’s clothing. Outwardly, they look the part, but inwardly they are hungry wolves poised to consume the flock of God And wolf spiders are well….. spiders! Spiders can sneak into any structure undetected. This is true no matter how sound the building may be. One cannot build a structure strong enough or tight enough to keep a spider out. The writer of Proverbs said that the spider can find its way into a king’s palace (Prov. 30:28). Our Lord is clearly teaching the wolf spider is not recognized as such, until it is too late. Satan’s religious frauds come in by stealth and systematically demolish God’s sheep. They are energized by pride and the lust for power. It is an interesting phenomenon that our technology today is giving to the world the ability to once again speak the same language. Language barriers in our world today are steadily being removed. The entire world is quickly gaining the ability to come together. We are teaching this world to sing in perfect harmony. The world will once again unify, and once again be led to worship the earth. We are going back to the days of Noah. Blessings!