Why not join a gang?
Text: Proverbs 1:8-19
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2025 CrossTalk Global
Brian: A snare is a cruel weapon. It is an animal trap made of wire or cable shaped into a noose, placed along game trails or in narrow passages where animals frequently pass and disguised by terrain debris. When an unsuspecting animal walks into the metal noose, its one way mechanism begins to tighten around its neck, torso or leg as the animal pulls away. The more the animal struggles, the tighter the noose becomes. The results are often horrifying. Numerous countries around the world outlaw snares for a couple of reasons. One, they're indiscriminate. Snares are not selective and can accidentally trap and injure or kill non targeted animals, including including endangered species and domestic pets. Two, prolonged suffering Animals caught in snares can suffer for hours or even days from injuries like strangulation, dehydration, starvation or predation before the trapper returns. Snares are not only used by inhumane hunters, Satan uses them as well. Satan hides his temptations so well that it's easy to overlook the moral trap he has laid for us. The path forward seems so safe and tempting that we can walk confidently into a noose from which there is no return. Once we step into his trap, the consequences become irreversible. No matter how hard we try to escape Satan's snare, we end up choking on the repercussions of our sin. The outcome is a slow, agonizing, endless death. That's why the book of Proverbs was written. Here. Solomon, the wisest person who ever lived, reveals some of Satan's most destructive temptations. Solomon warns us of some of the snares Satan often uses to try and catch and kill us by leading us into sin. Join Nathan Norman, Vicki Hitzges and Kent Edwards as they discover in Proverbs, chapter 1, verses 8 to 19 the first of Satan's hidden snares. Welcome to Crosstalk, a Christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. I'm Brian French. Today, Dr. Kent Edwards, Vicki Hitzges and Nathan Norman continue their discussion in the Book of Proverbs. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Proverbs, chapter 1, verses 8 to 19 as we join their discussion.
Kent: Ricky Nathan, isn't it a snare a terrible way for an animal to die?
Vicki: It could be. I was picturing the forest where they would get trapped and thinking, what if I was walking through there and not.
Kent: Trapped and Your first reaction when you step into a snare would be, what?
Vicki: Oh, no.
Kent: And pull yourself out, right?
Vicki: Yeah, try to, yeah.
Kent: Except the snare won't let you. And so the more you pull, the tighter it gets. So you literally strangle yourself to death if it's around your neck or you pinch your leg off. If it got around your leg, no wonder it is outlawed in so many countries. I find it interesting that the World Wildlife foundation said that there were over 200,000 snares removed from Southeast Asia.
Vicki: Wow. And how long a time?
Kent: Between 2010 and 2015. So in five years, 200,000. But that's only what they found. They estimate that tens of millions of snares are used there every year. It's common, it's destructive, it's terrible.
Nathan: Well, they use them because they're effective, of course.
Kent: Right.
Nathan: It's horrible, but effective.
Kent: Yeah. And the animals basically kill themselves once they're caught, as terrible as that is. As Brian mentioned earlier, in addition to animal snares, there are also moral snares that we need to look out for that can harm us. Just like physical snares harmed and killed those animals. Our adversary, Satan, sets those snares, traps of temptation that threaten to cause us devastating harm. And that's as Brian mentioned. That's why Solomon, in these opening chapters of Proverbs, tells us some of the major snares that Satan uses in order to destroy us. The first snare that Solomon mentions starts in Proverbs 1, 8, 9.
Vicki: He says, Listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
Kent: It's kind of interesting here as it's written, we're overhearing a father son conversation with the father asking his son to listen to his advice. Often you need to do that, don't you? Children don't always choose to listen to their parents, do they?
Nathan: They absolutely do not, says one father.
Kent: Why not?
Nathan: I can even say as an adult with living parents, do I always listen to their advice?
Kent: No.
Nathan: I try to. I try to listen. I try to be attentive. But you don't always. Right. And Solomon starts it off here saying, listen up.
Kent: Yeah. There's an arrogance, I think, that comes with youth. What does that old person know they're not up to date with today? I remember, favorite quote, Mark Twain, that brought this to light. Do you remember that one, Vicki?
Vicki: I bet I do. Is that the Mark Twain quote? Yeah. He said, when I was A boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. That's true. I don't remember what it was, but I remember driving down Central Expressway in Dallas and thinking about something that had happened and saying out loud in the car about my mother. She was right about that, too. There was something that had happened. And I remember my mother warning me about it and just saying out loud, just shocked. She was right about that, too.
Kent: Wow. Well, we've all been there. And I guess that's why this father said to the son, listen to my teaching. Why? What reason does he give? Why should the son listen?
