My readings today were from Genesis 4, Matthew 4, Ezra 4 and Acts 4. Not every day do my readings seem to be so thematically linked as these four chapters do. Each and every one seems hotly focused on one thing: Opposition. It took Moses only three chapters to introduce the antagonist and inciting incident which will be the conflict of the rest of the Bible. And in Chapter 4, Yahweh summarizes that conflict succinctly to Cain,
"...sin is crouching at the door. And its desire is for you,"
Ezra describes the "enemies of Judah and Benjamin" who use all the wiles and tools of the Serpent to confound and frustrate and cow the fledgling nation of Israel, freshly returned from exile and eager to rebuild the Temple. In Acts Peter and John are dragged before the Sanhedrin for teaching and healing a lame man in the name of Jesus. In each of these chapters there is someone who wants to do well and offer right sacrifices; someone who is rebuilding a house for our God as they were ordered to by God and king; someone who is listening to God and not refraining from speaking about what they have seen and heard. And in each of these chapters, there is someone opposed to it and them.
We enlightened and rationalistic Christians can often lose sight of this, i think. We are more likely to look at humanistic reasons for the way the world is. Psychological ones. Historical ones. We can very nearly explain sin itself away by citing the troubled childhood of a sinner and their need for education and medication. The answers are within our grasp because the problem is. We can fix it. If only... Cain was disenfranchised by a flawed religious system which devalued his contribution and a nebulous moral code which had not yet conceived of murder and therefore not banned it either. The other nations and peoples around Israel during the time of Ezra had as much claim and right to the land as the Israelites and had probably even suffered when Judah had previously provoked Babylon into conquering the land. They were unfairly rebuffed when they offered to help with the building plan by the ethno-centric racism of a group of interlopers who would not accept a two-state solution. The Sanhedrin of Pete and Jack's day were the proper authorities both in government and Judaism and acting in the nation's best interests as they saw fit, could only be in place by God's will and deliberately provoked by religious extremists in their own capital and holiest site.
And Satan, well, he's just a metaphorical device to explain the presence of evil and the psycho-emotional construct of an "enemy" in a "war" to help us understand the duality of living, light vs. dark, good vs. evil, republican vs. democrat, Jedi and Sith, balance.
But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches there is a WILL behind the war. There is a malice, an animus, which feels and desires and hates. Why is the world the way it is? Sin. Yes. And sin has a name... and kids. From three chapters into Genesis to his ultimate eternal destruction with three chapters left to go in Revelations 20, there is an enemy who hates God because he wants to BE God. And his offspring will be like him. They cannot kill what they hate, the one who has the audacity to oppose THEIR will, so they oppose His children with all the wiles and tools of their father. If they cannot lie and sow the seeds of doubt about His goodness and love and seduce them away from Him, they will kill them.
And so we see in Matthew 4 the ultimate battle. Jesus is led by the Spirit of His Father into the wilderness where he is tempted for forty days and forty nights by Satan himself. "If you are the Son of God..." doubt. Most telling of all, when Satan offers the kingdoms of the world, it is no empty boast. John quotes Jesus as calling Satan the "ruler of this world". Daniel was told by Gabriel that the "Prince of Persia" fought against Michael and he. The temporal kingdoms of this world are a beast which resemble the dragon himself. Satan was offering to give them back if only Christ would change sides. He doesn't. Satan kills him.
This is no "devil made me do it" defense. Cain is told, "And it's desire is for you, but you must rule over it." And it's not a plea to try and fight the battle as if we were Jesus ourselves. The "word that comes from the mouth of God" upon which we live and rely on IS Jesus himself! The church in Acts 4 prays, "And now Lord, concern yourself with their threats and grant your slaves to speak with your message with all boldness, as you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." We do not test God, we trust Him. We do not worship Satan, no matter what he offers us. Even if it looks good or we think we could do good with it. No, this is me reminding myself that it's not just the way it is. It's not C'est la vie. Que sera, sera. i must not let cynicism become fatalism. We must "be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the full armor of God, so that [we] may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." For though we are and will be opposed whenever and most of all when we try to do good and to obey God, from leading a church or mission to just trying to do the right thing, to writing a devotional to loving our spouse, the nail that sticks up gets pounded down the hardest, though they may hurt us, imprison us, take from us what we cherish, and even kill us, above all remember that though the battle rages on, the war is already won.
"And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
“Now the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives until death.
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Christ have come,
because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
And they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives until death.
Because of this, rejoice, you heavens,
and those who live in them!
Woe to the earth and to the sea,
because the devil has come down to you,
having great anger,
because he knows that he has little time!”"
and those who live in them!
Woe to the earth and to the sea,
because the devil has come down to you,
having great anger,
because he knows that he has little time!”"
