“Heralds of Darkness, Heralds of Light"

    Satan tempted Eve not as a questioning of God's truthfulness, but rather of Adam's reliability.

    "Hath God said, "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1).

    Genesis records that Eve did not exist when God prohibited Adam from partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17).  Moreover, no Scriptural record exists of the Lord ever speaking to the woman about the forbidden tree.  We must conclude, therefore, that Adam communicated the restriction to his wife, particularly in light of the question Satan addressed to Eve - "Hath God said?"  Thus, the devil's temptation cast aspersions in the woman's mind upon her husband's reliability.  In essence, the tempter said, "Did God really say that to Adam?  Or is your husband either incorrect or disingenuous?"  As the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament, this deceived Eve, who became Satan's surrogate mouthpiece of temptation to Adam (I Timothy 2:14).  The man then sinned willfully, in full knowledge that he "hearkened to the voice" of Eve rather than God (Genesis 3:17).  Or, in the original Hebrew, he obeyed the word of Eve rather than the word of God.

    The devil's methods have not changed through the ages.  I am often asked, "Can Satan or his demonic influences communicate with us directly in our thoughts?"  In my view, the Bible never directly answers this question.  However, we know with absolute certainty that our enemies speak to us through people.  Moreover, as with our original forebears, devils may challenge us through those near and dear to us.  Little wonder that the Apostle Peter commands sober vigilance regarding our adversary (I Peter 5:8).  Indeed, Satan often confronts us through voices we might never expect would serve (almost always unwittingly) as devilish mouthpieces.

    We must also personally seek to avoid the deceptions that can cause us to become temptations to others.  Our Lord gave us His Word so that we might recognize the darkness and error that misleads us into misleading others.  When offering opinions about Biblical truth, we must always keep the question in mind, "Have I read and pondered the Scriptures enough about this matter to even have an opinion, much less, seek to communicate it with someone else?"  If we cannot affirmatively answer this question, we risk become the herald of darkness rather than light, and thus, a temptation rather than a benefit to our hearer.  

    No less than Peter serves as a prime example of the truth we consider.  "Get thee behind me, Satan" declared the Lord Jesus to His chief disciple when Peter suggested that the Savior should avoid the cross (Matthew 16:21-23).  By no means did the Lord mean to imply that Peter had become the devil, but rather than Peter's succumbing to temptation regarding so vital a matter as Calvary led him to become a devilishly influenced voice of temptation to Christ Himself.  Succumb to temptation … become a tempter - this was Peter's troubling experience and it may be ours as well in those times when our giving in to the devil's lies results in our not only absorbing darkness, but also disseminating it.  

    Our enemies are subtle.  We must be aware and wary of their attempts to mislead us, and then to spread deception through us to others.  No believer is exempt from either possibility.  Consistently and prayerfully exposing ourselves to the Scriptures prepares us to hold the Truth-formed convictions that secure our own hearts, and then enable us to shine as heralds of light rather than darkness.  It is difficult to imagine a more serious matter in our walk with the Lord, or with people.

"I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."

(II Corinthians 11:3-4)

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works."

(II Corinthians 11:13-15)

Weekly Memory Verse

    When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

(Psalm 8:3-4)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name forever and ever

(Psalm 145:1)

    

    

Still and Small

    "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth… Ye shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger" (Genesis 1:1; Luke 2:12).

    The Bible opens without fanfare, pomp, or circumstance, stating as a simple matter of fact that God created a universe more vast, infinitesimal, beautiful, and complex than our minds can begin to fathom.  In like manner, when the Lord Jesus Christ entered the world He made, a feeding trough for animals rather than a palace purposely served as the abode of His welcome.

    We must accommodate ourselves to this quiet and unassuming way of our Creator and Redeemer.  Certainly He parts a Red Sea and stops the sun in its tracks when necessary.  Most of His working, however, involves monumental activity accomplished in ways that even the most devout among us often miss because He works so unpretentiously.  The Lord Jesus came "without form or comeliness" in His incarnation (Isaiah 53:2).  He continues to meet us most often in the reserved manner that necessitates our walk by faith rather than sight (II Corinthans 7:5).  Hoping for frequent displays of the openly spectacular thus sets us up for disappointment, while also making less likely our recognition of the Lord Jesus in the mangers of our lives.  "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not!" (Genesis 28:16).

    In this life, and far more in the next, we shall sometimes behold dazzling displays of Divine glory, splendor, power, and wonder.  We give thanks for such as we fall to our faces in amazement.  Presently, however, we more often behold the same glory, splendor, power, and wonder in small and shadowed ways easily missed if we look mostly for the dazzle.  I suspect that even in eternity to come, we will find much of God's glory quietly manifested as His humble heart shines forth in humble modes and manners.  In that day, we will possess far better eyes to see and far humbler hearts to appreciate the displays that offer little fanfare, pomp, and circumstance, but much wonder of so great a God, possessed of such meekness and lowliness (Matthew 11:29).

"The LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice.

(I Kings 19:11-12)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name forever and ever

(Psalm 145:1)

    

"No Sun, Moon, or Stars"

No Sun, Moon, or Stars

    Light existed upon the earth before the creation of the sun, moon, and stars.

    "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light… and the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:3; 5).

    "God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also.  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth… and the evening and the morning were the fourth day" (Genesis 1:16-17; 19).

    Great mystery presents itself to us in this truth of light were it seems, in natural terms, it could not be.  We won't delve into the physical enigma here, but rather glean the obvious spiritual principle, as declared by the Apostle John: "The light shineth in darkness" (John 1:5).  Sometimes great illumination awaits us in venues where it seems no light can shine.  No sun, moon, or stars, as it were, seem to exist, but rather the portending of a pitch darkness that while enshroud us with gloom.  "Surely the darkness shall cover me" (Psalm 139:11).

   I wonder if the Apostle Paul faced such temptation when imprisoned in a Roman jail.  His vibrant walk with the Lord Jesus Christ did not preclude the same internal challenges faced by all believers.  Regarding another such episode of difficulty, Paul confessed, "We despaired even of life" (II Corinthians 1:8).  Entering prison, therefore, likely elicited in Paul the same temptations to fear and uncertainty we would experience in such a circumstance.  In that prison, however, the Apostle discovered a particular blessedness of illumination that shines all the more beautifully through the ages because it emanated from a place where it might seem that no sun, moon, or stars existed…

   "All the saints salute thee, chiefly, they that are of Caesar's household" (Philippians 4:22).

   I find this statement to be one of the greatest affirmations of Christ's triumph in all the Bible.  God transformed a sad place of incarceration into a holy womb of spiritual incubation by sending His servant Paul into the seeming darkness.  Great light awaited the Apostle, however, as he discovered yet another mission field.  Paul pillaged "Caesar's household" by leading untold numbers to the same grace and faith that shone so brightly in his own heart.  Darkness thus served as the backdrop for a far greater display of illumination by the Christ who declared, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).

   Perhaps in this hour you gaze upon a sky devoid of the greater light, the lesser light, and the stars.  A dark prison seems to await, and you face the Psalmist's temptation that "surely the darkness shall cover me."  If so, recall that God does not require the natural light of sun, moon, and stars in order to illuminate.  His supernatural light, in fact, shines far more brilliantly because of the contrasting darkness and because it glimmers where it seems it could not be.  The Lord Jesus is our light.  Having Him, we require no other illumination, and seeing Him, we see everything we need to see…

"They looked unto Him and were lightened."

(Psalm 34:5)

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

(Revelation 21:23)

"By His light, I walked through darkness."

(Job 29:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

    When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

(Psalm 8:3-4)