When the Devil doesn't know, which way you'll go: you become the first enemy (selah). Discuss.

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Gottservant

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Oct 19, 2022
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Hi there,

So this is a simple bit of wisdom, that I just want to tease apart a little, and see what it means:
When the Devil doesn't know, which way you'll go: you become the first enemy (selah)

The Lord struggled with this, always telling people not to talk about Him, asking His Disciples to wait for His resurrection before they told people about what they had seen (from memory, the gospels). When you think about it from the perspective of the Devil, that makes sense: you don't want the Devil deciding that you are enemy number one - if the clarity of the gospel is going to be targeted and harmed. This is something that you have to use the shield of faith for. The time will come when the Devil decides to attack you, on the basis of your faith, but if you have waited before revealing it, then you will not be moved by his attack - this is the point, we are to be unmoved, by the Devil's sin.

In a sense, Jesus crucified Himself, in the place of "enemy number one", rather than let the Devil get away with saying that the Lord was double minded, about the cross. If Jesus had been double minded about the cross, that would be "not good", right? So we have a situation, where we need to make way for the cross, but not in a way that invites scorn, for us and those with us. Even Christian fathers have struggled with this, setting out an example of laying their lives down for death, that there be no mistaking the gospel that inspired them. And the gospel should inspire us, I am just saying it is wiser, to show more cunning than this - which the Lord demonstrated.

The power to overcome, comes through the cross, but not just that, but in the way of the cross. Jesus left Himself last, on the cross, not because He wanted to change the cross, but precisely because He wanted to embrace it. This was the embrace that was prophecied (in the OT), a way of encountering the cross, that does not cause one to lose faith, lose heart. God did not require the cross, of Jesus; rather Jesus laid down His life, once and for all, not more and more as more were added to its audience, only. The Devil had no way to escape, that he himself was coming to be known as the enemy, he accused others of being! There is reckoning in this, too, because there is time for the Devil to mend his ways, not to remove the possibility of sin, but to remove the unnecessary retreat to sin, as sin was sin. In other words, it forces the Devil, to openly declare what it is that is most an obstacle in sin yet. If we know sin is an obstacle - we can overcome it!

Trust the Holy Spirit, in this, and you will see what I am saying. I am not trying to catch the Devil, I am not refusing to resist any but the last sin - I am just saying, it pays to know what the Devil is accusing you of and why.

God grant you wisdom.