Tag: Deceiver

Posted on

The human experiment.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep. Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled. A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end. The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes. In the silence I heard a voice say, ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’ ‭‭Job‬ ‭4‬:‭12‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Job, the oldest book written in the Bible is full of mystery and presents moral, theological dilemmas that are still wrestled with, even in modern times. Job was written 400 years before the Torah, the first five books of the Law. Job predates the law, and mentions nothing about the eventual covenant with God, the laws of God nor the sacrificial system that God directs Israel to live by.

It is interesting that the first verses in Job chapter one set the stage for us to know that Job was a good guy, a righteous guy. He even offered sacrifices to God for his children, “just in case they sinned against God.” He feared God, loved God and lived a good life! Then, seemingly out nowhere there is a meeting, a checkin with the angels. What follows is a conversation with God and the fallen angel, called the adversary.

God asks Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth.“ Satan replies, yeah, he’s only good because God has blessed him and protected him. Satan challenges God by saying, “take away his stuff and he’ll curse you.” God takes Satan up on the challenge and allows Satan to take Job’s “belongings” away from him. Belongings include his family! The scene repeats, but this time Satan challenges God by asking for permission to make Job’s physical life miserable – horrible diseases, but not allowing to take his life. Job knows nothing about the test, nor God’s faith in him to endure suffering without blaming God.

Job’s friends heard about Job’s suffering and made their way to him. At first the friends do the right thing by Job, they just sit with him and say nothing! “Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.“ But soon, they just could not take. Not understanding WHY this is happening to Job, they offer their advice.

Eliphaz, possibly the eldest in the group, appears as the representative of the wisdom of the Edomites. Trying to be helpful, he shares about a vision he had. And from this vision, he concludes that there is a good and godly reason for Job’s suffering. Job has obviously sinned! Here’s the creepy part. Eliphaz gives his advice, his wisdom from a “whispering spirit,” that gave him chills in the night asking an accusatory question! Just a well placed question created a logical conclusion for this wise man. The question, “Can a mortal be innocent before God?” I don’t know about you, but this whole “truth” given in “secret” coming in a vision in the night sounds just like SATAN! Whispers, secrets and accusations? Come on. Eliphaz isn’t getting his answers from God, nor whatever experience he has had by walking with God on this fallen planet. His advice has been supplanted in his heart by the sneaky spirit of the dark!

All three of Job’s friends want to help Job, want to console him, and comfort him, but they all go down the same thought- path. Obviously Job has sinned and must repent. Obviously God is judging him and swift justice comes to those who do wrong. In their minds there is no other reason for a human being to suffer! Job’s friends seem unaware that as humans we live on a fallen planet, Satan’s domain.

Let’s answer the spirit-whispered accusation presented to Eliphaz. Can we be innocent before God? No, we’ve sinned, we are not innocent. But does that mean that we face the immediate judgement, the wrath and justice of God by being stripped of all possessions and daily physically tortured for our sin? No, we do not. Who is the one who brought the calamity and destruction into Job’s life? Satan! The good suffer, the bad succeed. The good succeed, the bad suffer. We cannot determine judgement nor eternity based on our comparison of possessions, position or power! Satan challenged God’s wisdom by trying to prove that humans are only capable of loving God back because of blessing! The experiment, give humans free will, a choice, give them autonomy and self determination – they will not choose God, they will always choose evil. The ancient challenge was that humans would not be able to love God in a world filled with evil and the ability to chase after their own lusts and desires leading to their demise and eventual destruction.

The human experience on the dark planet would seem to be a doomed experiment. Job was not perfect. Yet, without knowing anything about the test he was participating in, he passed. He did not blame God nor curse God for his suffering! God believes in us. God risks that love, mercy, grace and forgiveness will save our lives. God’s plan of redemption from our sin through the sacrifice of His own Son proves that we can and will be capable of loving Him in spite of an adversary and accuser. That we are able to love Him in spite of our brokenness and disordered desires. Our faith, like Job’s, like Abraham’s, is counted as righteousness! We are saved by grace, not of our works. We love because we know God’s goodness. We fear God out of honor and respect, not just because He can obliterate us back to the dust from which we came.

Prayer

Dad,
We were created out of dust, and to dust our bodies will return. But you infused Your Spirit within us. It is that spirit that will choose to love you. That spirit that will live forever. Thank you for loving us first. Thank you for this amazing life in this beautiful world. It is filled with wonder and wickedness, yet I know your plans for me and they are good. I choose you because you first chose me.

Posted on

The Powerful Messiah.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭110‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This Psalm, written by David, sometime after his fall from grace, speaks of the future where Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and is given the power to rule, reign and crush the enemies of God.

Jesus himself picks up this Psalm in a discussion with the religious leaders in Matthew 22:41-46. Jesus stumps the Pharisees by asking them who they thought the Messiah might be, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They replied, “He is the son of David.” They agreed that the Messiah would come through the bloodline of David, but Jesus pressed them further when he quoted this Psalm. ”Jesus responded, “Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah ‘my Lord’?” How can a father refer to his son as “Lord?” ”Since David called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?” So what’s the mystery, what’s the point?

One, David is prophesying about the Messiah, who will come and judge all things on the earth.

