By: Donna J. Kazenske
Have you ever been set up by the enemy? Have you ever given in to his demonic schemes and deceptive devices because of lack of spiritual perception and divine guidance? Well, don’t feel like the lone ranger, because all of us have succumbed to the enemy’s divisive plans at one time or other. However, the Lord desires that His people be trained and empowered by His Spirit to discern and walk in spiritual perception. It is not God’s will that we be ignorant of the enemy’s devices. The Lord desires His people to learn how to use the weapons that He has given to us so that we can demolish the enemy’s strongholds in our lives. There is no better time to learn than now, especially when it comes to learning battle strategies against the enemy. Time is short and our defenses must be built up in order to protect us from future assault and attacks. The Bible warns us that even the very elect can be deceived if they are not careful.
Isaiah 39:1-2 – At that time Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures – the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory – all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
Hezekiah was a godly king who lacked spiritual discernment and perception. In the Scripture verses above, we find him accepting a present from Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon. Now, at first glance, we might think that this was a great gesture on the part of Merodach Baladan; however, we must also understand that Babylon was not Hezekiah’s friend, but his enemy.
Sometimes our enemy can be very subtle in his attacks against us. He knows how to appeal to our flesh, and he knows how to write sweet letters of love and affection with wrong heart motives and plans of injustice. Be careful when your enemy embraces you with one arm and stabs you in the back with the other.
Christians should be exercising their spiritual senses on a daily basis just as men in the army do when they are being trained for battle. The church is in a war against spiritual darkness. If we don’t prepare ourselves now, there is a good possibility that we will lose the battle when it’s time for us to stand up and fight. How can we fight if we are not prepared to do so? How can we wage war in battle if we do not know how to use our weapons of war?
Hezekiah was pleased with the letters and the present given to him by Merodach Baladan. He was so pleased that he showed his enemy his entire house of treasures, including the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory. If there’s one thing that anyone in their right mind should know, it is the fact that we should not show our enemy our armory, our weapons of battle! Hezekiah found pleasure in showing everything that he had to his enemy. How could he do such a thing? What was he thinking?
I believe the church today is guilty of doing the very same thing that Hezekiah did. How many times have we shown the enemy our treasures or our sources of strength? Once the enemy finds out our source of strength, he will take it from us! Remember Sampson and Delilah? Delilah was a “gift” that was given to Sampson by the Philistines. The Philistines were his enemy! The gift appealed to his fleshly appetite. Delilah was used by the enemy as a seducer to find out where Sampson’s strength came from. She seduced him, deceived him, and eventually turned him over to the enemy for his destruction. Beware of what “gift” the enemy is attempting to give you. The gift may come wrapped in a beautiful package, but the body of Christ must have discernment and be able to determine beyond the natural, beyond the fleshly, into the realm of the Spirit. We should be able to discern who is giving the package and why it is being given.
The church today must be very careful in dealing with the enemy. We must not allow the enemy to overcome us by appeasing our flesh. We must be able to discern, by the Spirit, what he is up to and learn how to quickly stand against his destructive ploys. Christians must not be quick to give in to the enemy. We must not be so ignorant as to allow the enemy to come in and see all of our treasures or our sources of strength. Once the enemy sees what we have, he will then devise a way to take it from us. The enemy never gives something for nothing. He always wants something in return.
Isaiah 39:3-4 – Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.” And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
The prophet Isaiah now enters the scene asking Hezekiah some very direct questions. Thank God for the prophets! We need more prophets like John the Baptist and Isaiah who will speak the word in due season without watering it down! Isaiah began to question Hezekiah to get him thinking about this whole situation. I believe Isaiah was asking these questions to help Hezekiah perceive his wrongdoing; to open his eyes to see what he had actually done wrong. There’s been more than one occasion when one of my colleagues has asked me questions after I have made some unwise decisions. When I proceeded to respond to their questions, the lights came on in the house, and I finally realized my wrongdoing and was able to repent and make things right.
Isaiah 39:5 – Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord, ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”
What was Isaiah saying by the Spirit of the Lord? He was prophesying to Hezekiah what was going to happen to all of his treasures as a result of his little show-and-tell tour. The enemy was now going to come and rob Hezekiah of everything that he had openly exposed to him. Everything would be carried away to Babylon. Nothing would be left. When we give the enemy an inch, he will take a mile. The enemy is a conniver and a deceiver. He will do whatever it takes to get the people of God to come down to his level so that he can overcome them and rob from them what does not belong to him. He is not afraid of hurting our feelings. He is a murderer at heart and loves to destroy those who belong to Jesus.
We must learn from those whose lives are opened up to us in both the Old and New Testaments. Their failures and their victories have been placed in the Scriptures as examples for us to learn from. I pray that our eyes will be opened to the wicked schemes of the enemy. I pray that the Holy Spirit will empower us to prevail and not be ignorant of the enemy’s devices.
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