Articles
When The Enemy Wins
When we come to the realization we all are guilty of sin, we may be motivated to respond positively to the gospel call to salvation that we might escape God’s wrath and escape the snare of the devil who holds us captive to do his will. When we realize the depths and ugliness of sin, we strive to be freed from its pull and we seek to then live a life that avoids temptations to sin, or do those things contrary to God’s will.
But even as Christians, our enemy has his victories. John wrote to the Christians of the first century and reminded them — and us — “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). As much as we would like to believe we have left behind that old way of life, the fact is, our enemy does not give up and he is constantly trying to drag us back into sin and, from time to time, he wins a battle and we fall to our desires and to temptations to sin.
It is in these times, though, that we must be particularly cautious because when he wins one battle, he is setting us up to lose the war by trying to convince us we have failed completely and that we have no chance or ability to defeat him. Many have been convinced by him that they are utter failures the first time they sin after becoming a Christian and they surrender and go back to the old ways, believing they just weren’t able to live up to the standard of perfection. In that, he again deceives us by getting us to think that anything short of perfection is a total failure and tries to get us to forget that we may still be forgiven and be pleasing to God again!
Today, let us consider that it is not always as devastating and final as he would have us believe. No, no one wants to give our enemy an inch and none of us wants him to enjoy even one victory in the battle to get us to sin and to win our souls; but we don’t have to see his victories as a mark of failure or the point where we simply surrender and admit defeat, either. What we will learn from a familiar example in the Scriptures is that there is a proper way to respond when he has won a small battle so that we ensure he doesn’t win the war for our souls.
In this story we consider today, we find the Israelites had been told the city of Jericho had been given to them by God, and they were commanded to march around the city once each day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day (Josh. 6:3-5). At the end, they were to blow the trumpets and shout and the city would be given to them, and this they did (Josh. 6:8-21). But they were also told that they were not to take of any of “the accursed things” [idols] and all the silver and gold were to be the Lord’s (Josh. 6:18, 19). As we know, they did as God commanded and the city walls fell, and they conquered Jericho. After this victory, they moved onto the next city, Ai, and expected an easy victory — but they were defeated! Why? Because one man disobeyed!
For those who are God’s people today, we must acknowledge that we, too, are in a battle, but this battle is “not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” (2 Cor. 10:3-5); the battle we face is the war inside each one of us, the flesh warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:17). Our primary adversary is the devil and he seeks our soul (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8).
The means by which our enemy is seeking victory over us is through temptations to sin. James reminds us “each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (Jas. 1:14), and we see in the record of the temptation of Jesus that our adversary was the one offering those temptations (cf. Matt. 4:1-11). If we should give in to those temptations, we sin and thus separate ourselves from God (Jas. 1:15) and the enemy has gained a victory. We should not forget that God has promised an answer to every temptation, though. To us, we have the promise, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). But, as it was in the case of Achan, he did not follow the plan of God and he disobeyed by coveting and then taking the forbidden things. The way of escape is always there, but when we refuse to take it or refuse to look for God’s way, our enemy will gain a victory over us.
As was seen with the case of Achan, there were consequences far beyond what was probably intended. It is likely that Achan only thought of what he would gain when he coveted the clothing, gold and silver, and nothing about the ultimate price he would pay. Likewise, men today often do not think beyond their immediate ‘gain’ of pleasure or profit when they consider acting in ways contrary to God’s will; seldom — if ever — does a man think about his eternal fate or even the lives of those around him. But, as someone once said, “Sin will take you further than you want to go, it will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.”
Today, men still try to convince themselves and anyone who will listen that their choice to sin involves no one else and “doesn’t hurt anyone” though it more often than not does involve others and does hurt someone — primarily the one who commits the sin. Adultery never affects just one person; the man who gambles quite often causes his family hardships because of the losses; the man who chooses to drink or use drugs quite often affects others by causing hardship or even their deaths [i.e., impaired driving]; the man who chooses to not teach his children about God nor serve God himself may think the choice affects him alone, but his choice affects the children who never learn about God. Sometimes, the effects of our choices to sin go far beyond what we intended, and involve far more people than we could have imagined.
As was the case with Israel following their defeat at Ai, Israel had to take a look inward to find the sin; so must we. We each must, as Paul said, “Examine yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). We must, as the psalmist wrote, ask of God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me” (Psa. 139:23, 24) if we truly want to know our faults and to make corrections. Of course, to do this means we must know what sin is that we may properly identify it within ourselves, and we must have an honest heart that will not make excuses for our behavior.
According to God’s will, forgiveness and reconciliation are conditional; that is, there will be no forgiveness of our sins and there will be no reconciliation to Him without first meeting His conditions. We must be willing to confess our sin to Him (1 John 1:9) and repent of it (Acts 8:22). As was the case with the Israelites, there will be no change in our relationship with God unless and until we purge the sin from us. Hiding it, making excuses for it, and blaming someone else will not bring forgiveness!
When we fail He will lift us up if we are willing to repent. — Steven Harper
