A Cosmic Pest Problem

The Bible makes it clear that we human beings were made to be servants – not autonomous little islands of will, picking and choosing according to our own momentary whims. We either serve God or we serve Satan. We cannot serve both. But in either case serving is what we do because that’s how we were made.

On the heavenly scale of beings we are not much to behold. The most miserable and weak demon is more than a match for any of us. One glance from the devil is enough to twist us up into such knots of confusion that an entire lifetime can be spoiled or confused. And most of mankind is indeed hopelessly snared in a vast snarl of lies that is for all intents and purposes unsolvable. It’s called being “lost”.

You’d think that we Christians were doing much better. But we know that it isn’t by our own power at all that we escape many of the enemy’s wiles. Jesus did it for us and the Holy Spirit applies it in us. We simply believe it. And we can hardly do that some of the time. We can get into whole pile of trouble if we start to think that it is something of ourselves that controls demonic activity. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know – but who are you?” asked the demons of the seven sons of Sceva, before stripping them naked and beating them silly. These Jewish exorcists had used the name of Jesus “whom Paul preaches” without having Jesus in themselves. (Acts 19:13-16)

Demons – fallen angels – belong to an order of creation that is vastly more intelligent and powerful than we are. Their head honcho is so powerful and smart that he was once regarded as second only to the Almighty Himself. But, as we shall see, that’s a pretty distant second.

Even the greatest demon (Satan) is a created being. He is finite. His power and intelligence is limited. Though far and away superior to ours, it is still so far below that of God that it pales into insignificance. For an egomaniac like Satan that’s just got to be infuriating. To realize that he is no more than a mere cosmic pest to God must be the bitterest gall of all. God is able to stomp him out, rein him in and check his spite and malice at any time. God has that power.

But pest control is more than just crushing bugs. It is preventing more of their kind from appearing. It is building a barrier that says “Pests not welcome – look what happened to the last lot.” And in the heavenly realm, where powerful and intelligent beings are warring, the stakes are very very precious indeed. God is certainly able to put an end to the invasion of evil by simple fiat – the same way He said, “Let there be…” in order to make all that there is. He could simply say, “Let there not be…,” and it would be done.

It seems to me that Satan must believe that God has a weakness or he wouldn’t carry on. I expect that he thinks that God’s Achilles heel is in His love and holiness - that He will compromise one or the other in His dealings with mankind. The devil has the temerity and the gall to accuse even God by daring Him to act against His own nature. It’s a spiritual game of sticking out your tongue and trying to provoke the other into coming down to your own level. If you are a damned creature the only hope there can be is that your accuser, your judge, your enemy is shown to be no better than yourself. Its foolish to appeal to the honour of an enemy you want to corrupt, but when that’s all you have then you go with it.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that He and He alone has put to shame the principalities and powers through the glory and power of His cross. Thanks to Him that He did it without compromising either His love or His holiness - and that He is now demonstrating that victory in His church.