The magician’s secret is the ability to divert the attention of those watching so that they fail to see the deception. Houdini, Thurston, and others down through the years have excelled in this form of entertainment. The use of previously prepared “props” makes possible some astounding effects, but the basic element in the performer’s act is the directing of the audience’s minds and eyes away from what is actually being done.
Watching one who is accomplished in sleight of hand can be interesting, confusing, and entertaining, and certainly not harmful. The audience knows it is being fooled. Mystification is part of the fun. But in the spiritual realm there occurs a deception that is not entertainment. It is rather a deadly attempt by Satan to divert our minds and hearts from God and his Son and to lead us to destruction. Truly the devil should be called “The Great Diverter,” for he never ceases his attempts to distract us and divert our lives into channels of his choosing that end in eternal loss.
“The Great Diverter” works incessantly to distract our attention from God’s plan for our lives. Knowing that the sanctification of the soul is the will of God (1 Thess. 4:3), Satan diverts the processes of thought, leading us to “a way which seems right to man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12). His unending objective for man is spiritual death.
I was once making my way through a large city by following the frequently posted route numbers, and should have emerged at the other side of the city on the right road. But I did not. In front of my car was a large moving van, and at a crucial turn it blocked my view of the road signs. As a result I followed the truck rather than the highway number.
In this case a return to the proper route was not very difficult. But how often Satan diverts our lives to the point where we lose sight of God’s way and follow some person or project that leads us far astray!
Again, we may find ourselves victims of a ruse something like one used in the Indian wars—a hat was placed on a stick and made visible so that the enemy fired at the hat instead of the owner of the hat. How adept the devil is at diverting our attention from primary to secondary concerns. The seeming “rightness” of some good objective can easily lead us into concentrating on this goal while we neglect the thing God would have us place first in our lives.
In our spiritual warfare we are up against not a novice but “organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil” (Eph. 6:12, Phillips). If we think we can cope with that “unseen power” in our own wisdom and strength, we thus prove that he has deluded us.
We all know the danger of having our eyes and thoughts diverted, even for a moment, while driving on a crowded highway. How much more dangerous to permit Satan to divert us from looking to and following after our Lord!
Perhaps Satan’s greatest diversionary tactic is the dulling of spiritual perception and awareness through the glitter and allurements of the world, of which at the moment he is the prince. In the parable of the sower Jesus tells of the unproductive seed, and in each case it is the evil one who has snatched away the seed, instigated persecution, or caused the “cares of the world and the delight in riches” (Matt. 13:22) to bring about unfruitfulness.
The Apostle John warns against the diversions of the world, so appealing and yet so harmful in their effects on the believer. “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world. The world passeth away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever” (1 John 2:15–17).
Satan tempts us, usually in subtle ways to pervert our priorities so that we seek first that which the world has to offer—money, things, fame, power, pleasure, humanistic “goodness” rather than the things that pertain to God and his kingdom.
In our own time one of his most effective ploys is to poison with doubt the cup of those who would drink from the spiritual fountain of God’s Word. Men are led to believe that the Bible is “untrustworthy,” “archaic,” “irrelevant,” and of minor importance. Satan has been devastatingly successful with this deception.
I once heard the amusing story of a man driving at night in a dense fog. Just ahead he saw the red tail-lights of another car, and he decided his only hope was to follow them closely. After a while the other car stopped. When the follower leaned out and called to the driver in front, “Why don’t you go on?” he received the reply, “Why should I? I’m in my own garage.”
Many victims of satanic diversion today have followed men, their opinions and their “interpretations,” only to find themselves at a dead end with no way to turn.
Satan also uses the devastating device of discrediting our Lord by denying his unique birth, his miraculous power, his vicarious death for our sins, the reality of his resurrection, and the certainty of his coming again. Remove these scripturally based truths and there is no Christ, no Christianity, and no hope. And that is exactly what has happened for many today who have followed the wisdom of this world while rejecting God’s wisdom.
Don’t let ingenious camouflage fool you. Perhaps “The Great Diverter” uses this as one of his most effective ruses. The Apostle Paul was aware of his devices and warns us against his agents: “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange that his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13–15).
Be sure of this: Satan will try to catch us at the point where we are weakest. But also be sure that we can have the victory through our Saviour and Redeemer. He has given us an armor to wear, a shield that is unswerving faith in him and all that he has done and is doing on our behalf, and a Spirit-inspired Sword against which our archenemy has never been able to stand.
To those who deny the personality of Satan, I say: For him to have convinced you that he does not exist is his greatest possible victory. Against a “non-enemy” there can be no warfare and no victory. This side of eternity the Christian will always be engaged in battle. So if for you “The Great Diverter” does not exist, you are much to be pitied.
