The world allures us.
Flesh betrays us. But neither worldly attraction nor physical desire require an active intelligence operating behind the scenes. I tend to think Christians
who blame Satan and his scheming agents for every bad choice they have made are
probably ascribing to the powers of darkness a greater level of interest in their
personal affairs than is really the case. In our fallen world, it is likely that
most of our failures are a combination of our own inclination to self-destruct and the detritus of lives that have done so already.
But not always.
On their way to
Canaan, Israel settled temporarily in conquered Amorite territory. It was here that attractive Midianite and Moabite women began to sexually entice Israelite men into participating in the worship of
Baal and other false gods.
Now bear in mind that
the Midianites were descendants of Abraham via his second wife, Keturah, and the Moabites were descendants of Abraham’s relative Lot. These nations were not Canaanites devoted to destruction, but genetically close
to Israel. Perhaps this provided convenient cover for Israelite men taking up
with their women.
Rationalization Hamsters, Go!
Further, bear in mind
that to a man, nothing about an attractive woman taking an interest in him (distant
relative or no) actually screams conspiracy; though if it did, our rationalization
hamsters would likely go into wheel-spinning overdrive to drown out the cognitive dissonance. We like to delude ourselves that all interest women
may express in us is entirely genuine, to be expected and, of course, totally
non-agenda-driven.
Anyway, if all we had
to read of this story is the few verses of original narrative in Numbers, we
might be inclined to think everything that happened was rather natural: you
know, men being men and women being women.
Not so, but it took
God to bring the truth out.
Harassed With Their Wiles
He explicitly tells Moses:
“Harass the Midianites and strike them down, for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor.”
Sorry Israelite men, you’re not that attractive after all. The whole thing was a con. These women were sent to do a job.
Later, the intelligence behind the scenes
is made even more explicit. Moses is angry with his army commanders for
disobeying orders. He says:
“Have you let all the women live? Behold,these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.”
As it turns out, what
might have seemed like a perfectly natural occurrence to Israel was actually the
product of an active intelligence working against their best interests. There
was an enemy behind the scenes. Maybe this should have been obvious once idolatry
became a part of the package. No amount of rationalization should have been able
to make that seem like a good idea.
The Roaring Lion Prowls
A similar dynamic is
at work in the experience of the Christian. Despite his power, we have no
indication in scripture that the devil is omnipresent. Still, from time to time
Satan takes a very direct and personal interest in derailing
the faith of those who seek to follow the Lord Jesus. “Your adversary the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” says Peter. Paul reminds us to put on the whole armor of God “that you may be
able to stand against the schemes of the devil”. There are definitely occasions when Satan or his minions are actively engaged
with each one of us, and all the more so when we are seeking with all our
hearts to obey the Lord.
But such occasions are
not obvious. The spiritual battle is an invisible one. The roaring lion does
not come with a convenient neon arrow to point him out.
More likely he will show up
looking like a golden opportunity ... or maybe even an attractive woman.
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