Overcoming highs and lows
Truth and deception
Third of three parts
Why do people need a high? Maybe they feel down and crave a stimulant. Satan uses both highs and lows to gain entrance and take control. The human conscience is most vulnerable when people are emotionally high, low or bored.
After God coerced the Egyptians with 10 plagues, he led Israel to freedom by parting the Red Sea for them. The slavenation tasted freedom … in a desert. Satan used hunger and thirst to instigate rebellion against God while they longed for the meat and water they enjoyed as slaves in Egypt.
God supplied in their needs: Birds and manna fell from the sky to still their hunger, and water gushed from the rock to quench their thirst. They had reason to be happy and grateful.
Satan used their emotional high to lure them into idolatry and immorality. While Moses received God’s law on the mountain, the people made their own god, a golden calf, to lead them back to slavery.
They displayed the irrational logic of a recovering alcoholic, who celebrates his first year of sobriety with a drinking spree. While serving false gods, they became slaves in Egypt. The true God led them out of slavery and supplied for them in the desert, and now they celebrated their freedom by relapsing to idolatry?! Satan’s deception makes people do stupid, self-contradictory things. Example: Hurting others, in an effort to obtain more love, is counterproductive.
After Elijah’s victory over idolatry on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), the wicked Queen Jezebel wanted to kill him. He fled for his life to the Negev desert. Exhausted and distraught, Elijah asked God to let him die. Satan saw an opportunity in the prophet’s low and made him suicidal. It would have pleased Satan to get Elijah out of the way.
Instead of Satan’s quick escape route, God provided in Elijah’s needs: food, water, rest and eventually a meeting with God on Mount Horeb (Sinai) where Israel received the law centuries before.
Jesus knew the purpose of his incarnation and prepared himself for that: paying with his death the ransom for sinners (Matt. 20:28, John 3:16, 10:1118, 12:27). Yet, when that moment arrived, his human nature flinched, asking his Father to exempt him from this indescribable suffering (Matt. 26:39). Satan tried to use Christ’s human fear to distract him from his goal: the salvation of billions of lost people. God sent an angel to strengthen him.
The apostle Paul shared the pain of his persecution and hardships with fellow believers (2 Cor. 4, 6, 11, 12). By holding on to God’s hand, he survived many calamities (Phil. 4:11-13, 2 Tim. 3:11, Rom. 8:18, 2 Cor. 4:17, 12:9-10).
God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.
Jacob Van Zyl of Lethbridge is a retired counsellor and the author of several faith-based books.