Proverbs 24:31

Nettles

Nettles. Proverbs 24:31.

I think everybody even the tiniest body here will be able to remember the text today; first, because it is only one word long, and second, because if you have ever met it and shaken hands with it you won't have been able to forget it. I wonder what the text is? Well, if you turn to the twenty- fourth chapter of Proverbs and look at the thirty-first verse, about the middle of that verse you will find it. Now, can you guess? Yes, the word is “nettles.” We are going to take “nettles” as our text today.

“Nettles” is an old English word that means “thistles” or an “herb plant with stinging hairs.” The entire plant is covered with long, highly specialized hairs that can puncture the skin. Each hair is really a miniature hypodermic needle ready to spring into action. At the tip is a lopsided like a bulb that is easily broken in certain area. With the slightest touch, the tip falls off leaving the sharp point which can easily penetrate skin.

If you look at this verse and the one before it you will see that the writer is describing the field or vineyard of the lazy man. And I'm afraid that field was a very sad sight. The wall was all broken down in places and the ground was covered with weeds. Thorns choked the corn and the poor vines couldn't get room to breathe for nettles. If you have a garden of your own I hope it isn't a copy of the lazy man's field, because I'm afraid you won't be able to grow very many flowers in it if it is.

Barely anybody has good to say about the nettle.

We call it “that nasty nettle” or “that horrid nettle.” When we see one we carefully avoid it, and if we don't see it well, it soon lets us know where it is! Yes, barely anybody has a good word for the nettle, but before we have done with it today I hope you will think it. isn't quite such a bad sort after all.

1. We shall begin with its faults first, and of course its biggest fault is its sting. How does the nettle sting? If you look at it you will see that the leaves and the stem are covered with fine hairs. These hairs are hollow, and at the place where they are joined to the nettle there is a little sort of pocket filled with poison. The points of the hairs are sharp and hooked. When we touch the nettle lightly these sharp points prick our skin. Then the poison flows down the hairs, gets in under our skin, and forms those white blisters which are so painful.

But now comes the interesting part. Why do you think the nettle grows those poisonous hairs? It isn't just to annoy you when you go picking wild flowers. No, it wears them for very much the same reason as the bee and wasp carry their stings just to protect it. If it weren't for the sting the nettle would be eaten up by rabbits and other animals. These creatures have learned to avoid a plant that blisters their tongue and their lips, and so the nettle goes on its way flourishing.

Now there are some people very like nettles. They have sharp, stinging tongues, and they say things that hurt and rankle and make their friends feel sore for long after. Well, I hope there aren't any of those people here, but if there are, I want to say to them that there is just one thing they must do. You know if we want a nettle not to sting us, we must grasp it firmly, and if we want our tongues not to sting we must keep tight hold of them too. It will be hard work sometimes, for that kind of tongue often stings in spite of us, but if Jesus is on our side holding hard too we are bound to win in the end.

2. But now I want to say something nice about the nettle, because nettles have their uses like everything else. Some people make very good, nourishing soup out of them; others use them as a vegetable, which tastes not at all unlike spinach. But that was not the use of which I was thinking. It was of something much more wonderful. Do you know that the nettle is a sort of protector of other plants? Shall I tell you how?

Have you ever seen a plant called a dead nettle? It has a white flower and it generally grows among the stinging nettles. Perhaps you mistook it for an ordinary nettle, and if it was not in flower that was not surprising, for the dead nettle has made itself look so very like the stinging nettle that it is difficult to distinguish them. The only difference between them when they are not in flower is that the leaves of the dead nettle are a little lighter in color, and that the stem of the dead nettle is square while that of the stinging nettle is rounded.

The dead nettle has no sting and it is really quite a different plant from the stinging nettle, but why do you think it pretends to be like it? Just to protect itself from being eaten by animals. When a rabbit comes along he says to himself, “Oh, there's one of those horrid stinging things. Catch me touching it! No, no, I know one better than that!” So off he bobs to the nearest clump of clover, little knowing what a treat he has missed.

Do you see how the stinging nettle protects other plants? It takes all the blame so that they may go scot-free. Don't you think he is rather a decent sort of fellow after all? I'm afraid few of us are very ready to take the blame for others. Sometimes we aren't even ready to take the blame for our own foolishness or wickedness. And it's a fine sign when a boy will stand up and take the punishment for another rather than get that other into a row.

I think the nettle in this way is rather like Jesus Christ. He took the blame for us. He stood between us and the consequences of our sins. But there is just one difference, and it is a very big one. The nettle is at fault itself it has a cruel sting, and it is taking the blame for its own faults too. But Jesus was utterly blameless. He did no sin, yet He took the whole burden of our sin upon Him so that we might go free. I want you to understand and remember that always Jesus took the blame for us.

We can never, never repay Him for that, because it is so big a debt that nobody could ever pay the thousandth part of it. But there is one thing we can do, and it is the thing He wants most of all. We can love Him, and in loving we can serve Him all the days of our life.