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’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent
said to the woman. “For God knows that
when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)
How you have
fallen from heaven, morning
star, son of the dawn! You have
been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in
your heart, “I will ascend to the
heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on
the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the
clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the
depths of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)
The second theme found in
Scripture sounds very like God’s Theme, with its bass motif with a variety of
tunes overlaying it. There are several identifiers. It’s a theme that wants to
be God’s Theme but can’t manage it. It pretends to be God’s Theme but can’t
quite bring itself to be. It’s tends to sound like the opposite of God’s Theme.
Where God’s Theme is majestic, it is intimate and where God’s Theme is
intimate, it may be bellicose. Where God’s theme moves up a third, it moves
down a note, or a third, or an octave. Another identifier is that it tends to
be presented as an improvement. There is a flaw in God’s Theme. This Theme
fixes it.
Evil doesn’t wear red
tights or carry a pitchfork. More often than not, it comes to us looking like
an improvement on the God who deceives us, whether that deception is an
outright lie, or just an inability to live up to some standard. In the long
run, however, it always fails. It always hits a not that isn’t quite right.
This is why the story of
Peter walking on the water is so astounding to me. Other folks talk about the
fear of the rest of the crew, but what if they had been right? What if it had
been a trick to lure Peter out of the boat and to his death? It happens
all-too-often. That’s what happened with when Peter denied Christ three times.
Peter had been convinced that a different idea was the right and best idea. He went
to see Jesus pull victory from the jaws of defeat, and to be available to be
part of it. If pretending to be someone else was the means to do that…so be it.
Lying to the enemy isn’t so bad.
And if the melody isn’t
quite right, well, who’s to notice?
Comments
Post a Comment