Plots of the Enemy, Part 2

Last time we talked about three main ways the enemy tries to draw us off task. He does this by lies, distractions, and fears. But at the end of Nehemiah we see some other devices of Satan.

In chapter 13 Nehemiah is bringing about reforms in a nation just returned from exile in Babylon. While rebuilding the wall, two non-Jews, Tobiah and Sanballat, had tried to thwart Nehemiah by intimidation and deception.

Nehemiah thinks he has overcome their attacks until he returns from Babylon to find that one of the priests has set up a special room in the temple for Tobiah. He rushes in and throws Tobiah's furniture out on the street. Later he finds out that Eliaship, one of the priests, had married Sanballat's daughter. "Therefore I chased him from me." (13:28).

Two of Satan's other devices against us believers are to attack through bad leadership and unwise connections. I'm not saying that you should look suspect at all the leaders in your church, but I am saying that there are in the church today those who do not know Jesus Christ and yet have positions of leadership. If you aren't careful, they can be an influence that does not encourage you to be true to the Lord. Read his Word and if a leader teaches something that is contrary, go with God's Word and watch out for that leader.

Secondly, Satan likes to draw us into bad relationships. Paul said "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." (2 Corinthians 6:14). Marrying into families outside of the covenant community was the problem that got Israel sent to Babylon in the first place because the marriages pulled the Jews towards idolatry.

We just need to be careful who we are connected with in marriage, in business, in close friendship. Now I'm not saying to cloister yourself away and talk to no one except Christians. But I am saying that if you have a business partner that does not know the Lord and they want to lie and cheat and steal--what are you going to do? You are a partner and can't force them to do or not do anything.

Yes, some of us are in marriages or situations where there is an unbeliever. In those situations be light and salt and an example. But if you have a choice, just be careful that you become so tied up with the world that you are dragged down with it.

Pastor Tom