FollowI learned something fascinating the other day about snake oil.
Most of us have heard that phrase, right? Snake oil is kind of a catchall term in our culture for flimflam and false cures. It’s come to symbolize someone selling you something that doesn’t live up to what it promises.
Long before it received its reputation, snake oil was actually an old Chinese treatment for minor aches and pain. It was first brought to the West when Chinese laborers came over to work on the transcontinental railroad. It was a topical treatment rubbed on joints to help bring some relief. It was (allegedly) reasonably effective.
The reputation it’s since garnered comes from what happened after some crafty Western businessmen got a hold of the idea. I’ll spare you the details, but a slew of dubious products were made and sold as “snake oil.” They promised everything from curing headaches to solving kidney problems, something they clearly couldn’t deliver on. And they usually weren’t made with snake of any kind. So now, the idea of snake oil persists as a symbol for impossible promises fed to us by con artists.
Impossible promises from a con artist sounds like an apt description for a certain serpent we know.
Remember Satan’s early trick from Genesis? He offered humanity something that he claimed was even better than the real thing (fulfilling desires apart from God). He downplayed the goodness of God and suggested finding an alternative. He still convinces us that God’s gifts and commands aren’t good for us, and that maybe He’s withholding what we really need. He offers an alternative that, on the surface, sounds like it’s even better than the original thing that God offers—but it’s just snake oil. It’s a simple idea once you know to look for it.
The hard part of this is identifying snake oil in our own lives. We don’t always realize it, but we’re almost always being sold something, promised something. Maybe a new job can give you that sense of purpose you’re longing for, or maybe a new relationship will finally make you feel fulfilled. Or it could be something less obvious—just one more cookie to cover over your anxiety and need for comfort. Maybe it’s one more hour of Netflix despite work in the morning, as though just a little more entertainment will finally be the thing that satisfies you.
Satan doesn’t really care what it is, as long as you’re investing those hopes and needs in something other than God—God, who is literally the source of all pleasure, the God of all hope, and the God who supplies everything we need.
What about you? What has Satan tried to sell you on? What are you looking to for joy and hope that’s not trust and obedience to your Heavenly Father?
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