My youngest grandson was shocked recently when I pointed out an armadillo near the road. As only an eight year old can do, he screamed out, “I never knew armadillos were in our state!” He’s not alone; I meet people all the time who are unaware of the slow and unnoticed invasion of not only armadillos but also numerous other non-native species. The incursion of coyotes and wild hogs has reached epidemic levels. I doubt anyone living in a southern state is unaware of fire ants, which were accidentally brought to USA from South America, in the 1930’s. It took over eighty years, but now they are in every southern state and up the east and west coasts. No one dumped planeloads of these invaders while everyone watched on national news. No, it began with one pair of coyotes, one pair of wild pigs, and a single fire-ant bed. Slowly, quietly, and often unnoticed they multiplied and spread from one state to the next.
This invasion from the animal kingdom is probably not a work of Satan, but it does provide a vivid illustration of how he works in the spiritual realm. Sin is seldom an overwhelming incursion into a person’s life. It begins as a tiny seed that conceives through lust, grows, and gives birth to sin (Jam1:15). Solomon didn’t immediately turn from the Lord. When he was a young man, he allowed a seed in his heart that lusted for foreign women. He brought Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women into his harem of wives and concubines. Their gods and beliefs came with them. Over the years, their religious traditions gradually invaded Solomon’s heart and little by little eroded his total commitment to the Lord God. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women . . . For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God (1 Kings 11:1, 4). It took Satan approximately six decades through these foreign women, but they turned Solomon’s heart to their gods.
Love is the central characteristic of Christians. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Joh 13:35). Jesus warned that in the last days, most people’s love will grow cold (Mat 24:12). The word grow cold is literally wax cold. Because wax retains heat, it cools slowly. You can observe certain metals cool and turn back to a solid, but you would sit and watch a long time before noticing any change in melted wax. The lesson here is slow and unnoticed.
Jude, Peter, and Paul all warned about false teaching creeping into the church. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed . . . ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness (Jud 1:4). There will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies (2Pe 2:1). For of this sort are those who creep into households . . . (2 Tim 3:6 NKJV). The word for creep means sneak in unawares, lodges stealthily, or slips in by a side-door. Peter’s word for secretly means introduce surreptitiously or bring in secretly. Again, the common thread is slow (creep) and unnoticed (secretly).
The application: No matter how small and insignificant an unscriptural desire may be, we must never ignore it. Consider how many people have fallen because they said, “Oh, that’s no big deal. I can handle it.” or “If it gets worse, I’ll do something about it then.” People make a tragic mistake when they think they can control even the smallest sin. Israel essentially said these same words, settled down, and never destroyed all the Canaanites. They only annihilated the strongest and worst but left those they perceived as a minimal military threat. Over time, this led to their downfall. Israel intermarried with the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. They eventually forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth (Judges 3:5-7).
Anyone over the age of fifty has watched the moral decay of our country. During my school years, the worst any student ever did was get caught smoking. If two boys (girls didn’t fight) got in an argument and wanted to fight, the school Principle would take them out to the flagpole, give them boxing gloves, and tell them to go at it. Every morning the teacher read a scripture and prayed before we said the pledge of allegiance. I knew of only one gay man and just one single girl got pregnant. Today children face drugs, alcohol, assaults, stabbing, shootings, murder, rape, and robbery—and this is just our schools. Society as a whole is far worse. Obviously, things have changed. Not overnight, but slowly and unnoticed by a major of people.
I doubt we will ever eradicate the invaders in the animal kingdom; we’ve waited too long. Yet, this is not the case spiritually. It’s never too late. God not only forgives every sin we confess, He cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9). For those slow unnoticed invaders in our heart, the best advice we can heed is what Jesus told the church at Ephesus, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first (Rev 2:5).
Sustaining Word for the Week: Ask and allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart and cleanse even the tiniest seed that could give birth to sin when conceived. Satan may have been waiting for years.