Trapped by Life? Bite Back Like Gollum

Image by E1St0rm from Pixabay

Last week, I rewatched one of my favorite movie trilogies: The Lord of the Rings. I admit, I’ve never read the books, but I’ve seen the movies several times.

Ironically, I was a late adopter. My aunt got me The Fellowship of the Ring on VHS when it first came out in 1999. At the time, I thought it was stupid. I didn’t even watch it. But one day, having “nothing else to do,” I finally popped it in. And I’ve been hooked ever since. I even have a Lord of the Kings t-shirt — a Christian spin on the classic design, where the ring is replaced with a crown of thorns.

Now that you know my history with this franchise, back to my story…

I was watching the second film, The Two Towers, the other day, and I couldn’t help noticing how much biting there is. Gollum bites Sam twice. He bites Frodo’s finger off. An orc bites one of the soldiers of Gondor. Even if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just know: there’s a lot of biting.

The first time Gollum bites Sam is at the beginning of The Two Towers, when he finally catches up with Frodo and Sam. He’s after the precious, the ring, and tries to attack them in the night. Frodo and Sam knew he was out there, and when they surprised him, a brief battle broke out. Punches were thrown, bodies thrown, and in a desperate struggle, Sam bear-hugged Gollum to get him off Frodo. That’s when Gollum spun around and bit him.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of someone biting me isn’t exactly appealing.

This scene reminded me of something the pastor at World Changers in Cleveland said last year: “You’ve got to get out of Hell’s headlock. Bite [Satan] with the name of Jesus!”

Pastor Hale was preaching from Jonah chapters 2–3, focusing on God giving us another chance. It reminded me of 2 Timothy 2:25–26:

“Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”

Paul wrote this letter to Timothy around AD 67, after several missionary journeys together, to encourage this young leader for the trials ahead. Ministry is hard. And Paul knew it would get even harder for Timothy after his death. Paul’s goal was to strengthen Timothy’s courage, faith, and perseverance.

One of Paul’s instructions was to be strong against false teachers who try to distort the truth of the Gospel. He spoke of fleeing from evil, avoiding foolish arguments, and maintaining integrity. And then he wrote the verses above. He reminded Timothy that gentle instruction could help people break free from the snares of the Devil.

I want to focus on this personally. We need to flee from evil. We need to have nothing to do with foolish arguments. We need to break the snares of the Devil. But we can’t do it alone. We need instruction, guidance, repentance, and God’s grace. And sometimes, we need to fight, really fight, to break out of the headlock Satan has on us and bite him back in the name of Jesus.

Think about Gollum. His objective was the ring. He was the villain, and Sam was doing something heroic. But Gollum’s intensity to escape what physically ensnared him is fascinating. He scratched, clawed, and bit his way free.

Too often, in our own lives, we go through the motions. We complain about what life throws our way and sit trapped in the snares of the Devil.

But what if we fought back with the same intensity? What if we scrapped, clawed, and bit Satan with the name of Jesus? What if we grabbed hold of the freedom Jesus offers?

Jesus’ freedom is the result of His grace. And that grace leads to life. Let’s break out of Hell’s headlock. Let’s bite the Devil with the name of Jesus.

Let’s stand in freedom. Let’s stand in victory.

Anyway, I was just thinking...