Whoso Diggeth A Pit

The Deep Pit of Sin

Our text begins with a man digging a pit. Digging a filthy hole in the ground. His intent is to lay a snare for his enemy. With each shovel of dirt he mumbles to himself: “I’ll take care of him. No one is going to do that to me and get away from it.” As he feverishly works at his pit, it becomes deeper and deeper. This ever-deepening pit reminds me of many a man’s life; a life that is filled with shovel full after shovel full of sinful indulgence. His conscience is seared with his own arguments of his mind: “This is my life. I’ll live and do what I please. No one is going to tell me how to live my life. There is no God. There is no Judgment day.” These arguments swirl in the mind as he digs and digs into his sinful desires, much like the cries of a man standing on the railroad tracks of life with his eyes squeezed tightly closed saying, “I don’t believe in trains, I don’t believe in trains.” They love their well-laid plan. They love their pit. They think, “God does not know of the pit I’ve laid for Him. I’ve got this God thing figured out. I’ll dig my pit and get away with it!” The pit of sin! Have I uttered the innermost thoughts of your heart? You ask, “How do I know these thoughts?” I know them because; these were my thoughts at one time. I began digging my own pit at one time. We are not so different. Are you digging your pit of sin? But the verse goes on… Not only do we see the Deep Pit of Sin in this vs. but…

The Heavy Stone of Works

You may not be playing that game: Closing your eyes to a Holy God; ignoring His coming judgment. You may very well see that the dirt of sin will never dig a pit deep enough for God to fall in. Oh, no! A pile of sinful dirt will never tip the scales of God’s justice in to your favor. No it is my good deeds! That will do it. You set a trap for you enemy by rolling the stone. In the latter half of the verse we find a man pushing a heavy stone up an incline in hopes that when the stone is in place then he can roll it down on his enemy and crush him. Can you see him pushing this immensely heavy stone in to place? Toiling in sweat and dust to move this great stone into place. Heaving with tense muscles thinking, “If I can just get in up to the top of the hill. I’m almost there. I see here a picture of a man, not in the depths of the dirt of open wicked sinfulness, but a man depending on his efforts, his behavior, his good deeds, his moral life to inch him right up in to heaven. Oh, I’ve heard it time and time again, “Well I think that if you try to keep the Ten Commandments or make good decision, or go the right direction in life, or go to church, or be baptized, why, I’m sure God will let me in, then I’ll make it to heaven.” Oh but how many good deed’s must you do? How many times must you attend church? What if you break the Ten Commandments? What if in a moment of temptation you make one wrong decisions? How many good deeds does it take to make up for one bad decision? Oh, you toil and strain at the heavy bolder of works. You push and try and you move it one inch but then fall back two. Up that hill! I’m gonna make it. Oh no my hand is slipping! Here is the Character of the Verse…