Theodore Clouse kissed his 2-year-old and 3-year-old children goodnight this past Tuesday. It was about 10pm, and they weren’t in bed yet. They were watching television as Theodore was on his way out the door to make his deliveries. Theodore delivers milk (they still do that in some communities). He started making his deliveries at night so that he could be home in the daytime to help out more around the Pennsylvania farm they lived on and spend more time with his wife Janelle and their eight children. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him, but so was the guilt on account of how little time he was spending at home.
Maybe a half hour after he left, the 3-year-old came running out of the house. The house was on fire. She ran to the barn, where mom was milking the cows. But the flames were so high and so intense so quickly that mom couldn’t get into the house. She ran to the neighbor’s house. Nobody was home. She ran to the next neighbor and called 911. By then she wasn’t all that far from Theodore’s milk truck. It hadn’t been all that long since he left. He was only about a mile from their farmhouse. She could see from a distance that he was sitting in his truck, so she sprinted up to the window and began pounding on it … in order to wake him up. He was sleeping. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with him. They got to the house as quickly as they could, but it was too late. Seven of their eight children were burned alive that night. The oldest was 11. The youngest was 7 months. Maybe if he had been awake and saw the first flames, maybe if he had been home, maybe if he hadn’t changed his schedule, maybe …
Maybe you don’t blame him. I don’t even know if he blames himself. He certainly didn’t mean for it to happen. Just like children who are full of promise don’t mean to take wrong turns and leave their parents full of disappointment. Most politicians who get into politics eager to do good don’t mean to find themselves in the middle of corruption soon after they’re elected. People don’t mean for their careers or lives to go in entirely wrong directions. Nobody tries to destroy a marriage. You don’t want there to be certain parts of who you are and what you’ve done that you’d prefer to keep hidden. You don’t want to be so scared sometimes about what might happen the next time you find yourself all alone with your most powerful temptation, with very little strength because you’re so tired from just living.
You don’t want to be in that position. But unfortunately, you often are. And you’re never alone. There is always an unwelcome guest looking over your shoulder, eager to make all your dreams for happiness and hope go up in smoke. He’ll be there on your way home today and when you’re sitting in your office during the week. He’s there when you’re deciding what to watch on TV. He’s there when you haven’t slept for 48 hours and you’re holding a fussy baby. He’s there in the middle of every fight with your friend, spouse or enemy. He’s there in every normal situation trying to make it appear very ugly. He’s there, knowing that the difference between what brings you closer to God and what leads you even further down can be just a single split second of sinful weakness when you were just a little bit too inattentive to what he was doing. “Our [real] struggle is not against flesh and blood,” it says in the book of Ephesians, “but against this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” And it’s been that way for a very long time.
In the Garden of Eden Adam & Eve weren’t tired from anything. They had just started living, full with life, filled with God’s own breath, lacking absolutely nothing;no bags under their eyes, no exhaustion from screaming children, no excessive wrinkles from all their worrying, not one single tear from a loved one dying; no earthquakes, tidal waves or budget cuts to take away their patience or possessions; in flawless harmony with God’s creation and surrounded by a beautiful garden of pure perfection. And if Satan got to them … well, how attentive do we need to be to what Satan is doing?
(1) Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (2) The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, (3) but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” (4) “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. (5) For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (6) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (8) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (9) But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” (10) He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (11) And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (12) The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (13) Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (14) So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. (15) And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
The official cause of the fire that killed the Clouse’s seven children is still under investigation. But the 3-year-old is pretty certain about what happened. The family had a propane heater in the kitchen that let off just a very thin cloud of smoke when it was on. It was on that evening to help keep the kids warm as they slept. The 2-year-old became fascinated by the smoke, walked over to it, started waving her hands through it, thought it was really neat, and didn’t even notice how close she was getting to the propane heater until … it was too late. She knocked the heater over, which ignited something on the floor and caused the fire that eventually killed her brothers and sisters. She didn’t mean to do it. But the smoke was so fascinating that it kept her from realizing the danger she was in.
That’s pretty similar to how Satan got Eve to commit this world’s first sin. He didn’t come right out and say, “God is holding back from you.” He just asked the question, “Did God really say …?” Eve came to her own conclusions. Satan clouded her mind with doubt. “Maybe he’s right,” she thought. “I never thought of it like that. If God really loved me, would he put restrictions on me? Would he withhold key information from me?” She began to doubt.
And what did Satan use to get Eve into his cloud of doubt? He didn’t bring her right to the propane heater. The smokescreen he used was a piece of fruit that was otherwise very pleasurable. “It was good for food and pleasing to the eye.” It was. Fruit is a great blessing from God. So is a spouse, a good friend, financial security, a computer, a television, a steady job. Satan uses things that you would never suspect could do any damage.
Does it work? Do husbands cheat? Do wives? Do children argue with their parents and fight? Do people cheat on their taxes? Lie to their boss? Go to strip clubs? Get jealous? Do people look for love in all the wrong places? Do people go to casinos and blow their life savings? Do you ever end up with hurt feelings?
