It has been my habit over the years to remind people often that the devil is introduced to us this way, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field” (Genesis 3:1). It is because he is crafty that we often lose sight of his craftiness. If he’s not standing in front of us offering up some forbidden desire we think he must be elsewhere, bothering someone else. The truth is his arsenal is not just potent, but varied. If one weapon disappoints him, he picks up another and tries again. I suspect if we were to seek out a second adjective to add to “crafty” it would be “persistent.” The devil has never won a single battle against his Maker- he is 0 for ever, but he keeps trying.
We likely think of distractions as more of a nuisance than a weapon. Like a fly buzzing around our eyes and ears when we’re trying to focus, they flit in and out, and annoy. Their power, however, is found less in how they frustrate us, more in how they misdirect us. The distractions I speak of are not the temptation to look at cat videos when we ought to be working. No, I’m talking about the kind of distraction that leads us to the wrong battlefield, shooting at the wrong enemy.
Consider Darwin and his clown show, evolution. If you think of evolution as some powerful combatant against biblical creation you have missed its purpose and nature. Research and development down in hell wasn’t looking for a creation replacement, but a distraction. They were less trying to entice Christians to believe it, more to entice them to invest time and energy in defeating it. It’s a Potemkin village and we are idiots to aim all our weapons there.
When we come to the creation account and see it as source material for answering Darwin we are badly missing its purpose for us. God’s Word does answer the folly of the world, but it is designed to feed us. Throwing our food at our enemies leaves us hungry and weak. We need to enter into the glory of creation, to marvel at God speaking and reality coming to pass. We need to rest in the assurance of His absolute sovereignty over all things that is irresolutely affirmed with just these four words, “In the beginning, God.” When we read about Noah’s flood, and see there principally source material for developing flood geology, we miss the reality of our sin, God’s just wrath, and His grace in rescuing Noah.
Does creation defeat Darwin? Of course. Our story is true, and theirs utter nonsense. Does the flood explain various and sundry geological realities? Of course it does. It happened, and not in a corner, but all across the globe. But God did not tell us these stories so we could beat the world in winning the Better Science prize. He gave us these stories to teach us to repent, to depend on His grace, to celebrate His glory, to rest in His loving arms. And these are the very things the devil seeks to rob from us. He need not prove evolution to do so. He just floats that lead balloon out there and we go chasing after it.
The same principle applies to every kind of distraction. Sanballat didn’t need to persuade Nehemiah that he should stop building the wall. He just needed to get him to stop building the wall to defend the wisdom and rightness of building the wall. Nehemiah didn’t fall for it, and just kept at the job God gave him to do. Distraction can come in the form of our worries and fears about our provision. It can come in the form of worrying about what others think of us.
Our calling is to follow the agenda Jesus gave us, to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And to enjoy our rest as we leave the rest to Him.