Vicki: I'll tell you what it says. He says, listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. It's because you go through life, and unless you're just adult, and there are adults out there, but unless you're adult, you just learn things. You get knocked around, you get pummeled by life, and you learn from it. It. And then you want your children to not have to go through that, and you want them to learn your wisdom.
Kent: That's exactly Solomon's intent here. And the father in this snare episode says, yes, if you listen, you will have a garland. Garland is a twisty, leafy branch that is put on someone's head that symbolizes victory, success, and high social status. That's kind of nice, isn't it? I'd like to go through life and say, yes, I was a success and had some amount of status. He says, in addition to the garland, I'm going to give you what, A.
Vicki: Chain around your neck.
Kent: Hmm. So it's really a necklace, if you will. A necklace that in that day would symbolize to the world that you have lived an exemplary life. I'd like to be a success and have people think that I live in an exemplary life. Wouldn't you?
Vicki: Absolutely.
Nathan: Sure would. Beats the alternative. Vicki looking at me going, look at that dolt.
Vicki: There you go.
Kent: And so then, with that introduction and that encouragement, the warning of the father comes next.
Vicki: And he says, my son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, come along with us. Let's lie in wait for innocent blood, let's ambush some harmless soul, let's swallow them alive like the grave. And we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder, cast lots with Us, we will all share the loot.
Kent: Wow. That's the temptation that you're going to hear, Father says. And I want you to carefully note how that temptation is crafted. If sinful men entice you and they say, come along with us, we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder. There's an implied promise here. A promise that you are going to have a family, a friendship. You'll belong to a tribe. They're exploiting the human need for fellowship, right?
Nathan: Yeah.
Kent: You'll be one of us.
Vicki: Isn't this a dark thing to read? It's like an initiation into the Mafia or something. This is ugly. Yeah, this is ugly. I don't like this.
Kent: No, it's very ugly. And then, as we are together in our tribe, notice the coldly calculated plot against an innocent victim. Let's lie in wait. For what? For innocent blood.
Vicki: Innocent blood.
Kent: Let's ambush some harmless soul. Let's swallow them alive like the grave. The word there, translated as ambush, is used of animals attacking prey. That's what we're going to do as a family, as a tribe. We're going to go out and we are going to attack like a lion on a wildebeest. We're going to go out there and rip them to pieces. Let the graves swallow them alive. That's murder.
Vicki: Yep.
Kent: Why?
Vicki: Well, that's the bad thing. If I were the person they were going to kill, what they want from me is stuff. Stuff. It says in verse 13, we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder. Isn't that terrible? I just say, take it, take it, just take it. But they don't care about that. Murder is nothing to them. We just want stuff. We want valuable things and we want to fill our houses with plunder.
Kent: What snare is the father warning his son about?
Vicki: Well, everybody wants to belong. So he's saying, don't join a company of people that are evildoers.
Kent: Don't be careful about whose company you keep worrying about joining a company of people who brutally attack their victims so they can get lots of money. What do we call those kinds of organizations?
Vicki: Well, I mentioned earlier, it sounds like the Mafia.
Kent: Yeah. Or a gang.
Nathan: Or a gang.
Vicki: Or a gang. A brutal gang.
Kent: Yeah. And what kind of person is most likely to join a neighborhood gang?
Nathan: It's someone who comes from a broken home. Someone who is living in poverty or near poverty, doesn't have a lot or even emotional poverty. Right. They don't belong anywhere. And yet here is a group that Says, hey, you can come belong with us.
Kent: Great. So they are isolated, alienated, broken families become vulnerable. Poverty can play a part as well, can't it?
Vicki: Sometimes if you just come from a really rough neighborhood, you have to join a gang in order to survive. And it would be hard to not join in this kind of activity because you're part of the gang, right?
Kent: These are your neighbors, these are the people that live around you. And where poverty is involved, that means you feel you have no other options.
Vicki: You have no other option.
Kent: How do I stay alive? Out of desperation, you end up having a child. How do I support this child? Now what am I going to do? And you feel there is no other option. What's fascinating to me is that According to the FBI, some 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs and prison gangs are actively involved in criminal activities in the United States today.
Vicki: Wow, that's a lot.
Kent: Isn't that credible?
Vicki: Yeah, yeah.
Kent: And according to them, many of these gangs are sophisticated and well organized. And they all use violence to control neighborhoods and enhance their money making activities like robbery, drug and gun trafficking, prostitution, human trafficking and fraud. Almost like Solomon knew the problems that were faced then would also be faced by us today. Gangs then, gangs today. Oh, it's rampant. And organized crime is not limited to the United States. Transnational organized crime groups are all looking to make money through drug trafficking, migrants smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, firearms, traveling, illegal gambling, extortion, counterfeit goods, cybercrime. I mean, it's everywhere. And what is the father's plea for his son knowing all this?
