Snake on a Stick
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These two leaders can also be said to
represent the trees in the Garden of
Eden. Jesus was to the tree of life,
and the devil, in the form of the
demoniac, was the tree of death.
These two trees put out different
kinds of fruit. Eating from
Jesus’ tree, we fill our lives
with God’s plan and take on the
mind of Jesus. We walk in His steps,
do His good works, and enjoy
“the fruit of the Spirit [which
are] love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control”
(Galatians 5:22, 23; see also
Philippians 2:5; John 20:21; 1 Peter
2:21; 1 John 2:6).
However, eating from the devil’s
tree, we are filled with
“adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatred, contentions,
jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness,
revelries, and the like, of which I
tell you beforehand, just as I also
told you in times past, that those
who practice such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God”
(Galatians 5:19, 20). The madman
modeled perfectly this destructive
plan of the devil.
What fighter will you back? What
pictures do you want to look at? What
tree will you eat from? If we choose
the right one, we are promised that
we will speak to God face to face and
see him eye to eye.
The Sin of the Devil
Is Our Own
A man from the town of Grand
Forks, North Dakota, traveled to
Fargo to rob the First Community
Bank. He scribbled a note demanding
money and gave it to the teller.
Frightened, she gave the man what he
asked for and watched him run out the
door. Police searches of the
surrounding area turned up nothing.
However, upon reviewing the
robber’s note, the police
discovered he had written his note on
his bank deposit slip, which of
course had his name and address! The
police arrested the robber on his own
front porch.
Sin makes us do crazy things and, let
us face it, some dumb things too. I
once saw a bumper sticker that read,
“Insanity is hereditary-you get
it from your children.” In
reality, we are all born with the
seeds of insanity. I was once told
that people in psychiatric hospitals
use the words I, me, my, mine, and
myself ten times more frequently
than those who are considered sane.
It is a practical illustration that
selfishness and sin breed insanity.
It so happens that the Bible also
teaches us about the only antidote:
“The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom: a good
understanding have all those who do
His commandments” (Psalm
111:10).
There is little doubt that this
demoniac was not born in the depraved
condition in which we found him, so
naturally we have to wonder,
“How did this man get this
way?” The story of King
Nebuchadnezzar, found in Daniel 5,
contains one clue. Unrestrained pride
and sensuality led the Babylonian
monarch to a state of animalistic
insanity.
Pride, of course, was the sin that
led to the devil’s fall. It is
an attitude that accompanies almost
every other sin too. We find it also
in the story of King Saul. It
ultimately led him to a brooding
demonic depression.
The state of Illinois gets it name
from an Indian word that means
“tribe of superior men.” I
do not imagine that present day
residents of that state ordinarily
boast of themselves as superior, but
throughout history, many have
regarded themselves superior to
others. One of the worst examples, of
course, comes from Nazi Germany,
where Hitler taught that the Aryan
Germans and related peoples were a
superior race. Here is an instance in
which the spirit of pride led an
entire nation into beastlike sin.
The Bible urges us not to think more
highly of ourselves than we ought. It
also asks that we honor others above
ourselves (see Romans 12:10).
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better to be of a humble spirit with
a lowly, than to divide the spoil
with the proud” (Proverbs 16:
18,19).
The devil is not impersonal, like a
statue. Rather, he is passionate
antithesis of all that God is. While
Jesus is meek and humble, pride has
driven Satan to a rage. While God is
selfless love, the devil is
unadulterated selfishness. Jesus is
the way, the truth, and the life; the
devil is a liar, and his ways leads
to death. That is why his actions are
everything that God would never do,
and that is why he resorts to some
nasty tricks.
Indeed, you might have heard the
story of the unscrupulous lawyer who
asked the defendant in the courtroom,
“have you stopped beating your
wife?” No matter how the accused
answers, he will be guilty.
Similarly, Satan is a master at
superimposing his own sick
characteristics upon the Lord. When a
natural disaster strikes, insurance
companies call it an “act of
God.” However, the book of Job
teaches that Satan has the power to
cause natural disasters.
