Isaiah 59:5

They hatch evil, like eggs from a poisonous snake. Anyone who eats the eggs will die. And if you break one of them open, a poisonous snake will come out. Their lies are like spider webs.

See the spider's web, and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. The web is meant to catch his prey: the spider fattens himself on flies, and the Pharisee has his reward. Foolish persons are easily trapped by the loud professions of fakes, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. Philip baptized Simon Magus, whose guileful declaration of faith was so soon exploded by the stern rebuke of Peter. Tradition, reputation, praise, advancement, and other victims, are the enticements with which hypocrites bait their snares. A spider's web is a marvel of skill, look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make barefaced a lies appear to be truth? How can he make his fake religion look as good as gold? A spider's web comes all from the creature's own bowels. The bee gathers her wax from flowers, the spider sucks no flowers, and yet she spins out her material to any length. Even so hypocrites find their trust and hope within themselves; their anchor was forged on their own anvil, and their cable twisted by their own hands. They lay their own foundation, and hew out the pillars of their own house, disdaining to be debtors to the sovereign grace of God. But a spider's web is very frail. It is curiously wrought, but not enduringly manufactured. It is no match for the cleaner's broom. The hypocrite needs no battery of cannon to blow his hope to pieces, a mere puff of wind will do it. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the fire of adversity begins its purifying work. Which reminds us of one more thought, such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house. He will see to it that they and those who spin them shall be destroyed forever. O my soul, rest on something better than a spider's web. Let the Lord Jesus be your eternal hiding-place.