The second mouse gets the cheese …

My amazement at the wisdom — either simple or profound — we can discover in the Bible never ceases.

Take, for example, this simple little nugget of wisdom: “And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor,” 2 Timothy 2:6

At first glance, it sounds more like common sense than a wise statement, but given that we tend to mess up the most sensical of things, I think it’s a helpful nugget in reminding us there is an appropriate order to things. The farmer who works hard to grow or raise the food people eat should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Imagine if everyone else got to feast from the farmer’s work before the hardworking fellow got a bite to eat, being left with just the scraps.

Well, wisdom or wise insight can also be harvested, at times, from the experiences of others. That idea is captured in this modern thought: “The second mouse gets the cheese.”

That thought comes from the idea that the first mouse coming across a mouse trap baited with a chunk of delectable cheese may lose his life and never get a bite of the food that lured him. But the second mouse happening on the scene should be able to take advantage of the first mouse’s negative experience and benefit from it.

There’s a version of this idea in the New Testament for today’s Christians. In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul helps us see that there are lessons from ancient Israel’s idolatry that are kind of like the second mouse getting the cheese:

“I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, ‘The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.’ And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age,” 1 Corinthians 10:1-11.

The second mouse gets the cheese.

Have you heeded the warning and benefitted from the lessons written down for us so that you don’t fail God and fall in the same way?

Paul tagged on an additional warning to his “second mouse” idea, along with an encouragement: “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure,” 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.

We have an opportunity to learn some valuable lessons and avoid some horrendous failures from those who have gone before us. We also have the opportunity to be positive, godly, encouraging examples for those who come after us to build on, rather being the “first mouse” for them.

What are you doing with Paul’s warning, and the lessons written down for us?

Scotty