Two, it is clear that no one could figure out exactly what or who this Messiah would be. The war-language of enemies and footstool only lends itself to the idea that the Messiah would be a mighty warrior, a conquerer. The only problem with that is, as humans, we only interpret that as a world leader, bringing peace and prosperity to the people in the Messiah’s kingdom. But, do you remember Jesus saying, “My kingdom is not of this world,” in John 18:36? I wouldn’t be so hard on the Pharisees for being confused. The war-language, the battle over good and evil is far more than just bringing justice to bad actors of this world. It’s not like the warmongering doesn’t deserve judgement, because it does. And, it’s not like we don’t deserve death for our individual and collective selfish choices, because we do. What is far more powerful is that the Messiah, Jesus has conquered and made sin and evil itself his footstool – which is totally a reference to the earth itself as well (Isaiah 66:1). The Messiah has the power to create the new heaven and new earth, setting justice and God’s ways back to order.

Three, the Messiah has come to free the earth and its inhabitants from the ruler who had taken over the planet – Satan! We read the word, “enemy” as if it’s the people Jesus died for! We see the word “judgement” as though God wanted to rid the earth of people. Jesus has come to free people from sin, rescuing and redeeming our lives destined to destruction by our own choices of joining with Satan.

When Jesus returns, to fulfill the finality of all things, He brings justice and judgment to end evil and end the reign of terror on the planet from its ruler – Satan. When David wrote this Psalm, he had real enemies and Israel had real enemies as well. Those enemies were countries, tribes and people under the curse of sin as well as the spell of Satan. These groups were led and driven by ambition, gain and lust for more. Most of these countries and tribes had committed themselves to very real demonic influences, all of which God classified as idols. Behind the wooden and stone poles and statues of Ashtoreth, Baal, Chemosh, Dagon and multiple Egyptian gods there were very real demons desiring to lash out at God and destroy humanity. Even then, the enemies behind the maniacal, narcissistic men were all variations of Satan and the angels who rebelled against God. The Messiah would conquer the issue of human sin and death first. Then He will bring all evil to justice, starting with the prince of the power of the air, as Paul makes reference in Ephesians 2:2. I look forward to that day!

Prayer

Dad,
I know that evil permeates every part of the world. Evil is not an isolated, “American” problem, it’s global – every country, tribe or town has bad actors, making evil decisions. However, behind our human choices and behaviors, I also know there is a very real enemy that works to seduce and enslave us! It is that entity, that liar which is laying the foundation of enmity between us and you. Thank you for the Messiah that did not just come to save us, but will return to finally put evil, injustice, hate and destruction under His feet. Thank you that a new heaven and a new earth is coming. Your Kingdom come and thankfully your will be done! Amen.

Posted on

Seduced by another love.

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.” 2 John‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

John, the elder, writes these letters decades after walking, talking and experiencing Christ, the son of man, son of God on earth. How interesting that he describes the Church as the eklektos: selected, elected, by implication – favorite LADY as well as her children. It explains the reason John adds this comment in verse 4. He was ecstatic to meet the children of the great lady, the Church!

One commentator put it this way, John “has reason to know that certain others of her children are not walking in truth. Through the elect lady’s too indiscriminate hospitality, some of her children have been seduced by the deceivers who have come to her bringing another doctrine than that of Christ being fully God and fully man.”

It was that word “seduced,” that caught my attention. This is the most effective tool of deception. It’s not just a lie. It’s a carefully constructed process that lures people, wanting to believe something so badly, they are carried away with it – thus seduced.

When generational transitions happen in this transfer of truth, some will believe and live it – others will not. Even with this extremely powerful word called love operating in our soul – it can happen. We can wander. We can be seduced by another. John uses the word “love” to make the point of what truth translates into… love. Then he gives a definition, “Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.” John defines an aspect of love as obedience to what God has commanded. One of those commandments came from Jesus himself – “love one another.” Love wasn’t spelled out specifically in the big 10 commandments list.

Back to truth and seduction. What happens when truth and real love is just not sexy enough to hold our attention? What if someone, something comes along and subtly suggests that God is not telling us everything, you know, keeping a few things from us? And this deceit comes along, convincing us and carrying us away with a “better” truth, somehow a more appealing kind of love. This deception is so smooth, so deep that it can even persuade the most spiritual person who for one moment takes their eyes off Jesus and turns to find out what this “real” truth, this other love looks like.

John gives us the very difficult and sad news, children of the great lady (the church) can be deceived. So John adds this, “Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.” John uses a very strong word to describe this word lose. It’s the word “apollumi” – to utterly destroy. People wander. They can be seduced. And, they can lose what they had worked hard to achieve. I don’t know if this refers specifically to “salvation” he speaks of losing, because it wasn’t earned or worked for. What is he referring to? Spiritual maturity? Growth in Christ? That seems more likely. The truth traded in this example is that Jesus wasn’t really a human. But, there are other truths that we wander or are seduced away from. Currently, people have been seduced by other definitions of love, life, sexuality and even gender, even to the point of twisting God’s own Word and character.

Prayer

Dad,
These deceptions and seductions are no longer just prevalent in culture, which is to be expected. They are divisively, insidiously supplanted in the “Great Lady’s” gathering – the Church. Now we are finding ourselves fighting a spiritual war over the definition of love within and without the community of faith. This is far above our ability or understanding to resolve. We need you to supernaturally intervene with your mercy, grace and power. This is my prayer. Visit us once again. Pour out your spirit on our country, our communities.