To trap a believer and make him stumble over various works of the world, different ways are shown by people all around. Various pits are dug and covered with attractions to make us fall in them. The key to escaping such traps is to have a discerning eye to identify and avoid these. As long as one is unaware, it is a trap but once seen it must become a challenge to evade and move on to follow the ways of the Lord.
David, man of God’s heart, repeated failures – Every day we hear about someone being looted by the evil of ‘digital arrest’, where people call claiming to be from the CBI or some such organisation. The victim is blamed for some crime committed by paying money to some criminal gang from their bank account. The innocent person is then told about his being placed under arrest. Alternatively, they promise great gains by investing money through them but the aim is always to put fear or greed in the victim. A warning is given about not contacting anyone otherwise that person will also be incriminated. Either money is demanded for bail or investment or withdrawn from their account by deceit. Various ways have been found by these people to cheat others, while remaining hidden behind the wall of secrecy of the internet, though the victim may even be a neighbour.
In heaven God created beautiful music as a way of reaching towards Him and bringing in oneness in the world. It was never meant for glorification of any individual but the one endowed with this, Lucifer, tried to use it for his own glory, violence and sensuous pleasures. At the completion of each stage of creation on the earth, God examined the result and found it to be ‘good’. After the final act of creating man, He again looked at the whole of creation and ‘indeed it was very good’ (Genesis 1:31). In that perfection God created an oasis, a part of heaven on earth, the Garden of Eden, full of His blessings with everything that man would need, provided for. The only flaw of man being alone, that He decided was not good, He corrected by forming the woman from a part of man (Genesis 2:18).
But the chief hacker, who had attempted to pervert the system of heaven itself by trying to steal from God Himself, His glory, was on punishment on earth. The hacker successfully tried to remove the very presence of God from within His creation by encouraging disobedience to God’s rules. The great reward he offered was very tempting, opening of spiritual eyes, ability to know and experience good and evil and ‘be like God’ (Genesis 3:5). The payment for that freedom from God’s rule was taken from them both through the loss of all of God’s abundant provisions. The hacker moved on, rejoicing at his success but with a definite future punishment of crushing his head by the ‘seed’ of the very woman who fell prey (Genesis 3:14-19). The result of this hacking went deep into the human beings and ‘the LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth’ (Genesis 6:6).
In all this God was not surprised by anything that happened. He created it all with wisdom but before creation itself is His infinite and deeper wisdom to mend the broken, without destroying it all. He sends His chosen ones to do that but they face great opposition from the hackers, the forces of darkness, more so at the time of some great blessing from God. Moses was in the presence of God on the mountain for forty days and nights, receiving the Torah and the Ten Commandments from God. People urged Aaron to make a god for them and a golden calf was formed and worshipped (Exodus 32:4). Moses broke the original tablets carved and written by God Himself. He had to go back to God for another forty days with tablets carved by himself for God to write on those.
David was anointed by Prophet Samuel as king, as God’s chosen, defeated Goliath, the giant, while yet being a teenager only. King Saul in his jealousy made many attempts to kill him but failed. After all these attempts of the hacker failed, he became king and the most successful one. Through Prophet Nathan, God promised to establish David’s seed as king with the great blessing, ‘Your throne shall be established forever’ (2 Samuel 7:12-17). Lord Jesus came from the house of David, both from Joseph and Mary’s genealogical records. Those destined to achieve greatness in their lives face greater opposition from the hacker, who uses his might to make them stumble. David repeatedly fell but always repented, sought forgiveness, got up and resumed his walk of submission and commitment to God. His greatness was in always realising and repenting of his falls and turning to God again and again. God readily forgives and helps such people to move forward to achieve their destiny.
Escaping the pits of sin – We go back to the creation narrative to understand the reasons for the first sin. The Garden of Eden had all types of trees with every type of fruit available (Genesis 2:8-15). Adam and Eve had authority over all created beings with gold, precious stones and every other treasure also available to them. The only prohibition was about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The devil turned their attention from all the abundance that they had towards the only one thing denied to them. They were so carried away by his lies that they forgot all the goodness of God and sinned.
A Jew is taught from a very early age to offer a prayer of gratefulness and the Shema prayer every morning. They do not even leave the bed without expressing their gratitude for the new day and being alive, while counting all that they have. To start with, count five good things in your life and start thanking Him. King David declared, ‘This is the day that the LORD has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it’ (Psalm 118:24). Life is about being here to see this day despite all the problems and rejoice. Most people are always complaining about what they do not have and spread negativity all around them. The will of God in our Saviour is to ‘give thanks in everything’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18). It is not about the good times only but everything. With this we are tiring out the devil’s forces and bringing God into the situation.
We are here to fix the whole system hacked by the forces of evil and do it without complaining while helping others rise up. A group of boys were playing basketball and one of them could not hear well. When the ball was passed to him, he placed it on the ground and kicked it across the other team’s line. He thought he had scored a goal while his teammates were angry with him. Are you playing the same game that God has sent you to play? Lord Jesus’s command is to go and make disciples along with a promise ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:19-20). We want His presence, power and authority while playing the game as per our rules and not His. We need to surrender to His will every morning while praying as He taught, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matthew 6:10). His will does not change as per changing situations in the universe.
