Our Enemy Wears Camo

“Suzanne, Come over here. I want to show you something,” my grandmother called out across the yard. She faced me in a clearing between two outbuildings with the laundry basket wedged on her hip. The clothes line where she hung dish towels drew a line in the air behind her.

My grandparents lived out of town surrounded by large pastureland where red and white cattle grazed. Tall wiry grass with clumps of brush, however, grew at the back of the house just beyond the outbuildings and Francon’s clothesline.

“Come on,” she waved her free hand.

I skipped-ran across the yard and caliche driveway to see what piqued her interest. As I neared her, she grabbed my shoulder, guiding me to a stop and turning me toward one end of the clothesline.

“Look over there on the ground,” she instructed.

I looked in the correct direction. Oak leaves of gray and dusty tan with bits of twigs and dead grass lay decomposing every which way on the hard-packed sandy soil.

“What am I looking for? I don’t see anything but dead leaves.”

Francon pointed to the ground about eight feet away. I could not see anything besides remarkable on the ground. 

After some minutes she said, “It’s a rattlesnake.”

I took a step back and stared harder, looking for curves and patterns. “I still can’t see it,” I told her. Francon moved closer to me and pointed. I stared down her arm and finger to the endpoint.

“Oh my goodness!” I nearly shed my own skin when I deciphered the size of that fat snake. It hid so cleverly that I would have stepped on it had she sent me to hang up the rags.

God gifted animals with camouflage so effective that we can stare in an animal’s eyes and not see it. Our ancient enemy, Satan, wears camo too. When the Spirit of God sent Jesus into the wilderness, He sent Him to be tested by none other than that enemy. He disguised himself with seemingly innocent temptations and scripture.

In 1 John 2:16, John tells us three areas Satan uses to tempt us to love more than we love God. “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and boastful pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” 

Here’s where Satan wears camo. Flesh, eyes, and pride of life are not evil. God made the world and everything in it, and said they were good! Food is a good and necessary thing. Owning a shelter and a dog are blessings from God. Feeling pride in a hard-earned accomplishment is cause for praising God. Satan clothes temptation in good things but appeals to unholy motivations for those good things. Notice the words John writes immediately proceeding flesh, eyes and pride of life. He writes lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and boastful pride of life. These unholy uses of God’s creation constitutes, “things of the world.”

Lusting of the flesh looks like viewing pornography, binging on food, drink, or drugs, lounging until roaches run rampant and the roof leaks. Lusting of the eyes looks like filling our houses, closets, and garages with stuff and more stuff. The boastful pride of life looks like name-dropping, bragging, talking without listening, or doing too many churchy jobs to feel and look better.

We commit lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and boastful pride in our lives within our minds as well. Adulterous thoughts, envy, jealousy, and self-pity are camouflaged sins as Jesus’ sermon on the mount reveals. 

Seeking anything good for the sake of satisfying an unholy desire is sinful. Ponder  Satan’s temptations of Jesus, which were temptations aimed at His humanness. The temptation for bread was lust of the flesh. The temptation to throw Himself off the cliff to prove He was the Son of God was boastful pride of life. The temptation to own the world and everything in it was lust of the eyes. Satan further camouflages the temptations by using scripture.

In our daily living, choices confront us which are difficult to decipher, because on one hand they seem good, but there is the other hand, which is not so good. We need Someone to step close and point it out to us before we step into it. That Someone is Jesus, who was tempted in every way we are yet was without sin. He sees through our enemy’s camo and defeated that snake in the grass.

Instead of posting meditations on Thursday, I am including a link to the PDF here: Week 3/Our Sin Wears Camo Meditations March 7-11. This way, you will not be bombarded with too many emails.

8 thoughts on “Our Enemy Wears Camo”

  1. Yes, our enemy is very good at tempting us to want good things with wrong motives!

    And I can’t believe how well you did camouflaging that snake in your picture!! I had to really look hard at it on my phone ;)! Yikes.

  2. well said, Suzy. With each passing day, I find the absolute necessity of abiding with Jesus the only way. And the distractions away from Him to be bombarding from all ways and cleverly disguised in camo. So THANKFUL for the indwelling Spirit to direct, correct and empower me to stay close to my Shepherd. Learning to rest in Him and trust His pointing hand.

  3. Bobbi Williams

    Excellent our enemy prowls around in camo. Seeking to devour our walk with Christ.
    Miss you Suzy.

  4. I know how well Satan can deceive us & try to get us to not take time with God. Each morning, when I begin to pray, I ask God to remove any grasp Satan has on me, wrap him up in it & fling him as far away from me as He can. Every snake I have seen reminds me of Satan & his evil ways. You three way of explaining LUST has helped me tremendously to see things in a new light. Thank you for that. I am just as guilty of it as others are & now I can do something about it. Thanks again for the enlightenment. 🙂

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