William Congreve said, “If I were a painter I would draw the devil like an
idiot, a driveller with a bib and bells.” All I can say to that is that I am glad he
is not a painter, for he would only serve the devil’s cause by painting him as a
driveling idiot. I agree with Thomas Lodge who said, “Devil’s are not so black
as they are painted.” The Bible pictures Satan as extremely capable, and
never as a mere dunce only good for laughs. Satan would be delighted if we
thought of him as an idiot, for this would give him another advantage in his
perpetual plot to deceive. Degrade the devil and you deceive yourself. This
does not mean we are to exalt the devil, but we are to recognize the facts about
his capabilities and subtlety.
We can no more follow the devil is dead nonsense then we can the God is
dead nonsense. It is true that he is a defeated foe, and those in Christ can
resist him and make him flea in retreat, but it is also true that if we are
dreaming that the devil is a dimwitted demon devoid of dynamic deceptive
ability, we are asleep to reality. We can only defeat him and escape his subtle
deception by being fully aware of his abilities. This will drive us to
dependence upon Christ whose guidance and wisdom can outwit the subtle
serpent.
Satan would like us to have our guard down, and have the attitude toward
him as expressed by the 17th century poet Dryden toward a certain Shadwell.
He wrote-
The rest to some faint meaning make pretense,
But Shadwell never deviates into sense.
Some beams of wit on other souls may fall,
Strike through and make a lucid interval;
But Shadwell’s genuine night admits no ray,
His rising fog prevails against the day.
This is the way Congreve wanted to paint Satan, but it is a great mistake,
for as long as men think of Satan as stupid, ugly and repulsive they will never
recognize him. It is this negative attitude that has cause many to doubt his
very existence, for they never confront him in that image. If you picture Satan
as the subtle serpent that he is, however, then you can see his trail winding all
through history. If you recognize his ability to become an angel of light, and
recognize, as the temptation of Christ reveals, and as Shakespeare said, “The
devil can quote Scripture for his purpose,” then you can see his subtle
slithering even among the very elect. In other words, the first step in
recognizing the reality of Satan is to become aware of his amazing abilities.
Heine tells us in poetry of his surprise at discovering the real nature of Satan:
I call’d the devil, and he came, and with wonder his form did I closely scan;
He is not ugly, and is not lame, but really a handsome and charming man.
A man in the prime of life is the devil, obliging, a man of the world, and civil,
A diplomatist too, well skilled in debate, he talks quite glibly of church and
state.
The Christian must forget tradition and art, and build his concept of Satan
on the only reliable source of information, and that is the Bible. It is obvious
that Shakespeare knew the biblical view, for he wrote, “The prince of darkness
is a gentleman.” A Dutch proverb also catches the biblical image-“Never was
hood so holy but the devil could get his head in it.” I am convinced that the
reason God has preserved the account of the fall of Adam and Eve is that so all
who follow His Word might be fully aware of the cunning enemy that seeks
their downfall. The most practical value we can get from the study of the fall
is awareness of the methods of Satanic deception. We want to see how he
succeeds so that by not being ignorant of his devices we can counter his attack
with the wisdom of Christ, and so stand where others have fallen. The first
thing we see is-
THE SUBTLETY OF HIS APPROACH.
One of the ideas in the definition of subtlety is the ability to make fine
distinctions. We see it here in Satan’s choice of approaching the woman
rather than the man. It is just good sense to strike at the weakest point. By
this I do not mean that Eve was the weaker sex, for that is irrelevant, for
strength has nothing to do with this temptation. Eve was the weakest point
simply because she had been in existence only a matter of hours. She had far
less knowledge and experience than Adam. Even the command from God not
to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil came to her second hand
through Adam. These might seem like minor points, but Satan must have
thought them to be significant. So did Luther, and he gives full credit to
Satan’s wisdom in choosing to approach the woman. He said, “I believe that
had Satan first tempted the man, Adam would have gained the victory.” We
can never be sure of this, but we know that Satan made the wisest choice from
his point of view, for he succeeded.
The fact that Satan approached by a talking serpent sounds quite far
fetched to our modern ears, but nothing could have been more appropriate for
the circumstances. Let us not read our experience back into Eden, for there is
no comparison. The devil would never attempt to tempt anyone today in such
a manner, for he is not so stupid as to think he could get anywhere that way.
If a snake spoke to any woman today, it is highly unlikely she would reply with
anything but a scream and a burst of speed in the opposite direction. Eve,
however, stood and talked to it calmly, but why shouldn’t she? As we said, she
had only been alive a matter of hours, and there was nothing unusual about a
talking serpent. There was noting unusual about anything. How could there
be? She did not even know of any such distinction between what was usual or
unusual. She only knew what was.
If any animal, or even a tree, would have spoken it could hardly have been
a shock. This is why it seems so strange to us. We know serpents don’t talk,
and if Eve would have known it, she would have thought it to be fantastic too.
This just demonstrates the subtlety of Satan, for he would not likely have been
able to fool Adam. He had been around longer and had contact with all the
animals of the garden. A speaking serpent would have aroused his suspicion
immediately, and Satan would have gotten nowhere. Therefore, he
approaches the one who was most innocent, and took full advantage of Eve’s
limited experience. You can be sure he has not forsaken a method that was so
successful. He continues to strike at the weak points. When Satan tempted
Christ he struck at the most opportune time, and he directed his appeal to the
weakest points.
