Hoisted With Your Own Petard

Being an incorrigible schemer, when I first started ice fishing with our two boys about 24 years ago this February, I thought I would add a few Webber improvements to the game. Rather than sitting hunkered on an upside down five – gallon pail out on the ice in the whistling winter wind fishing through a tiny four – inch hole whilst freezing various parts of the male anatomy off, why not expand the hole to eight or 10 inches for larger fish, make the holes exactly the right distance apart and drive your Jeep between them so that you can fish out the window? It seemed like a good scheme at the time so that’s exactly what we did, under some protest from the boys, I must confess. Dawn’s early light, three large holes, three windows opened just a crack, three fishing rods, jeep idling, heater running and there you have ice fishing in total comfort, Webber style.

I thought my new scheme worked marvellously, though we didn’t seem to catch anything with the morning bite. So I promised the boys we would come back just before sunset and fish the evening bite. Both boys argued for leaving the truck at home as it was warming up considerably. They didn’t like the thought of the razing they would surely get the next day at school if any of the local boys spotted them sissy fishing out the window of a running Jeep. I refused, being quite proud of my wily scheme and the Webber adaptations I hade made to the sport. To fill in time waiting for the evening bite, we went home to check on Mom and the chocolates.

During the day, something happened that I failed to sufficiently take note of. A very stiff wind from the south kicked up. It was a February chinook wind. By the time we got into the Jeep and drove out onto the ice that evening, all the snow on the ice had turned to water and the stiff wind had blown the water from the south end of the lake to our end. There was a good five or six inches of water on the ice. “No matter,” I said to the boys, “we’ll just kick in the Jeep’s four – wheel drive.”

So off we went over the ice towards our ice holes driving at a pretty good clip. As we approached, my oldest boy, Davin cried out in alarm and pointed. The eight – inch holes had water swirling around and going down them like water going down a toilet bowl. And they were not mere eight – inch holes anymore. The water swirling through them most of the day had enlarged them to about three feet across. My eyes popped open and I began to apply the brakes. The Jeep actually sped up as the brakes locked up and it began to slide sideways on the water and ice, directly towards the huge holes that were passing water down them like three giant toilet bowls in full flush. We were about to become the first ice – fishing casualties on Lac La Hache and I felt like excrement.

February is also Purim, the Jewish celebration that this year begins at sundown, February 23rd. Purim commemorates the story of the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire as told in the book of Esther. It’s a story that speaks to me personally at a bunch of different levels, the lowest of which is the caution of Haman. Like I tend to be, Haman, the Persian nation’s prime minister is a schemer, but of the totally psychotic denomination. He always has his own agenda, his own way of doing things, his own slant on everything. In the story neither Queen Esther nor old Mordecai nor King Ahasuerus can get in the way of Haman’s psychotic scheme. In the Esther story, Haman is an Agagite or Amalekite, one of the ancient enemies of the Jewish people since the time of Moses a millennium before. (See Exodus 17:8 – 16; Deuteronomy 25:17 – 19 and Esther 3.)

Haman concocts his own plot to settle the ancient Amalekite score with the Jews, as well as his personal score with a particular Jew named Mordecai. In his plotting and scheming way he arranges to have Mordecai hung on a great high pointed pole or gallows and the Jewish people exterminated throughout the empire.

Haman is so confident in his scheme he has the gallows constructed before Mordecai is even charged. But thanks to Esther, Haman’s scheme totally and completely backfires and he ends up being hoisted with his own petard. Haman is hung on his own gallows, Mordecai ends up being honoured by being given Haman’s position, Esther and all the Jews are saved and the ancient Amalekites are dealt a defeating blow.

Although God is not explicitly mentioned in the book, whatever else the story of Esther is about, it is about how God deals with schemers who scheme and plot outside His will, particularly against His people.

Now isn’t that a caution? As I read the story of Esther, as I hope you will this month, too, it leaves me wondering about schemers and God and how God deals with us in our scheming. Schemers often find themselves tangled up in their own plans or hoisted with their own petard. I think it is because most schemes that we humans hatch are outside the will of God. I don’t usually get around to seeking God’s will in my scheming; I seek my own will. I confess that my scheming is egocentric when as a Christian, my thinking, planning and doing should be moving towards becoming Christocentric. And if I am edging God out (ego), how can I ever expect God’s grace – filled involvement in my plans, particularly when my plans have not taken justice and the well – being of others into account? When this happens, God just seems to stand aside and let the schemer get hoisted with his own petard. And that is no small thing, let me tell you.