NO POLITE CONVERSATIONS WITH SNAKES
Revelation 12:9 tells us: “And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world.” He uses deception and trickery to take good people down the wrong
road. The first place we see his sly ways is in Genesis, with Eve.
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, ‘Yea, hath God
said, ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Gen. 3:1). The serpent
tries to get the woman to question what God said. The serpent knew perfectly
well that God said there was only one tree they shouldn’t eat of.
It wasn’t that God was never going to let them eat of it;
it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we see later, they just
weren’t prepared for that knowledge yet. But the serpent was doing his best to
make it seem like God wasn’t quite as wonderful as Eve thought He was. The
devil was trying to bend her thinking.
What did Eve do with Satan’s sly question? She responded;
First Big mistake! She actually didn’t have to respond at all. She could have
just told the serpent she wasn’t going to talk to him.
When I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, one of my
jobs was acting secretary for the financial minister of the Witwatersrand
University. My duties included answering his phone calls. I was to tell
everyone that he would not be taking calls for the next three months, but I
could take their number if they’d like to leave one. I was shocked! He was
right there in the office, but he wasn’t going to take any phone calls for
three months?! Before this, I never even thought anyone could dare to do such a
thing. I grew to think it was pretty awesome.
When I quit the religious group I was ordained under,
they sent me several letters. I read the first one, but after that, I threw
away all the rest, unopened. I knew my decision to leave was the right one for
me, so I didn’t need to see anything they had to say in the letters.
In 2 Kings, the evil king Sennacherib wanted to capture
Judah. He sent a messenger to badger the people with words to make them respond
first, then be afraid and give up. But King Hezekiah, head of the Israelites,
had been given revelation and already told the people, “Answer him not” (v.
36). And they didn’t, and Sennacherib was unable to take any of the cities. Eve
should have been more like the people under Hezekiah’s care.
How many times has someone asked you a stupid question
and instead of telling them you aren’t going to talk to them, you get into a
ridiculous conversation that goes absolutely nowhere, or worse, you get into a
heated argument?
When the Apostle Paul gave instructions to Timothy on how
to be a better minister for the Lord, he says, “But foolish and unlearned
questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the
Lord must not strive” (2 Tim. 2:23-24). I just love that. Jesus doesn’t want us
to get into foolish arguments.
We have the Spirit of the Lord in us. You and I both know
when someone is asking a stupid question, or one that is intended to start up
an argument. Is it really worth it? The answer is, “only if the Lord tells you
to go for it.”
We don’t have to have a polite conversation with a snake.
We have Holy Spirit in us and we are spiritually smart enough to discern when
it’s not wise to respond.
Love, Carolyn
WINGS: A Journey in Faith from the Earthly to the
Heavenly – an awesome spiritual adventure and great interactive
workbook. Find it on Amazon in printed form or Kindle.
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