I don’t always get the picture language of the Bible. I’m not a farmer or a sailor or a soldier of ancient times. Often I don’t fully appreciate Scripture’s metaphors until I consult a commentary or really sit with the thought. 

Here’s something I do understand: spiderwebs. I spent a lot of time as a kid playing outside and in basements, so I’ve encountered plenty of spiderwebs and cobwebs.

I’m sure spiders are proud of their webs, but to a human, they’re flimsy and weak. We bat them away with minimal effort. No idiot would ever lean on a spider’s web. I’ve never seen someone try to use a web as a hammock. That’s ridiculous. 

So Job 8:13-15 speaks right to me with a metaphor I (and I bet you too) can understand right away: “Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.”  

I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but I’ve still forgotten God in a gazillion different moments. I’ve trusted him at times, but a lot of times I rely on stuff that’s the equivalent of a spider’s web. It always lets me down. God, give me the spiritual maturity to cling to you, my Rock, instead!