DISCERNING THE ENEMY (Part 3 of 4) - The Preacher's Diary

For Us or Against Us?

While strategizing to take Jericho, General Joshua saw an armed stranger by the city wall and was quick to ask if he were a friend or a foe. He asked, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” (Joshua 5:13). In other words, alliances also define friends and foes. Whom you stand with and whom you stand against tells where you stand. They that are for you will not speak of you in the language of your foes. Even when they disagree with what you do, they will distinguish the person from their act.

Some weapons draw blood from the flesh, others bleed the soul, inflicting a bloodiness that natural eyes don’t see. According to Psalm 71:10, enemies speak “against” you – they fight you with words. Even when a friend corrects, they do not “speak against” you; they do not speak to you or about you to destroy you. They speak to you or about you to improve you.

The Parliament of Enemies

Psalm 71:10 further says that enemies not only attack you by the things that they say against you but they also confer with others in their conference of damnation against you. They “take counsel together” with those who can do to you what they are only able to say to you or against you. You become a topic of malicious discussions in their panels and parliaments. They serve you on their tables of gossip, tear you up with forks and knives, and leave you bare bones for the trash can. If you define enemies only by those who carry a dagger, you could have been dead before you knew who killed you.

A slip of the tongue is no slip of the heart, but when a tongue slips so often, it could be a pointer to a slipped heart against which to be on your guard. Words are great indications of the hidden heart, and they could be precursors of what is to follow, “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45).

The Enemy in Plain Sight

According to Psalm 18:48, some enemies are unhidden, as they “rise up against” you in plain sight of all. These do not conceal their malice and their violence – they are “the violent man.” They adopt “violent” means capable of drawing blood or bleeding the soul. They exert over you an evil stronghold or control from which you seek to be “delivered.” They strive to dominate you, which means to silence you, so that your voice would no longer be heard, so that they alone are the flag flying where you used to fly. They put you down beneath them, even though you are destined and fitted for a place far above them. When God intervenes for you in the hands of these, you are able to say at last, “thou liftest me UP ABOVE those that rise up against me,” which is where you always belonged but for those enemies of progress that kept you down.

Some enemies in plains sight have an agenda: to put you down, and be able to boast, “I have prevailed against him” (Psalm 13:4). These do not conceal their enmity even in their words and their acts. Their interactions with you often end in conflicts by which they seek to dominate, to prevail, to triumph, according to (Psalm 41:11). They are plain and blatant enemies. Left for them, your place is below, not above; and they are unhappy as long as they see you up, until they have you under them.

Flattering Enemies

Sometimes, an enemy might attack you with violent words; sometimes it might suit their purpose better to seduce you with flattering words which let down your guard. Once upon a time in the ministry of Paul and Silas, they got joined by a very vocal and publicly ‘supportive’ young woman. Every day, very loudly for everyone to hear, she hailed them as “the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17). What she said was correct, but strangely, her robust public affirmations and acclamations kept striking Paul very uncomfortably in his soul. He sensed that something was not right.

That was an enemy trying to kill those ministers with a kiss. The strategy had changed from outright attack to public ‘support’ and endorsement. The goal remained the same: destroy their work at last. Initially, Paul could not place his finger on it, but one day, when he could stand it no longer, he confronted it, then all hell broke loose, as they would say. The masked devil then showed his true face and resorted back to his true nature of violence. Paul and his partner got brutally assaulted and ended up in jail.

Enemies in their different guises. They join you to fight you from within when they cannot challenge you otherwise. When your soul begins to reject an apparent goodness, listen well to your soul.

When Kindness is Forced

We worry about hate, but be also cautious when you see ‘too much love.’ In the story of Nehemiah, when the enemies could not succeed with outright attack, they resorted to a friendship invitation, which Nehemiah refused. But like their master the devil, they would not give up. For four times, they kept sending the same rejected invitation. They thus meant to weary their target into submission, but as frequently as they showed their ‘kindness,’ Nehemiah rejected it (Nehemiah 6:1-8). Is it by force to be a friend? If you invited someone to your party and they said No, shouldn’t they be left alone?

Check it when hospitality if being forced on you, when kindness becomes a compulsion. That ‘nice’ birthday food that you ‘must’ eat; that ‘rare gift’ to which you must not say No; that invitation to party that you keep being forced to accept, as if you have no power to make your own choice… When ‘love’ unasked is being lavished or forced upon you; when you are put under pressure to accept a kindness that your soul refuses, check it. Somebody else’s interest is what is at stake, not yours. It could be a poisoned apple, because poisoned arrows have failed.

Even God doesn’t force anyone, not even with salvation, as costly as that Gift is. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Even when He comes so close at to your door, He does not force Himself in, but knocks and waits outside until you let Him in: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

The Weapon of Blackmail

The next strategy deployed by Nehemiah’s enemies after outright attack and insidious ‘care’ had failed, was blackmail. They said that he was plotting sedition against the king, that they had inside information, therefore he should accept their invitation to the countryside so that the allegation could be resolved amicably. They pretended that they cared. Nehemiah told them that they had made it all up. He was not coming to their party, no matter how they couched their ‘invitation’ to his destruction.

Blackmail is an enemy weapon, and who uses it against you is an enemy. Mark them. On previous occasions, they had used such other strategies as ridicule, threats, sabotage. Watch out for these too. They are not the tools of a friend. If you know somebody for who they really are, you are better positioned to walk with them, wisely.

From The Preacher’s diary,
January 10, 2024.