A Master of Disguise

Malachi 3:6 says, For I am the Lord, I change not…

Hebrews 3:8 says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

John 8:44 says, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

We read that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Well, so is Satan. God was, is, and will always be perfect. Down through time, the devil has perfected his art of lies and deception, starting in the Garden of Eden.

God, in the Garden, showed himself to Adam and Eve, even walking in the garden in the cool of the day to commune with them. The devil did not show himself to Eve when he tempted her, but rather disguised himself in the form of a serpent. The devil always disguises himself when he comes a calling. He will disguise himself in the form of pleasure and a good time. He will disguise himself in the thought that you can get away with whatever caper he is proposing to you. He will always disguise himself hiding the consequences that will occur for engaging in his enterprise. He will flip the script on you. He will introduce the temptation to you in an enticing manner hoping you will fall for it and get hooked, or get caught, or get killed. Then your soul is his in either bondage on earth or in sufferings in hell.

He flips the script by telling you everything will be fine and when you fall for it, he accuses you before God and implores him to end his mercy on you.

The devil will always tempt you with something that has consequences attached to it though he will try to hide that from you. In the Garden, for example, there were many trees including the Tree of Life which if Adam and Eve had eaten from that tree, they would have lived forever in a healthy state. The devil did not tempt them with that tree because there were no consequences attached to eating from that tree. The only tree that consequences was attached was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and that was the tree the devil tempted Eve with.

God has not changed. God is still a benevolent God. He made numerous trees for the nourishment and benefit of Adam and Eve. Just like the many benefits he gives to us today, the most important being that we can be delivered from sin and bondage through the sacrificed blood of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. He encourages us to come to his son and repent of our sins and to abide in his son with our sins cast into the sea of forgetfulness. Of sin, he warns us not to partake. Just like he warned Adam and Eve to not partake of the forbidden tree.

The devil has not changed either. He still disguises himself even today. There is no disguise he won’t use. He will use people, including some preachers, to be phony. He will use religion, including denominations, to be false. He will use segments of society, including political parties, to be anti-social and racist. He will use love, including the sanctity of marriage, to distort into something ungodly and unnatural. The devil will use whatever and whoever he can as a disguise to try to keep you from seeing him behind the scenes.

I think of a young man recently who attempted to steal a gun from an off-duty female police officer in Chicago. The devil, no doubt, told him that he could disarm her and that he would get away with her gun and about the people that he could rob with that gun and the valuables he could get. Oh, but the devil flipped the script on him as he made the attempt. The officer managed in the struggle to shoot him three times. The young man then pleaded for his life telling her that he was sorry and that he did not want to die. The man did die and had to stand before an angry God! The devil disguised that. In seconds time, after enticing the man to go for the gun, the devil pleaded with God to withdraw mercy on the young man.

If you don’t believe God will allow the devil to come at us, you’d better read the book of Job in the Bible. It is our choice rather we let the devil be successful or not. God made us all free moral agents. Hebrews 11:24-25 says, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; (25) Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Don’t be fooled by the devil’s disguises. Come to Jesus, sick of sin, repent and live for him. Jesus, through his Holy Spirit and Grace imparted to you, will allow you to see that disguised devil for who he is, a liar and a murderer, and give you the power to resist him and rebuke him. God bless you!