When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
These are the stories in the Bible that bring to us the real battle going on in the real world. In today’s church and society we tend to think and behave as though the person next to us on the bus, the train, the plane or the restaurant is somehow our foe. However, as the above story points out, the real danger in our lives is not the other party, other team or other country. The real danger in our lives is the demonic hosts who are attempting to confuse mankind by diluting, denying or diminishing the truth of the Gospel of Christ. Paul said it this way, later, in his writing ministry:
Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Jesus said it this way when he was talking to the Jews prior to his being crucified:
John 8:44 (ESV)
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Paul, in the above story, comes across a man called Bar-Jesus, a magician, whose real name was Elymas. His named actually meant wizard. This man opposed them by making crooked the straight paths of the Lord. He so didn’t want the leadership of his town to know Jesus. To stop the leaders from hearing the word of the Lord he simply bent the truth. The truth of Jesus is a straight path. Elymas bent the path to make the town leadership and others go a different way. Paul not only confronts him but causes him to become blind physically, just as he was trying to make them blind spiritually. The world today is trying to disguise the Gospel so that it might lose its affectedness. Yes, just like then, we can have hope that people will hear the teaching of the Gospel and respond to the truth of Christ. Elymas was not able to stop what God had begun:
Acts 13:12 (ESV)
Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
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