**NOTE: As the current series of essays, “The Devil Loves,” progresses, be prepared for more challenging content. Be prepared to consider how insidious the darkness that wishes to overcome God’s creation works in exceptionally sneaky ways. Be prepared to find out that many of the things you love and hold dear, the Devil also loves and endeavors to use to his favor. Be warned - the road that leads to the Cross is not an easy one. It never has been.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
John 2: 13-18, NIV
It’s been said that ‘the Devil is in the details.’ Concerning nearly any activity you put your human hands and minds to, the smallest details will take the most time, cause the most frustration, and seem to rule over the entire project. Take, for example, the end table I’ve had on my workbench for nearly a month. An original design, classic lines with modern elements, an attractive combination of natural hardwood and craftsman joinery, this little table has taught me a lot about the details. The table top has been crafted twice because of small details in the first version with which I was simply not happy. After trying to work with the piece and using my bag of workshop tricks to address my concerns, I finally gave up and crafted an entirely new top. Then there was the finishing stage, for which I had budgeted mere hours but am now well over two weeks into. The first stain didn’t suit, even after sampling it on a cutoff of the lumber from the same project. It turns out that suit looked better on the rack than it did on the dancefloor, if you follow my metaphor. So, after sanding that stain off, it was back to square one with raw materials, sanding back through all the grits, applying the new (and much better) stain choice, and applying the clear coats (careful to buff between coats for a mirror finish). Cutting wood into a shape is the easy part. The Devil, as we know well, has been in all the details.
Our human societies have been built on details of appropriate and acceptable interaction. Though there are understood customary traditions among families, communities, and cultures, there has always been a need to detail appropriate community standards in a set of written rules. Law and order dictate behavior in our modern society, and penalties for exceptions to the rule of law have been established to make certain we all abide the common code. This is true in the United States today, as it has been true for societies throughout history, and it was true of the first-century Palestine Jesus lived and preached in two thousand years ago.
Adherence to the laws of a society, and a maintaining of order, are aspects of human development which anthropologists might point to as advancements in civilization. However, when humans seek to improve on what God has already done, either in creating new laws apart from God’s commandments or interpreting and enforcing laws apart from God’s own judgement, the doorway for the Devil to enter into the equation is left ajar. It only takes a moment for the darkness of the Evil One to invade what should be one of the most righteous aspects of humanity - law and order.
While law and order protect a free and fair society from itself, there are problems in the details of the systems we set in motion. We rarely catch a glimpse of the Devil slipping into the details, in this case the specifics of law and order. What we do see in hindsight all too clearly is the smear of darkness he leaves in his wake. Laws have prevented one type of human or another from having an equal existence with others since the keeping of laws began. Laws have allowed for one type of person to prosper over others for most of human history, even to this very day. Laws allowed the bank to take the hard-working farmer’s fields. Laws allowed the state to remove the children from the loving father’s care. Laws have kept society in line, but often left individuals on the wrong side of that line.
In an effort to protect order, the enforcement of laws has far too often given the Devil a grand stage on which to play. From police officer to prosecutor, judge to jury, good works abound, yet are overshadowed by the devil’s work within the system. The enforcement of laws has led to brutality, unjust imprisonment, wrongful convictions, and a lack of trust in law enforcement among the people. Order has been bought at the expense of fear. Order has been maintained at the expense of liberty. Order has been promoted at the expense of turning neighbors against one another. Order is supposed to provide society with security, but often has left individuals feeling more like victims.
In Jesus’ time of earthly ministry, the society he ministered to was caught between the civil Roman law, enforced by brutal iron-fisted rulers, and religious Jewish law, enforced by self-serving priests and temple councils. There was a distinct possibility that one could act in such a way that didn’t raise the eye of Caesar through his local enforcers, but caused the ire of the priests and elders to raise to a level of capital offense. Jesus finds himself often at odds with one or another, or both, human authorities as he seeks to follow God’s law and God’s order. Jewish law required the ritual cleansing of the worshiper before entering the temple. Jesus was baptized once in the muddy Jordan river. Jewish law required the repeated offering of animal and grain harvest sacrifices to atone for human sin. Jesus offered himself a sacrifice once for all. Jewish law provided for a marketplace to sell animals for sacrifice and banking for worshipers to change money for offerings within the temple. Jesus was the true temple. In each detail of the Jewish law, there existed room for the Devil to enter in through greed, power, and most insidiously a complete disregard for the holiness of God. In Christ, there is no room for the darkness to invade the purest Light.
The Devil loves law and order because there is so much room for interpretation. The Devil loves law and order because there is so much opportunity for abuse of power. The Devil loves law and order because it provides a false, human-created, set of standards which distract God’s people from His will and His Way.
Just like the pesky details that plague me at my workbench, the details of human interaction are riddled with cracks and crevices from which the darkness of the Devil can seep, and in which can hide. Be wary of those darkened corners of your own life, and of humanity’s shared life. Be vigilant to live under God’s law, loving God first and others as yourself. Be strong in your faith to not let your political leaders, community leaders, law enforcement leaders, or any other human leader take the place of God at the center of your devotion. Render unto Caesar all you like; only save your whole heart for God alone.
J.M.D.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
John 2: 19, NIV