Jesus had been fasting for 40 days, and at this point the strongest desire of
His body would be for food, and that is why Satan suggested that He turn a
stone into bread. Let us never think that Satan is against us fulfilling our
desires and ambitions. He is not only for us succeeding, but he will suggest
many ideas to help us succeed. He knew Jesus wanted to win people to
Himself, and so he encouraged Jesus to jump off the temple and thereby bring
a flock of people to Him. He knew Jesus came to regain the lost world, and so
he offered it all to Him if He would bow down and worship Satan. He knew
Eve would want to get all the knowledge she could and be as great as possible,
and he was willing cooperate and see that she got it. He knows that all of us
desire some degree of importance. He knows we long for power, possessions
and popularity. He knows that we can count on him for giving suggestions for
success. The catch, of course, is that he does not tell you the consequences of
being successful by his methods.
The anticipated sweetness of following Satan’s suggestion turns to
bitterness in the actual experience, for we soon recognize that the cost is the
loss of God’s favor. It is extremely important that we recognize our weak
points, for you can be sure that Satan does, and it will be there that he will
apply pressure. Everyone has a weak spot. The fool and the wise man both
have this in common, but the difference is that the wise man sets a double
guard at that point, while the fool leaves it unguarded all together. A
Christian needs to know himself and recognize his weaknesses. He needs to
recognize that it is where he is ignorant, or where he has his greatest ambition,
that Satan will make his approach.
A wise New England farmer knew his weak spot, for he said, “Whenever I
say the Lord’s Prayer I add ‘don’t let a five thousand dollar temptation come
my way.’” He was honest enough to know where he could fall, and so he knew
where to keep guard. So often people dismiss their weaknesses as if they were
not accountable for falling where they are weak. But Milton put it well when
he said, “If weakness may excuse what murderer, what traitor, parricide,
incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? All wickedness is weakness; that
plea, therefore, with God or man will gain thee no remission.” We are
responsible for our weakness, and since we see Satan is subtle in his approach,
and will surely strike at the weakest point, we have an obligation to know what
our weak point is, and make full use of God’s provision to guard it well. Eve
did not have the advantage we have of knowing this. She was altogether
ignorant of the existence of the subtle deceiver, and so her guilt is less than
ours if we too are ensnared by his subtle approach. The next thing we see is-
THE SUBTLETY OF HIS ATTACK.
We have seen how he approaches in such a way as to make sure there are
no barriers set up between him and the victim. Now we need to see how he
attacks the Word of God in such a way as to bring a barrier between the
victim and God. He begins with a question and asks, “Has God said you shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?” He is expressing surprise that they would
think God has really forbidden them to eat of any tree. “You certainly must
be kidding to say God has imposed some limitation on your freedom.” This is
subtle attempt to break down respect for the command of God. It is a very
common and successful method of creating rebellion.
A young person, for example, is given orders not to go to the mall after
school, but to get right home. His companion wants him to go, however, and is
not interested in parent-child relationships. So he seeks to shake the youths
respect for his parents command. He says, “Don’t tell me your old man said
you couldn’t go to the mall, just like you were a baby or something, you must
be kidding, aren’t you?” This makes one wonder if the command is somehow
unjust. It puts doubt in the mind as to whether it is legitimate and worthy of
respect and obedience.
This was Satan’s purpose to create some doubt as to God’s goodness.
Another aspect of the subtlety of his attack with this question is that it
centered Eve’s attention on the forbidden. If Satan can get you to concentrate
on the forbidden his chances are good of getting you to experiment with it. He
is only doing what any smart salesman does. They know you have to get your
product before the people and get them to thinking about it in order to have
any hope of getting them to use it. Eve probably would never have thought
about the forbidden tree if Satan had just carried on a general conversation.
But he knew how a simple question to direct a conversation toward the
forbidden could capture her interest.
We can learn even from the devil and fulfill the command to be as wise as
a serpent. Satan’s method of leading men to evil work as well in leading them
to concentrate on Christ and that which is good. Each of us who wants to be
an effective witness for Christ must learn how to ask questions in such a way
so as to lead men's thoughts to concentration on spiritual matters. If you can
get people to think about anything, their curiosity often leads them to pursue
it. This works both for good and evil. Someone said, “Too much curiosity lost
paradise.” This could well be true, for as Burke said, “The first and simplest
emotion we discover in the human mind is curiosity.”
Satan knew that if he could get Eve’s mind on the forbidden fruit it would
be like getting a child’s mind on a freshly frosted cake. There is bound to be
some kind of action, and the chances are that it will be in favor of an evil
action rather than a good one. Rev. Harold E. Kohn has written about the
power of curiosity. He told the story of the severe tough-minded woman who
called the county sheriff and complained about several boys who were
swimming in the nude in a stream, which she could see from her porch. It was
a disgrace she claimed, and she demanded he put a stop to it. The sheriff told
the boys to move up stream, and they did. A few days later the woman called
again and the sheriff asked, “Haven’t they moved up stream yet?” “Yes they
have,” she said, “But if I go upstairs I can still them from my bedroom
window.” This, of course was silly, but it is no laughing matter when Satan
can get us to be curious about the forbidden. The compulsive power of
curiosity led Eve to fall, and through history has done more damage than just
killing the cat, as the proverb tells us.
It is the responsibility of each of us to constantly examine ourselves in the
light of what we know in Satan’s subtle approach in aiming at our weak
points, and in his subtle attack of creating doubt about God’s commands, and
in his stimulating curiosity toward the forbidden. Pride goes before fall, and
the worse pride is that of thinking we can outwit the subtle serpent on our
own. The more we learn of satanic subtlety, the more we ought to commit our
lives to Christ and let His mind and Spirit guide us.
