Screwed

1 Chronicles: 15:13

It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the LORD our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.

“Talk to him about moderation in all things. If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point,' you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all – and more amusing.” That’s from Screwtape to his novice tempter nephew, Wormwood. His thirty one letters were all schemes and tricks on how to make this ‘Patient’ fall into damnation. His long experience taught him that it is not with the evilest of evil that men turn to their side. Instead, he tells his apprentice, to choose the safe, gradual one: the subtle distractions, the little confusions, some pleasures here, or an added pursuit there.  The point is not to readily pull the Patient out from his faith. Rather, they’d likely to succeed if they’ll merely stop him from growing - - ‘til the coldness ushers him to darkness.  Quite brilliant actually.

I guess that’s how the enemies won over David in chapter 13. Since they already lost round one in making him completely forget about the Ark, they had to creep in their ruining efforts into the celebration itself.  They used David’s passion in making it big and grand and urgent to disregard further inquiries and prescribed details; they utilized the priests’ passivity and let them believe t’was submission to the king or maybe, calling it ‘the modern way’; and they urged Uzzah to see it was heroic to save the Ark from falling. The processional’s halt and the Ark’s parking at Obed-Edom’s house because of Uzzah’s death probably elated Wormwood. But he forgot his uncle’s warning not to make it too spectacular because big sins has a way of even bringing men back to their One enemy. And it did. David spent three months seeking God’s will regarding the matter. His sin brought him back to His Forgiver. We can read in chapter 15 that he tried again. This time, thoroughly and thoughtfully following God’s process ‘til the Ark was set inside the tent.  Screwtape was screwed once again. 

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ was Edmund Burkes’ famous line. Today we learned that equally fatal to the victorious life is when good men do less. Woodworm’s received instruction was not to totally cut us from prayer, but to move us from unceasingly to just mealtime nods. His instruction was not to persecute Christians from reading the bible, rather to make it look like a nice alternative to counting sheep, or maybe send us more magazine subscriptions for cross reference. Lukewarmness is not the absence of God in our life. It is the presence of many other things distracting us, making our walks dull. Don’t let the enemy woodworm you by majoring on the minors. Don’t let them screw you up by saying you have the right to centerstage. Resist this uncle-nephew tandem. Stand firm against them, and be strong in your faith. Keep watch, stay alert, and yes, tighten those screws.