Vicki: He says, my son, do not go along with them. Do not set foot on their paths, for their feet rush into evil. They are swift to shed blood.
Kent: He says, this is bad news. It looks great. It's easy money, companionship, a way out of poverty. Way to have friends, if you will. But don't do it. Why? In verse 17.
Nathan: He says, how useless to spread a net where every bird can see it.
Kent: Well, that verse sounds a little bit vague. Doesn't.
Vicki: Sounds out of place.
Kent: It sounds out of place. What is he doing talking about nets and birds? Well, the fact is, every bird is born with an instinct to avoid nets. Huh, isn't that interesting?
Vicki: Yeah, tell, what do you mean?
Kent: Well, a bird sees a net as a dangerous instrument. They're afraid of them and they will not go close to them. I saw this for myself just last weekend.
Vicki: Tell.
Kent: My wife and I were down in San Diego by the waterfront. And one thing you notice if you're by the ocean, is there are seagulls everywhere. I can't say this as a definite fact, but I think God made seagulls to do one thing.
Vicki: What?
Kent: Poop. They leave more messes everywhere they go. Oh, it's messes, messes, messes. When people park their boats for two days, they come and they've got been dive bombed a dozen times at least. And then it's all dry and gets hard and it can't get it off your boat. It's awful. And it's just everywhere. They're a menace, they're a nuisance. But we saw this one boat that someone had actually covered the boat with a net. Yeah. No birds, no poop. They're instinctively afraid of nets.
Vicki: Oh, that's smart.
Kent: Isn't that brilliant?
Vicki: And nobody else did that?
Kent: No, one guy. And what's interesting, you didn't need, you know, sound to try and get them away or whirly things flying around, spinning above the bird. Whirly things spinning above the boat. All you needed to do was put a net over them. How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it. If you're going to catch a bird, don't let them see the net because they will always escape. If you join a gang that exploits innocent people for your own gain, you're more clueless than a bird. You're a bird brain, if you will. Because the consequences of such actions are clear. If you do this, if you go along with them. Well, what does he say in verses 18 and 19?
Vicki: He says these men lie in wait for their own blood. They ambush only themselves. Such are the paths of all who go after ill gotten gain. It takes away the life of those who get it.
Kent: People who are lured into joining gangs, Solomon says will destroy their lives. And it's true, isn't it? We read it in the newspaper.
Nathan: Yeah. Back in March, there was an international drug trafficking organization, cjng, that exported fentanyl worldwide. And the leader was betrayed by his own people. The FBI caught him and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
Kent: How long he had to forfeit to live?
Nathan: Yeah. Really? And he was ordered to forfeit $6 billion in fentanyl proceeds. That's billion with a B.
Kent: So did the drug lord profit from his crimes?
Vicki: No.
Kent: Is that a good life choice?
Vicki: No.
Kent: Yeah. So for a brief time he had lots of power and money and then he lost his freedom. And then with a $6 billion charge now he lost his money as well.
Nathan: Yeah. His own gang turned against him. Oh, and he lost his own community.
Kent: What's Interesting. When I looked around online, I found that according to research, the average lifespan of a gang member is between 20 and 30 years.
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: With most dying within the first two years of joining a gang.
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: Wow. Yeah. As the researcher said, needless to say, there are no 401k retirement plans or pensions for these people. No stock options for gang members. This path only leads to jails, institutions, or death. But Solomon's words of caution extend beyond just don't join a gang or a drug cartel. I think we can imply from this that anyone who chooses to enrich themselves by harming others is a fool. And there are many other kinds of scams out there where people try to benefit themselves financially by harming others, aren't there?
Vicki: Oh, this one's cruel. Adoption fraud. I get a baby, show you the picture, tell you all about it. You pay me 10, 20, $30,000, but I don't give you a baby.
Kent: Wow. Adoption fraud. It hurts everyone, but enriches you.
Vicki: Don't you know that hurts? And then of course, there's investment fraud, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, telemarketing fraud. A lot of people want to make money quickly and they'll just go, yeah, here's my money. And they lose it.
Kent: Nathan, have you ever seen older people being taken advantage of?
Nathan: Yeah. In fact, I've been discussing this with my wife's cousin's new husband who specializes in fraud in the financial world. But oftentimes what will happen is you have an elderly person who is lonely and somebody reaches out over the Internet with a promise of romance and they build up this relationship. Build it up, build it up. And oh, by the way, I have an investment that I can show you that will make a lot of money and they fall for it. And so they're out thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars over time, which they're giving in because of trust and giving in because they feel that they have a connection with this person. But then you also have tech support scams. You know, you have a pop up that shows up on your computer, oh, no, call this number. Otherwise you know, we're going to blow up your computer or you're going to lose everything. Right. So then people will go into the tech scams. And it's not just the elderly who fault for tech scams, it's everyone.
