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Satan’s Stealthy Work, June 20
2 Samuel 11
For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations
and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that
controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters
of evil.
Ephesians 6:12
, Phillips.
The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space is given to recounting
the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This silence is not without
purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that men possess are
the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through
Christ. Since they owe all to God the glory of whatever they are or do belongs
to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands. More than this—as all the
lessons of Bible history teach—it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men; for if
one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own
strength, he is sure to fall....
It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and
whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to
self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the
Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine
power.
It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way
for David’s fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were
not without effect upon him. Intercourse with surrounding nations also exerted
an influence for evil. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers,
crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch
was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All
this tended to lessen David’s sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And
instead of relying in humility upon the power of Jehovah, he began to trust to
his own wisdom and might.
As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength,
he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of man’s carnal nature. The work of
the enemy is not abrupt; it is not, at the outset, sudden and startling; it is a secret
undermining of the strongholds of principle
[178]
36
Ibid., 717, 718
.
183