ДИАВОЛ

“Our soul was delivered like a bird from the net of the fowlers: the net was torn, and we were delivered” (Ps. 123:7). The prophet [David] shows how God delivered him [the devil] from him, how he destroyed his wiles. This happened from the time when Christ told the disciples: “I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Now it is no longer an open struggle and an equal battle; but the devil lies cast down to the ground, and you stand upright and strike from above; he is weak, and you are strong. Why does he often defeat us? Because of our cowardice, because of the carelessness of those sleeping. If you want to oppose him, he will not dare to go against you. If he defeats you while you are sleeping, then this does not happen because of his strength, but because of your cowardice. Who, even the weakest, will not defeat the sleeper? But now the mighty one is bound, his vessels are plundered (see Matt. 12:29), his strength is crushed, his refuge is destroyed, his swords are taken away from him. What do you want more? Why are you afraid of him? Why are you afraid? You are commanded to trample on him, weakened: why do you tremble, tell me, why do you hesitate? Don't you understand what kind of Helper you have? After all, not only has the enemy become weaker, but your help has also become greater. The troubles of the flesh have been pacified, the burden of sin has been laid aside, you have received the grace of the Spirit, the power of the anointing: “Because the law, being weak through the flesh, had no power, God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sacrifice for sin and condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the flesh” (Rom. 8:3, 4). He made the flesh submissive, gave you weapons - the breastplate of righteousness, the girdle of truth, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit; He gave you a pledge; He feeds you with His flesh, He gives you His blood to drink; handed you the cross like a spear, a spear that will never be broken; He tied the devil and threw him to the ground. So, you are irresponsible if you are victorious; you have no excuse if you suffer defeat, because you have countless means to victory. “The net was broken, and we were delivered. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who created heaven and earth” (Ps. 123:7, 8). Do you see what kind of Leader you have, what kind of King? The Creator of everything, by His word, produced such creatures, so huge, so great. Don’t lose heart, stand courageously; nothing prevents you from erecting a glorious trophy (2). The Devil did not exist from the very beginning, but was created by an Angel; He called himself a devil when he slandered God before people, and people before God, when he began to arm the Master against the servant and the servant against the Master. If the devil comes to us and says, for example, this: how many disasters are there in the world! Where is God? Why doesn't He rule the world? - then, of course, he is slandering us about the Creator: this is precisely what was characteristic of the devil from the beginning. He slanderes God against Adam, saying: “But God knows that in the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods” (Gen. 3:5). Out of envy, he says, God forbade you to eat (5). The devil promises us a lot, but not in order to give, but in order to take from us. He promises to deliver wealth through theft in order to take the Kingdom and righteousness away from us; spreads treasures across the earth, like snares and nets, in order to deprive both these treasures and heavenly ones; wants to enrich us here so that we will not have wealth there. When he cannot deprive us of the heavenly inheritance through wealth, he chooses another path - the path of poverty, as he did with Job. When he saw that wealth did not harm Job in any way, he tied a net of poverty, hoping in this way to gain victory over him. What could be crazier than this? He who knew how to use wealth wisely will be all the more courageous in enduring poverty. He who did not have an addiction to wealth when he possessed it will not seek it when it is no longer there, just as blessed Job indeed did not seek it; on the contrary, in poverty he became even more glorious. Although the evil demon could have deprived him of his wealth, he not only did not deprive him of his love for God, but even strengthened it even more and, having taken everything from him, made Job enriched with even greater blessings, so that the devil did not even know what else to do. The more he amazed him, the more he saw strength in him. And when, having tried all means, he did not receive any success, he finally resorted to an ancient weapon - his wife, and, putting on the mask of compassion, very vividly and touchingly depicts his misfortunes and, as if hoping to deliver him from disasters, gives disastrous advice. But with this he did not defeat Job; this amazing husband noticed his cunning, and with great prudence blocked the lips of his wife, who, at the suggestion of the devil, offered advice. This is what we must do. Even if in the person of a brother, or a sincere friend, or a wife, or one of the people closest to us, the devil inspired us with something inappropriate, we should not judge words by face and accept advice, but also by disastrous advice we should conclude about the one who offers advice and turn away from him. Even now, the devil often acts in a similar way: he takes on the guise of compassion, and, pretending to be benevolent, gives us advice that is more destructive and harmful than any poison. His business is to flatter us to our harm, but God’s business is to punish us for our good (6). The cunning devil uses great [cunning, and violence, and] relaxation for the destruction of a person, and begins his actions from small things. Look: he wanted to bring Saul to the point where he would go and listen to the chatter of the ventriloquist. If he had begun to suggest this to Saul at the beginning, Saul, of course, would not have listened to him. How, in fact, would someone who himself pursued sorcery listen? Therefore, he quietly and little by little leads him to this. And, firstly, when Saul did not listen to Samuel and in his absence dared to offer a burnt offering, then, being accused, he says that great need insisted on the part of the enemies; and while he should have been crying, he remained calm, as if he had done nothing. Then God commanded the destruction of the Amalekites, but he did not fulfill this either. Then