Recently, in staff worship, we read this passage:
“The history of the past shows an active, working devil. He can no more be idle than harmless.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, 504
Who could imagine for a single moment that the devil could be harmless? Or idle?
Most people are happy that life goes along smoothly with no real trouble or hardship. But I think that’s the time we should take the closest look at our spiritual condition. The devil is satisfied when we go along through life thinking that we are in pretty good shape spiritually when, in reality, we do not see ourselves for who and what we are—sinful, selfish, in desperate need of saving.
“Satan was found in only one tree to endanger the safety of Adam and Eve. He planned to attract the holy pair to that one tree, that they might do the very thing God had said they should not do—eat of the tree of knowledge. There was no danger to them in approaching any other tree. How plausible his speech! He laid hold of the very arguments which he uses today—flattery, envy, distrust, questioning, and unbelief. If Satan was so cunning at first, what must he be now after gaining an experience of many thousands of years? Yet God and holy angels, and all those who abide in obedience to all the Lord’s expressed will, are wiser than he. The subtlety of Satan will not decrease, but the wisdom given to men through a living connection with the Source of all light and divine knowledge will be proportionate to his arts and wiles.” Ibid., 504
Knowledge. Knowing is a good thing most of the time. But I think we can all agree that the knowledge Eve achieved that day in the garden, standing under that tree, listening to that lilting voice filled with feigned concern and insidious persuasion, is a knowledge none of us needed; certainly not the knowledge God had intended for us.
“If men would stand the test which Adam failed to endure, and would, in the strength of Jesus, obey all the requirements of God, because they are righteousness, then they would never become acquainted with the objectionable knowledge. God never designed that men should have this knowledge which comes of disobedience, and which, carried into practice, ends in eternal death. When men almost invariably choose the knowledge that Satan presents; when their taste is so perverted that it craves that knowledge as though it were a fountain of supreme wisdom, then they give evidence that they are separated from God and are in rebellion against Christ.” Ibid., 504, 505
Is it any wonder that our God, His Son, the Holy Spirit, and the angels of heaven never sleep?
“Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper … . The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Psalm 121:4, 5, first part, 7, 8