Imagine being a gourmet chef. Known for your grand reputation, you are asked to cook in a competition sponsored by the Food Network channel. The chef that you will be "cooking" against is revealed and, to your chagrin, he is a 7 year old! The competition: to make the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the world!
You’re feeling pretty smug as you straighten the tall, silly white hat on your head. As sure as your ego, you know you’ve got this competition in the “lunch”-bag. First, you spread peanut butter on toasted French bread and add a few dashes of cinnamon. Instead of the classic grape jelly, you drizzle honey and add a layer of quince jelly. Grape, after all, is too cliché and below a chef with skills like your own.
On the other hand, the little boy’s sandwich is simple with one twist: peanut butter and grape jelly on white bread. The boy’s secret ingredient is two handfuls of Goldfish between the slices of bread. To finish the sandwich, the boy smashes it until the Goldfish break and the jelly oozes over the crust-less bread. He serves it with a glass of cold milk.
It is time for judging. The judges reveal their scores…
The boy wins the competition!!! The judges laugh at you and say you need to learn from this kid. While kicking and screaming, having a bonafide meltdown, you hear the producer yelling for a commercial break. As you are carried away by security, you remember that the show is being aired live on national TV.
Lucifer experienced embarrassment and shame on a much bigger scale than this. Rather than losing some silly PB&J making contest, Lucifer is seen as lowly and as dirty as the ground to which he is thrown.
He had been known for his perfection. He was a captain of an army of guardian angels, yet God threw him to the ground for he had become proud. “I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you…All are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever” (Ezek. 28: 17&19). God had cursed this ground as a result of the deception of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God cast Lucifer to Hell, but God also sent him to dwell within his own, original curse forever.
While sitting in his new kingdom, Satan developed a hatred for God we cannot fathom. His mission became this: to avenge the embarrassment from his fall by destroying God's creation. To this day, Satan resides in Hell with wounds of his broken pride. With evil and sin, Satan lures us for he knows we are the crown of God's creation. Satan lures us for he also knows that we are weak.
For this, we should despise him, run from him, and avoid sin at all costs. Satan has waged a battle to destroy God’s beauty, power, and truth; the battle is here on Earth.
Who is Satan now? Satan is this: an evil villain that attacks God by attacking us.
No comments:
Post a Comment