ARE YOU A MAN OR A MOUSE?

Are You A Man Or A Mouse is a multimedia artwork in my (VISIONS AND DREAMS Collection) And (BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATIONS Collection).

Go to my website to see the full line of art products and collections: https://www.givensinspirationalgraphics.com/

The artwork is centered on the study of the mechanics and effects of temptation illustrated in the biblical teaching on temptation found in the New Testament Book of James 1: 14-15.

James 1:14-15

(14)  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

(15)  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

This bold and profound artwork came to me in a vision of a mousetrap suspended in air with a bold reddish background. The mousetrap has a globe of the planet Earth as bait instead of cheese. The trap also has a long black cord twirling downward into a dark and fiery bottomless abyss.

The symbolism of the full cycle of temptation is illustrated:

·       Humans are the mice that are tempted when we are drawn away by our individualized or personalized lust.

·       The planet earth or the physical world is the perfect symbol to depict one’s customized desires or the carnal appetites associated with our physical life.

·       After we are drawn away by our desires and feast upon them, the mousetrap’s metal apparatus is triggered. It fatally squeezed the life out of us.

·       Physical death begins and the cord is pulled downwards into hell.

At the end of the vision, the question surfaced in my mind, Are you a man or a mouse?

Jesus suffered and died on the cross.

Salvation comes when we are released from this mousetrap, but because we have sin there must be punishment and justice for our transgressions again God. So, Jesus lifted the metal apparatus of the trap that was about our necks, delivering us from the trap. Because one must die for our sins, Jesus, the Lamb of God, died for the sins of the world as a sacrifice.

1 Peter 2:24
(NIV)
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Jesus put His head on the trap snapped the metal apparatus about His neck and said it is finished.

His body laid in a tomb. Jesus entered the pit of hell only to conquer death and take the keys of death and of Hell; and Jesus rose from the dead as a mighty deliverer.