Latrodectus Mactans

Latrodectus Mactans

Her name is Latrodectus mactans. The lady is black and beautiful, with an hourglass figure. It’s her honeymoon night, and she dances before her husband to arouse his passions. More than anything Latrodectus wants babies. When the night of lovemaking is over and she is satisfied that she is pregnant, she gives him a fatal kiss—a dagger plunged into his body. On its point is poison fifteen times more toxic than the venom of a prairie rattlesnake. She then proceeds to eat her husband’s body. It is a deliciously ingenious way to dispose of the evidence of her hideous crime.

It’s not the first time that Latrodectus has committed such a ghastly deed, nor will it be the last. This serial killer waddles away, fat on the remains of her slain husband, to lay up to 750 eggs. She has earned her alias: the black widow. Anyone who has ever been bitten by the spider with the scientific name Latrodectus mactans can attest to the severity of her venom.

Forensic experts call women who kill their husbands black widows. Surprisingly, women are guilty of 41 percent of spousal homicides in America. Men most often kill outside their families. But women are far more likely to murder members of their own families—usually husbands. The number one reason is spousal abuse. The second is money.

The most infamous black widow was Belle Gunness. She stood at five-and-a-half feet tall and weighed a hefty 270 pounds. She was a rough farm woman who wore overalls, pitched hay, and butchered hogs. No one would have guessed that Belle was a femme fatale. But when she put on her corset and piled up her hair in the latest style, she became a lethal seductress. After she disappeared in 1908, investigators found more than forty poisoned victims buried on her farm. Before the books were closed, it was determined that Belle murdered forty people, including multiple husbands and all her children.

History crawls with black widows who devour men for their money. Lucy Trueblood poisoned five spouses, a brother-in-law, and her only child. Rhonda Bell Martin killed two husbands, her mother, and three of her children for their insurance. After autopsies revealed the grisly truth, this Alabama black widow was executed in 1957.

We are shocked and horrified at such stories. Yet they might hit close to home, especially if we are religious. Remember that God has always called Israel his bride. When Jesus came, he was the fulfillment of the prophecies that a Savior would come as a husband to rescue his bride. But the “black widow” religious leaders ensnared their husband in a web of deceit, pierced him with poison, and devoured his body. Yet he rose again. He loves us too much to leave us to our sin. So crush the spider and embrace the Savior.

It wasn’t our nails but his love that kept Jesus on that cross.

God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Romans 5:8