his evil intentions against David followed, and thus, slipping unnoticeably and little by little, he could no longer stop until he finally plunged himself into the very abyss of destruction. This is what happened to Cain. The devil did not immediately entice him to kill his brother, since he would not have had time to convince him; but, firstly, it persuades him to sacrifice the worst, instilling in him that there is no sin in this; secondly, he kindled hatred and envy in him, assuring him that there was nothing in this either; thirdly, he convinced him to kill his brother and shut himself up before God in the vile murder; and did not retreat from him until he brought him to extreme evil. So, it is necessary to repel evil at the beginning; even if the first crimes did not entail further ones, and then they cannot be neglected; Meanwhile, they reach even more when the soul becomes remiss (7). When someone offends you, look not at him, but at the devil, who encourages him to do so; pour out all your anger on the devil, and even feel sorry for him, since he is under the influence of the devil. If lies are from the devil (see John 8:44), then even more so is unreasonable anger from him. Likewise, when you see someone mocking you, think that it is the devil who is prompting him, because mockery is not a Christian thing (9). Do not give him [the devil] any mercy, just as God did not give Israel, because he is stiff-necked; do not make concessions to him: he leads you to sin. But be ahead of your enemy and tell him: “Get away from Me, Satan, because you are thinking not about the things of God, but about the things of men” (Mark 8:33). Flee from him, as Elijah ran away from Jezebel, hasten to the honor of the high calling. Do not allow him to catch up with you, just as Absalom’s servants could not catch up with Johanthan and Ahimaaz, the priests of the Lord who fled [to David], do not allow him to capture you, as the servants of the king of Jericho could not capture the spies, but if possible, deceive him, as Rahab the harlot deceived the detectives. Let him not be able to subjugate you to himself, just as Pharaoh could not subjugate Moses and Aaron, but you will outwit him, like the wise men outwitted Herod. Do not weaken in the fight against him: after all, you have God as your manager, and Christ as your doctor. Do not be afraid: you have as your anointing agent the Holy Spirit, who has anointed you with myrrh from the mysterious horn of Samuel. Do not be afraid of thirst: you have with you in your pumpkin the water of repose - Baptism, so that, moving forward, that is, through the preaching of Jonah, you can restore your strength. Overturn his tyrannical chariot. Throw him into the hole he dug himself; throw it there at the very bottom. Exclaim in the words of the psalm: “From the depths I cry to You, O Lord. God! hear my voice” (Ps. 129:1, 2). Throw it into the depths, saving yourself from its destruction. Raise your reverend hands high to the King, accept from Him the palm wreath, as the youths once did, and shaking it, worship Him, because Bel has fallen, Dagon has been crushed (see Isa. 46:1). Thanks be to God, who has given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Cor. 15:57). With such a victory, you could open yourself to paradise, like to a public pool, where there are four springs with abundant water like a pool, and rest in a greener place, where the words would be so appropriate: He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me to still waters (Ps. 23:2). And boasting of all this, you could say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; But now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. 4:7, 8 ) (9). How good it is that divine Scripture distracts us from sin in every way: “Oh, that you would now hearken to His voice: do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness” (Ps. 94:7, 8), and: “instruct one another every day... lest any of you be hardened by being deceived by sin” (Heb. 3:13). The devil often plots his intrigues here. When he notices that the soul begins to feel sins and think about the consequences of punishment, he suggests this kind of thought: I am still very young, the time will come for repentance, and now I will take advantage of what I have, while I still take possession of the subject of the dispute; I will somehow protect myself from this, but I will first end with pleasure and pleasure, and then I will have time to repent. Tomorrow comes again, and again it completely entangles you with these same devilish reasonings: again it points to the future, but distracts you from the present; and so every day - today keeping you in pleasures, and relegating hopes of repentance to tomorrow, he forces you to waste your life day after day in the service of sin (9). We need a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation and a spiritual sword, so that we not only do not suffer harm, but, if the devil wants to attack us, cut off his head; we need unceasing prayers to trample it underfoot. The devil is shameless and arrogant; Moreover, it attacks from below, however, and in this way wins. And the reason for this is that we ourselves do not try to be above his blows: after all, he cannot rise high, but creeps on the ground, and therefore the serpent is his image. And if God showed him such a place in the beginning, how much more so is he now. If you do not know what it means to attack from below, I will try to explain to you the method of such a struggle. So what does it mean to attack from below? To overcome through earthly things, through pleasures, wealth and everything of life. Therefore, if the devil sees that someone is soaring towards the sky, then, firstly, he cannot jump on him, and secondly, if he decides, he will quickly fall: after all, he has no legs - don’t be afraid, he doesn’t have wings - don’t be afraid, he crawls only on the ground and grovels among earthly affairs. Let you have nothing in common with the earth, then you will not need any labor. The devil does not know how to fight openly, but, like a serpent, he hides in thorns, often hiding in the charm of wealth. If you cut this thorn, he will immediately become timid and run away, and if you know how to charm him with divine spells, you will immediately wound him. We have spiritual spells - the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross. This spell not only drives the dragon out of its lair and into the fire, but even heals wounds (11). You might be interested in: