The Father of Lies

 She was already a widow, but I felt compelled to crush her anyway.  She looked perpetually pregnant with her large and rounded abdomen.  The scarlet marking on her underside was indisputable.  I picked up the rock and crushed another Black Widow spider.  I wish lies were as easy to kill.

 Satan is called what he is by the Lord Jesus.  Satan is the father of lies.  He spun his silky web before the imagination of Eve and like wet paint it begged to be touched.  Dazzled as much as deceived, she could not resist, and was soon entangled in the sticky strands.  That “ye shall be as gods,” of course was a lie.  It did not matter that Truth was in His heaven, the father of lies was using Eve to give birth to the first of many lies, too many to count. 

 Every time we sin, we have believed a lie, and with every sin something is born that never was.  The seduction of false lights glistening off the droplets of dew on a spider’s web may look enchantingly attractive.  Appearing to be as diamonds in lace, they are more like the bars on the windows of a debtor’s prison. What looked like lace are more like chains.  Eve, the mother of mankind was stung by the father of lies with a venom that has poisoned the human race. 

 Satan is still spinning lies.  The sons of Adam and daughters of Eve are still being bitten.  Satan often uses a half-truth (like the “ye shall be as gods”) as the seed of his many offspring.  He is also known to take a half truth to use as a “starter yeast” to bake his poisoned breads.  Then he will feed his unholy loaves to all who have and appetite for slander, gossip, and defamation. 

 The Lord Jesus is the Truth.  He too (once He entered this wilderness) was quickly challenged by the father of lies who even took Scriptures out of context, twisting them and spinning them as spiders are known to do. Turning stones into bread might have seemed attractive to anyone less than the WORD incarnate. Christ refused.  Defeated (for the moment) the Evil Thing retreated for what the Bible calls a “season.” 

 Three years later the sinless Lord of Glory is seen hanging on a cross.  While the world is draped in an eerie darkness, children of those who love darkness rather than light swarm and crawl beneath the crimson.  What crime, what infraction brought the Savior to such an awful place?  Self-righteous hypocrites charged “Blasphemy.”  That was a lie.  We cannot help but think that the father of lies was not far from the nursery when this idea was born in someone’s heart.  Sin lives on lies. 

 The world mocked and laughed at Christ on the Cross, thinking Him to be just another sinner.  Woe to the sinner whose fate is in the hands of another sinner.   The woman taken in adultery is not half as pitiful as the pathetic religious zealots who could more easily grasp their rocks than the truth that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  

 Today, this world’s children are throwing stones at Israeli tanks in Gaza, and American Jeeps in Iraq while some invisible evil thing is whispering lies into their little ears.  Sinners need never worry about running out of stones.  This world has plenty.  Stones are not the answer to sin.  The enemies of light rolled a large stone over the opening of the sepulcher and thought that they had seen the last of Jesus.   Satan’s lie is no match for God’s Truth.  The father of lies is no match for God’ love.  Christ arose.  Put down your stones.   Jesus is the Rock of Ages. 

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