Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him … -- 1 Peter 5:8-9
It irritates me to give the devil his due, to recognize that evil is capable of overcoming good if good does nothing – and especially if good underestimates evil. It also irritates me a little to have to deviate from my planned series of posts, but a blogger’s got to do what a blogger’s got to do, and there’s nothing like reading the wrong books to throw a wrench in the works.
I think the resistance to acknowledging evil’s power arises from a sense that evil is stupid. When I do something bad, I usually think of myself as having “done something dumb”. I think that helps me minimize my culpability, if you know what I mean. It’s my cloak of stupidity. I suppose, then, I have a tendency to project this idea of stupid evil onto others. We want to think the best of people so we assume they are just doing evil things out of a lack of knowledge. This is reinforced by stupid criminals – like the people who robbed a convenience store, fled on foot then came back for their car while the police were interviewing witnesses at the scene.
But not all criminals are caught, and some are caught only because of a minor blunder or perhaps being double-crossed by a confederate. Many criminals are quite intelligent, and many are very clever. It's the same with evil politicians. We should never have underestimated Bill Clinton’s intelligence just because he was a low-life, redneck scumsucker. We have put the Republic in danger by underestimating the intellectual power and cleverness of Barack Obama, his advisors, and fellow-travelers.
The devil, in whatever guise one chooses to think of him, is a real entity with incredible intelligence along with knowledgeable, malicious intent, and a degree of authority over the worldlings who either ignore him (the vast majority) or willingly collaborate with him (a small but potent minority). Those who follow the occult are not, as I am often inclined to characterize them, a group of deceived, goofy misfits with no power. There are some goofy followers to be sure, but there are among the occultists a few who are genuinely in touch with the rulers of the darkness of this world. There are “spiritual forces of evil in the heavens”.
In spite of all that, Peter does not tell us we should be afraid. He warns us to be sober – to take the threat seriously, to keep our guard up. James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But first you have to know there is a devil and that you are facing him.
I usually don’t refer to
Lonesome Dove, because, as near to the heart of Texans, adopted and native, as that mini-series is, I just dislike Larry McMurtry. I do respect, and appreciate his tremendous talent as a writer. Like him or not, though, he is such an artist that he cannot help but convey truth. The mythos of
Lonesome Dove is undeniable.
Gus and July ride into the bad guys’ camp to rescue Lorie leaving the three members of July’s party behind. The incompetent adult male, a girl, and a young boy are brutally murdered by Blue Duck. They lack the awareness and the vigilance to avoid or thwart the attack. Actually, it’s a funny thing about Blue Duck, though he purports to be such a deadly and vicious adversary, he seems to be very good at avoiding direct conflict with Gus -- the one person who appears to be both capable and alert enough to give him any trouble. At the river, when he rides up on Gus and Lorie before the kidnapping, he is reluctant to start a fight. When Gus pursues him, Blue Duck tries to use his minions to kill Gus rather than confront him himself. When Gus rides into the camp, Blue Duck is gone, sneaking around to prey on the weaker and more vulnerable. You might think that, for all his big talk, Blue Duck fears the aging Ranger.
For his part, Gus clearly is not afraid of Blue Duck, but he also understands the renegade is a formidable opponent. He does not look for a fight until he is forced into one. He goes against Blue Duck, not on his own behalf but for the sake of the innocent and the weak. Blue Duck’s intention at any point is simply to do as much damage as he can without facing anyone who might be his equal in a fight. As such, Blue Duck is very much a type of the devil.
The Adversary is capable of doing great damage. He prefers to work in darkness and shadows, by stealth, subterfuge, and back-stabbing. He will never expose himself in open combat with a child of God if he can avoid it. He likes to attack us via proxies. If we fail to stand up to him, he will run over us. He will steal, kill, and destroy as long as we deny, avoid, and retreat.
We need to acknowledge that we are in a fight whether we want to be in one or not. There may have been times when this was not true, but those times are past – if, indeed, they ever existed. I tend to think we got to where we are by living in denial. Taking the adversary seriously means we are sober and vigilant toward him. Since he prefers shadows, we can shine the light on him and expose him. That alone will weaken him and cause him to back off.
As He pronounces the Great Commission, Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He then gives us the authority to carry out His will as His chosen and commissioned ambassadors. We have ALL THE AUTHORITY WE NEED to thwart the devil and his plans.
We need to stand firm in faith. Here’s how Peter finishes the 9th verse – “Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world.” Don’t freak out and think God has abandoned you because you are having trouble. Stand up to whatever comes. Plant your feet on the truth:
This I know: God is for me (Psalm 56:9).
Recognize that the enemy is real, that he is effective, and that he knows what he is doing. He is smart, powerful, and utterly without mercy, decency, humility, shame or conscience, but he cannot defeat us if we stand up to him and face him down.
