Watching Dana Carvey as The Church Lady on Saturday Night Live, I laughed at the little old lady that saw Satan around every corner exclaiming in a whining, nasal tone, “Could it be…Satan?” Like most of the audience, I believed Satan was only a funny, little ineffectual bad spirit. Due to my upbringing, I never denied that he was real. My upbringing was grounded in the Bible enough to admit that there was an adversary. But it also minimized this to the point that he was only spoken of in jokes.
Satan goes by many names. The Devil, the Adversary, the Enemy, the Darkness, the Author of Lies, and the Deceiver are just a few. The first time I realized that the enemy wasn’t just a little voice sitting on my shoulder giving me bad suggestions, I was relieved. I was relieved that he was so much more evil, powerful and active in the world and my life than what I once thought. Why on earth would this be a relief? Wouldn’t this be scary? Isn’t the reason we hesitate to tell children much about Satan, because we don’t want to scare the poor little guys?
This world IS an evil and scary place. It is immediately obvious from our first peek at the cold cruel world from outside our mother’s womb. So from the beginning of our lives, we already know the pain of evil, the heartbreak that happens when a loved one leaves, the feeling of hunger, and the difficulty of getting along with others. But we don’t know the explanation for it. For me, it is much more comforting to understand where something bad is coming from. If the monster is under the bed, at least I don’t have to worry about that closet! When evil goes unexplained it looms larger than life causing even more fear. If there is no source of evil at work in this world, so many things can’t be explained or are blamed wrongly on a blameless God. (The later is a pet peeve of mine.) So understanding the enemy helps me understand the source of constant tension in this world.
Ephesians 6:11-12 [NIV] Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
This passage confirms that we live in a dark and spiritual world. In fact, the correct perspective is that we are spiritual beings caught in a natural world full of evil. It also confirms that the source of evil is the opposition to God. But if God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he kick that bad angel down to where he belongs? I know the following explanation is oversimplified and full of holes but here is my answer to this question.
As a girl growing up in the 1960’s, I played with dolls non-stop. But I can remember that as much as I loved controlling the lives of those dolls, I would have given anything if they would have, just once, had a voice and choice of their own. How great would it have been if just once my Barbie would have complained about her outfit I selected for her? However, I would drop those dolls in a heartbeat to play with a real baby that I didn’t control and manipulate, one that could choose to love me.
This, to me, is the best way to explain why God let his created humans have a voice and a choice. Isn’t having a choice the very definition of freedom? If our choices are removed, we become enslaved. Freedom was God’s gift to us. He created us, the objects of His intense love, and allowed us to choose. The funny thing is, if there was no bad verses God’s good, there was no choice and no freedom. Couldn’t he just have given us a choice like vanilla vs. chocolate? First of all, vanilla and chocolate are both from God so that is not a legit choice. The only choice God could give us is to choose his light vs. darkness because darkness is the world without God’s light. Just let that sink in a minute! God gave us a voice and a choice because He wanted to be chosen and truly loved and not just obeyed like a mindless robot.
And what did we choose? Right out of the box, the first humans chose the lies of evil. Humans chose to keep this adversary around and we continue to make this choice daily. Humans were created by God for God, but chose to listen to the enemy because we were free to do so. When we see a beautiful sunset, a perfect newborn baby or feel the hug of a loving friend, that is authored by God. When we see COVID-19, when we feel rejected, when we deal with cancer and death, that is the temporary evil of this world.
The good news is that God didn’t leave us stuck with our choices and no way out. God is a God of second chances. He created a path out of this evil world and sent messengers to point the way. It is a simple choice but involves admitting our helplessness, letting go of our sinful ways and pursuing Him. Someday, for those of us who chose this path, the enemy with all the pain, suffering, disease and death, will be defeated. But until then, I will continue daily to choose God…
2 Timothy 1:12 [NIV] because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