And do you doubt that there’s a source of evil behind every bit of it? Behind every human wreckage, every broken relationship, every family torn to pieces, every woman undone by bad decisions, every boy whose innocence is destroyed by another sick man, you can almost hear the sound of someone laughing. But he’s not laughing at the pain and destruction. He’s laughing because, more often than not, when people think about the temptations of Satan, they get no closer to fixing the problem.
Men who trap animals for zoos in America say that one of the most difficult animals to catch is the ring-tailed monkey. At least that’s what they thought until they came across the Zulus, a tribe in Africa that for many years has been successfully catching ring-tailed monkeys. The monkey’s favorite food is the seed of a certain melon that grows in their country. To catch them, the Zulus cut a hole in the very hard shell of the melon, just large enough for the monkey to fit his hand through to reach the seeds inside. They make the hole small enough, though, that if the monkey tries to pull its hand out full of any seeds, it won’t fit. Its fist is larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, scream and fight for hours, but he won’t be able to get free unless it gives up the seeds. They never do. They love the seeds too much. The Zulus would catch nothing if the monkeys only learned to stay away from temptation.
Satan is not the reason children disappoint their parents. Satan is not the reason why so many politicians get into corruption. Satan is not why your career or your life has gone in an entirely wrong direction. Satan is not the reason marriages are destroyed. Satan is not why there are certain parts of who you are and what you’ve done that you’d prefer to hide.
You are. “It was the serpent who deceived me. It was his fault,” Eve said. “No,” God replied, “it’s yours.” “Oh, how I have longed to gather you,” Jesus said to Jerusalem. “But you were not willing.” The book of 1 John does not say that “the devil is the one who does what is sinful.” It says “He who does what is sinful is [just like] the devil,” who, according to the book of Revelation, will be “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur … to be tormented day and night forever and ever.” On the other hand, in the book of James, it says, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because he has passed the test. He will receive the crown of life.” Well, if that’s what he receives, then what do you get?
At the very least, a lot of doubt. Are God’s children really supposed to have such a hard time serving him? I thought God answered prayer. Then how does that explain the situation I’m in? I thought God loved his children. Then why am I so sad? Why am I in so much pain? And why should I go to church and read my bible if it isn’t going to make any difference? When is your Father, who says he loves you, going to come through for you like you asked him? Or, maybe he isn’t. Maybe he’s punishing you. Maybe he hasn’t forgiven you. Maybe he doesn’t forget what you’ve done as quickly as you do. Is that doubt or truth?
We know the difference. The passage that says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of wrongs, who could stand?” is truthfully more accurate than we like to admit. Sometimes we have trouble just doing that – admitting, that some of the sins you committed in high school, you still haven’t overcome; that old age has introduced you to more new temptations than you ever saw coming; that your private moments more often find your heart filled with guilt than anything, and that’s when your heart isn’t craving some all-too-familiar sin or trying to cover up something you did by blaming someone else, tweaking the truth or telling yourself that’s not really a big deal because it’s only a little piece of fruit that’s so satisfying. And maybe you’re most vulnerable when you’re all alone, or trying to fit in, or hungry for some self-esteem. Regardless, there are too many times that giving into temptation is too easy of a thing.
And we’ve never even been stuck without bread in the wilderness for 40 days. We’ve never had the devil focus just on us for almost a month and a half. We’ve never been weighed down with so much stress and so many satanic attacks that it turned our sweat into drops of blood. No. The one man who actually did persevere under every trial and did pass every test … he was. The one man, who every time, showed he loved God more than anything else, was crowned not with life, but with thorns and a very lonely death. And if that’s what he receives, then what do you get? According to the book of Hebrews - a friend, who knows exactly what it feels like to be us.
“He was tempted in every way, just as we are,” it says. He knows what you go through. He knows how you feel. He knows better than you how hard it is. Your encyclopedias of sins still only condemn you, one person. If he slips just once, if he doubts just one little promise, if his life becomes anything less valuable than perfection, then a whole world that could only be purchased by God with eternity’s most valuable possession is lost, and none of us are forgiven. But we are. We were – when the seed of the woman was struck in the heel by Satan. Have you ever been struck in the heal? It hurts a little bit. It stings. Well, if being struck in the heel translated into a whip, thorns, a whole lot of blood, a cross and all its pain for God’s Son, then what do you think it means that God’s Son would crush the head of Satan?
It means that you don’t need to be afraid of him. Jesus used only one weapon in the wilderness to send the devil running. What was it? It was the Sword of the Spirit, which is what the book of Ephesians calls the Word of God, the very same one he has placed into our hands; the one that says in the book of Isaiah, “Do not be afraid, “for I am with you; do not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you by my righteous right hand.” “God is just; he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled … this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels” it says in 2 Thessalonians. “I know my sheep, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand,” it says in John chapter 10.
The most damaging temptations the devil sends your way are the ones that take you away from the only weapon against which Satan knows he can do absolutely nothing. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” it says in the book of James. “I have told you these things so that you may have peace,” Jesus told his disciples shortly before he died. “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world." And now, so have you, and that is something about which there is nothing the devil can do.