Grab it by the Tail

We've all heard it one way or the other...

Grab the world by the tail...

Grab the tiger by the tail...

To have a tiger by the tail is an idiom that means you have put yourself into a situation that is dangerous to proceed with AND dangerous to escape from...

The expression is derived from an old Chinese proverb:

“He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.”

This aphorism was translated into English in the 1870s and it has proliferated in professional, business, and personal development. It is associated with something powerful and potentially dangerous; to have a very difficult problem to solve. When you have a tiger by the tail, you've bitten off more than you could chew. Some people will change animals such as, "You've had a bear by the tail ever since you agreed to finish that big project."

But I have another why to look at the term, grab it by the tail.

Whether you've read Exodus 4 of the old testament Bible or not, you should. This is the story about where God gives Moses the power to perform miracles to prepare him for going to Egypt to gain the release of his fellow Hebrew people who have been enslaved for 400 years. The problem Moses had in his assignment was the confidence that he was worthy or capable of the job.

So, the first thing God had Moses do was to throw his shepherd's staff on the ground.?Moses obeyed, and the staff immediately turned into a snake. Because Moses was a well-trained desert dweller and herdsman, “Moses fled from it”?indicating that Moses was smart and knew to move away from the snake. Then God instructed in Exodus 4:4 is saying;

“Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail.”

As you know from the tail of the tiger or bear above, this could have meant to Moses the struggle ahead in his mission. But no, Moses was even smarter than that. He knew that grabbing the tail is no way to handle a snake of any kind. Moses knew you control a snake by catching it right behind the head. Grabbing it by the tail made it easier for the snake to bite some part of the body and this was the point that God was making.

God needed Moses to trust Him when he grabs the snake by the tail, so instead of being bitten, with God's power upon him, Moses would control the snake.

Even though Moses initially displayed such fear of the snake by fleeing from it, when God asked him to grasp it by the tail, he obeyed.?It was after he obeyed God that the snake turned back into the staff.

Of course, this is a story illustrating God's power to protect Moses and Moses putting his faith in God to not only be able to grab the snake by the tail but fulfill the mission God has assigned him to get his people freed from Pharoah.

For those who may not be believers, you can also learn from this lesson. There is a higher power in all of us and when we understand it, we can define our purpose. When we define our purpose, we now have the tiger, bear, or snake by the tail and we can control and overcome any obstacles that bare down upon us.

Have an awesome day,

DrJ