The Holy Bible given to us is His guidebook for all of humanity to live. This reflects His own image to us and Lord Jesus is that perfect reflection of God. Every doubt, every question is answered by God Himself through His Word. Since we are made in His ‘image and likeness’ we reflect His image on the earth. The Son of God knew beforehand all that He was to face but did not complain and prayed what He taught us, ‘not My will, but Yours, be done’ (Luke 22:42). God kicked ‘the ball’ to bring us in line with His will but we complain for we are playing our game, ‘My Perfect Life’. We desire perfect health, finances, marriage and job and all else and get angry and complain when our game is spoiled by God. God is playing the game, ‘The Perfect Story’ and it is His Story which is written, directed and controlled by Him. On this stage we are actors facing tragedies, sadness, joy, triumphs and all that. No one else can play your role and it is God’s game and no one else can play our role nor can we play our own game in this. When we surrender to Him, it all comes into focus and it becomes easy to pray ‘not my will, Lord, but Yours be done’.
God desires each one of us to be a hero in the life of someone else and His strengthening hand guides us to them, to move our story to a better purpose, His purpose. King David’s son Absalom rebelled against him, forcing him to flee Jerusalem. Zadok, the High Priest, moved with the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant but was stopped by the king (2 Samuel 15:24-25). King David could say to him, in faith in God, ‘If I find favour in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place’. While facing the most difficult period of his life, David could still express complete faith in the Lord.
We know from Scripture that ‘death and life are in the power of the tongue’ (Proverbs 18:21). Our words carry the power of our faith and God or unbelief, to let the forces of evil react to our words. With our words we create a circle of influence around us, called our aura. It reflects the bright light of faith in God or the darkness of evil that rules our words. It affects our behaviour, health, way of life itself and the way others treat us. With evil on the tongue always, how can someone love anyone, even God? When we are focused on doing good and following the ways of the Lord, our words also must change. Our words lead us into the pit or out of it into Lord Jesus’ embrace. Coming out and remaining out of the pit of darkness requires daily strong effort to submit and live as per the Scripture. We will fall but then God reaches out with His right hand of strength to pull us out.
Escaping the pits – Struggling the whole night against the storm, the disciples were troubled (Matthew 14:23-32). On seeing Lord Jesus walking on water, they took Him for a ghost and cried out in fear. After He revealed Himself, Apostle Peter sought His permission to walk up to Him on the water. He did the impossible but then looked around, shifting his gaze from lord Jesus, and the power connection was disconnected. He immediately cried out to Lord Jesus, to save him and ‘immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him’. Remain focused on the Saviour Lord and He will calm the storms.
Nothing happens in the entire universe without a purpose. While in the pit, pray to God to help you understand fully the mistake leading into it. Then seek the lessons that He wants to teach through this situation and then cry out to Him to rescue. Lord Jesus said to Apostle Peter, after pulling him from under the water, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ Walking on the water, ‘when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid’. We must keep this in mind always that ‘our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases’ (Psalm 115:3). He has created it all and everything subsists in Him for He has total control over all that He has created, including all that we face. When we profess faith in Him and at the same time look towards the storms also, our faith is weak.
The King of Syria sent a large army to bring Prophet Elisha to him (2 Kings 6:14-17). Gehazi, his servant, saw the enemy troops and was afraid. The Prophet assured him, ‘do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them’. At his prayer, the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw, ‘the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha’. God has chosen each one of us who have believed and received His Son as our Saviour, to be His children. Lord Jesus said, when we as earthly parents desire to give the best to our children, ‘how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him’ (Matthew 7:11). David became King from being a shepherd and could compare God to a shepherd, who provides all that is needed (Psalm 23:1). When we are sure of our relationship with Him, then we can also see those chariots and horses of fire protecting us. Then we receive the fullness of His promise, ‘The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them’ (Psalm 34:7).
There is a Jewish story of two frogs who fell into a pit and one of them could not hear well. They started trying to jump out but those outside warned them about the depth of the pit being more than they could jump out. One sat down in despair while the other kept trying and those outside trying more and more to stop him. Finally, with one large leap he could come out and started thanking those, outside, for their encouragement. But they told him about the warnings they gave about the depth being beyond his ability to jump out. In like manner, people all around us keep on bringing their negative opinions about the pit that we are in. We go under the water to find Him stretching out His hand to pull us out, though, in the process, we may gulp a few sips of bitter water of turmoil but His hand is long enough to reach us. The storms come to strengthen us in faith, for as David recognised, that God has ‘made darkness His secret place’ (Psalm 18:11). It is in the darkness of despair of the pit, He is closest to us, ready to be found by those who earnestly seek Him. This is the secret of victory in every difficult situation, even with some bruising permitted by God.
Those Jewish people who either escaped or survived in the most horrible conditions of Hitler’s concentration camps in World War II, never forgot the torture and murder of millions of fellow Jews. Yet all of the continued to believe in God and started their lives afresh. When we make suffering and pain as the basis of our lives, neither can we come out nor let our family members come out of that trauma. God gives everyday as a new page in the book of life for us to write a new story. It depends on us to continue to write the same page again and again or look and move forward!
