The first words of the devil in the Bible were, "Did God really say..." (Bereshit / Genesis 3:1). This captures the essence of Satan's primary tactic against God, his purposes, and his people: opposing, challenging, and contradicting God's word.
It should not surprise us, then, when several times each and every day, we are challenged in this same way. From the temptations we deal with in our own hearts and minds, to the manipulations of the advertising world, to the lure of affluence, to the philosophies of modern educators and writers, one way or another we hear these words echoed: "Did God really say?"
The only way to stand again this incessant barrage is to truly know God's Word for ourselves. When Satan tempted the Messiah, even through the misuse of Scripture, Yeshua effectively resisted him by quoting the Bible correctly.
Unless we truly know the Scriptures, we are at risk of falling for the devil's schemes. It is not good enough to be able to quote a list of disjointed Bible verses or to solely rely on the interpretations of others. To stand firmly in the midst of the spiritual battle we are in, we need to know the Bible for ourselves. And only possessing a superficial knowledge of the Scriptures is not much better than not knowing them at all. Simply having a little bit of Bible understanding is not going to do much good when Satan uses the Scriptures against us.
Unless we - both personally and corporately - ground ourselves firmly in the Scriptures, we will not know how to answer the challenge, "Did God really say?"
No comments:
Post a Comment