Mirror Images

 

Isn’t that a beautiful shot of Mount Hood and Mirror Lake in Oregon? Not mine, of course, I found it on Wikimedia Commons to show how beautiful a mirrored image is – but how dangerous.

Starting at the edge of the lake, hikers headed for Mount Hood can walk for hours in the forest. Starting at the same edge of the lake but taking the image, a person could drown if unprepared for water, and they will never reach Mount Hood. Satan, who we know as a roaring lion:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9 KJV)

Satan is an expert at tempting with mirror images, and his temptations of Jesus are perfect examples:

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:2-4 KJV)

Satan did not offer to do anything for Jesus, He just wanted Jesus to do what they both knew Jesus could do – give His body nourishment. How could that be wrong? It would help his body continue. Jesus didn’t come to teach how to live here on earth, but to live eternally. Bread alone wouldn’t do that, but what came from God does.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Matthew 4:5-7 KJV)

Another “Show me a miracle to prove who you are!” This wasn’t in God’s plan. Jesus’ actions were to glorify God, not to show how important Jesus was or how many angels were waiting to serve Him. I love a piece from “He Left It All”:

Not one comfort did He bring
Not His robe
Not His crown
Not ten thousand bowing down
Not one piece of jasper wall
He left it all

Ten years ago I wrote that He’s Done It All, too. When He said “It is finished,” He was finished providing eternal life for us. The rest is up to us, to accept that. In the mirror image, Satan offered Jesus the world to worship him:

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:8-10 KJV)

For whatever reason He has, God has allowed Satan to operate in this world. It will be eternity before we know why, but we can immediately see the fallacy in what Satan offered – all he offered were the physical things of this world. What Jesus came to salvage were souls. Jesus came for the people in the world, not kingdoms nor their glory.

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10 KJV)

That thought is firm in the 59 English versions I checked today. There is no doubt it confirms:

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 KJV)

Satan has no part in our eternal existence with God. But he’ll spend your lifetime trying to convince you otherwise with mirror images to make this world seem the most important thing in your life. It isn’t. God is.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36 KJV)

Then again, how important is it for us to say we love God, and we won’t spend time with Him, others who love Him, or those who need Him:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:17-19 KJV)

Don’t settle for what’s in the mirror – go for the real.  Do you believe God? Work for Him? Tremble?