In the very worst cases, when people
see innocent children suffer, they
react by shaking their fists at God
and calling Him a sadist. The demons
in our story reacted this way. They
said, “What have I to do with
You, Jesus, Son of the Most High? I
implore You by God that You do not torment
me” (Mark 5:7, emphasis
supplied). If we really want to
understand God’s character, all
we have to do is to look at the
person of Jesus. He said, “He
who has seen Me has seen the
Father” (John 14:9). By looking
at Him, His humble ways, we will more
often deny those selfish passions
that draw us to the path of the
devil-that path that opens us up to
his influence and possession.
Demon Possession in
Three Easy Steps
The subjects of devils and demon
possession seem fantastic and
superstitious to
“sophisticated,” modern-day
Americans. These days, even the most
fundamental Christians are inclined
to relegate demonic activity to pagan
lands and missionary experiences, or
to pass it off as a mental
disturbance poorly diagnosed by some
religious zealot. *
However, Bible-believing Christians
have always accepted the notions of
demons and their worldwide
activity-New Testament offers ample
examples. For instance, John 13:27
says of Judas, “Satan entered
him.” Even a supernatural
acceptance of the Bible will compel
you to see the reality of demoniac
activity.
Before moving on, we should probably
also understand that there is a big
difference between demon possession
and demon harassment.
Everybody’s tempted or harassed
by the devil. If you do not think you
are ever tempted by the devil, it is
likely that you are nearly possessed.
Only those who are swimming against
the current feel the pull of the
river. Of course, it is not a sin to
be tempted; we sin only when we
surrender to temptation.
There is little likelihood that we
can attribute the deplorable
condition of the crazed man in our
story to anything but demon
possession. How can he become
possessed? Contrary to what Rosemary’s
Baby portrayed, children are not
typically born demon possessed. It is
also not likely that the demoniac
woke up one day and announced,
“Hey, I’d like to be demon
possessed!” And he probably did
not “come down” with it
quickly, as happens with the flu or
measles.
Quite the opposite, the devil moves
in very slowly and quietly until he
can take complete control of his
prey-he is the camel working his nose
into the tent. As S.D. Gordon opined,
“It is startling to think that
Satan can actually come into the
heart of a man in such close touch
with Jesus as Judas was. And more-he
is cunningly trying to do it today.
Yet he can get in only through a door
opened from the inside. Every man
controls the door of his own
life.” *
At some time this man made a
conscious decision to be free-not
from evil, but from God’s
influence. He is likely ached to be
free from the restrictions and
responsibilities of life. He wanted
to be free to do what he wanted to
do. Satan often uses the idea of
being “one’s own
person” and doing
“one’s own thing” to
tempt people into sin. They want to
“be free!”
However,
the truth is that when we surrender
to sin, we lose control. So, in one
sense, the demoniac did become free
any human restraint could hold him.
He was no longer bound by social
conventions that told him how to
dress or how to behave. He was free
from social obligations, because
society no longer wanted him. He
became totally free. However, his
freedom cost him more than he could
have ever imagined. Sin became his
cruel master.
*It is true that there have been many
cases of people who have had medical
conditions, such as epilepsy, who
were falsely accused of being
demon-possessed. However, there also
might be far more cases of the people
who are demon-possessed whose bizarre
behavior is seen as medically
solvable-often with the result that
the demoniac is medicated into a
complacent stupor.
*S.D. Gordon, “The Bent-Knee
Time,” Christianity Today,
vol. 33, no. 10.
Do you know that to whom you present
yourselves slaves to obey, you are
that one’s slaves whom you obey,
whether of sin leading to death, or
of obedience leading to
righteousness? But God be thanked
that though you were slaves to sin,
yet you obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine to which you were
delivered. And having been set free
from sin, you became slaves of
righteousness (Romans 6:16-18).
Thomas Brooks said, “Satan
promises the best, but pays with the
worst; he promises honor and pays
with disgrace; he promises pleasure
and pays with pain; he promises
profit and pays with loss; he
promises life and pays with
death.”
Satan
cannot possess us without our help.
Demon possession generally takes hold
when people through long and
continued submission to the
devil’s suggestions, lose nearly
all of their will and capacity to
resist. Their will is no longer their
own, just as the madman in manacles
was not his own.
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