Kent: Sure.
Nathan: I have another friend who is an investigator who talks about the extortion or sextortion of adults, coercing minors into sending explicit pictures online or videos or worse, because they will pretend to be one of their peers and solicit images, and then it gets worse and worse. Then once they're finally in it, they say, oh, well, if you don't send more, we're going to show this to all your friends and family members, and then you'll be absolutely embarrassed.
Kent: So Solomon is warning us, don't go down the path of choosing to enrich yourself by harming others. It's not going to end well.
Nathan: And you think to be a little more abstract than these, These are pretty dark, right? Oh, I'm going to fraud some elderly people. But you think about our age of social media and becoming viral, and all of these young people and old people who do these pranks on individuals where they're causing emotional distress or sometimes physical distress or financial harm, thinking, like, oh, okay, and then I can upload this on the Internet and we can see them run away from this clown who is following them in the middle of the night after the train station, carrying a chain. Right? Is that technically illegal? No. But the damage and the emotional distress that you're causing on a person, that's not okay. That's not funny. And yet they monetize it over the Internet. And unfortunately, to Solomon's point, if you're involved with this, how many stories have we seen of people getting shot doing these ridiculous pranks or police arresting people because of these pranks? Right? They're doing things that are going to cause some kind of harm to another individual in the hopes of getting rich. And they do in the short term. But in the long term, they end up getting arrested, sued, or worse. They even lose their lives.
Kent: Consequences will catch up with us. That's what Solomon is saying. We have to be careful not to choose to enrich ourselves by harming others. He says that because, as we know, the temptation to get rich quick at the expense of others is powerful. I saw this demonstrated in a TV show some years ago for context. I was getting ready to go to Europe to start a crosstalk, to start a crosstalk residency, when I noticed a problem in one of my eyes. Went to the doctor, and it turned out I had a torn retina. I needed to have emergency surgery, which fortunately was successful. But the doctor said because of where the tear was, I had to spend the next month lying on my stomach staring at the ground. Not easy, but I wanted it to heal properly, so I had to obey the doctor. So all I had was an iPad. So I put it on the floor. As I stared down at the floor and began to watch this TV program, I had heard about called Breaking Bad. Have you ever heard of that one, Nathan?
Nathan: Yes, it's about a man's descent into hell. Basically.
Kent: The main character is Walter White, a mild mannered high school chemistry teacher who believes his life can't get much worse. His salary barely make ends meet, his pregnant wife is about to give birth, his teenage son is battling cerebral palsy, and he just found out he has terminal cancer.
Vicki: Wow. I'm inclined to agree with him.
Kent: He realizes that his illness will probably ruin his family financially. So he makes a desperate effort to earn as much money as he can in the time he has left by converting an old RV into a mobile meth lab. And it just traces his story and obviously at the beginning it seems to make a lot of sense. He was a chemistry teacher. He could make meth and sold it and made a bunch of money. But then he ran into problems with gangs and then he got out of that problem and then things got worse. You watched that show through the end of the series and I understood the big idea of that TV show. Do you know what the big idea of Breaking Bad is? No matter how bad life gets, it's never a good idea to try and make life better by becoming a drug dealer.
Nathan: Six seasons of television to get to.
Kent: The six seasons or whatever it was. Whatever it was, yeah. At the end, the money is useless. He's just literally throwing it in the air. He doesn't matter. He's lost everything. His family, his friends, his career, everything. How could he? And how can we avoid Satan's first snare? You can avoid Satan's snare by remembering that no matter how bad life gets, the decision to join the crowd and profit at other people's expenses will destroy your life. My recommendation? Remember these words.
Vicki: The passage says, my son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. These men lie in wait for their own blood. They ambush only themselves. Such are the paths of all who go after ill gotten gain. It takes away the life of those who get it.
Brian: It's tempting to make a quick buck, but the Bible warns us against that if it in any way involves hurting others. In fact, it tells us that hurting others will destroy us. Harming innocent people will destroy your own life. I trust that today's discussion of God's Word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the Word, but doers. Together, let's bring God's Word to life, to our lives. This week, the crosstalk Podcast is a production of crosstalk Global Equipping Biblical communicators so every culture hears God's voice. To find out more about this educational nonprofit organization, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. right now, CrossTalk is training biblical communicators in Moldova and then Bucharest the week after. Help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click Donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by rating it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you find it. Be sure to listen next Friday. You won't want to miss it.