Some things we think are inviolate. A hospital ship at sea, one clearly marked as such. Schools filled with children. Churches and their parishioners. A mother holding her child.
Correspondents are considered noncombatants and generally have a measure of assurances given them even in wartime situations. Governments plead, “Come record the horrors of war. We will return you safely to your homes and families.” Of course, there are no guarantees in the field of battle, but a camera is certainly a better bet than a gun. Both sides want the events that transpire to be recorded. The footage may very well substantiate their own side’s claims of atrocities committed by the opposing side in the heat of the firefight.
Yet, we have to consider the ambush. That word embodies the worst of unfair play on the battlefield. We sneak up and catch our enemy unaware, cutting them at the knee before they even know we’re there.
On the first Sunday in January 2014, BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead and cameraman Jack Garland had their shield of safety rudely stripped from them. Traveling in South Sudan, they were caught up in an ambush that killed a senior army general. Neither Leithead nor Garland were killed, but the specter of death knocked very loudly at their door.
It was a clear case of unfair play, with no chance to defend themselves, the enemy sneaking up and catching them off guard.
That’s the devil’s technique. If he can throw us off without warning, he increases his chance of success in taking us down.
Let’s look at three of the devil’s ambush techniques:
Ambush Technique #1:
Leviticus 20:10. “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Certainly this is Mosaic Law, and Jesus came to put the Law aside. However, while we might not kill an adulterer today, what about the spiritual man? What has begun to happen to him? If the behavior is not rectified, certain death has already begun.
Ambush Technique #2:
Acts 5:1-11. “But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’ When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it...”
The passage goes on, and in the next verses, we learn that his wife verified his story. The Spirit of the Lord moved, and the same end came to her. Jesus can see through our deceptions. He knows our hearts, and if we lie to him, we are killing our spiritual man.
Ambush Technique #3:
Romans 2:1. “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”
It is easy to look at others in the body of Christ and criticize what we disapprove of. However, if we badmouth the pastor on the way to church or yell at our children in the car, and then we smile warmly at the people sitting next to us, we are stabbing our spiritual man in the heart. If we do not remove the knife, he will eventually die, even as we continue to walk and breathe.
Just like that correspondent and his cameraman in South Sudan, we look around, we don’t see the devil, and we think everything is okay. It’s the ambush we’re not expecting that will do us in. If we don’t keep our eyes open, people will begin to die, and one of them might be us.
The devil’s ambushes will take us down if Jesus is not our guide.
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Code: FGO.I.16.14a