It is generally acknowledged that throughout their life the Lord's people have three adversaries: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
These are equally the enemies of God for we read in 1 John 2.15: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him". Thus we see how the world is opposed to the Father. Then in Galatians 5.17 we read of the flesh: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other". Then concerning the devil, the Lord Jesus says: "Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (Jn 14.30).
Thus we see that the world, the flesh and the devil are adversaries of God. Further, concerning the devil, it is written in 2 Corinthians 4.3-4: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image God, should shine unto them".
In this context, there are three men in the Bible who lost their sight and who characterise the three elements mentioned. These three men are: Zedekiah (2 Kings 25.7), Samson (Judg 16.21), and Elymas (Acts 13.11).
The world illustrated by Zedekiah's reign
Zedekiah, the last king of Judah prior to the captivity, had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. This left the people of Judah completed unperturbed, for Zedekiah was a tolerant man. Instead of maintaining the purity and the holiness of the temple, he allowed all sorts of transgression of the Law of God. We read in 2 Chronicles 36.13-16 how he revolted against the king of Babylon: "And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from returning to the Lord God of Israel. Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, there the was no remedy".
Zedekiah's reign can be summed up the old saying: "Vox populi, vox Dei" - the voice of the people is the voice of God. In our day, morality is determined by the opinion of the majority, the world, and not by the Word of God. Finally Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, fled the land, was recaptured and, to punish him, the king of Babylon murdered his sons, the last thing that Zedekiah ever saw before his eyes were put out.
The flesh illustrated by the life of Samson
The book of Judges reveals to us this enigmatic character. But who were the judges of that period? They were individuals raised up by God to administer, lead, and oftimes deliver the people of Israel from the yoke of their oppressors. Samson judged Israel for twenty years and during that period he displayed incredible violence on a number of occasions. He encountered a lion and killed it as though it had been a goat. In revenge against those that had taken his wife he set fire to the tails of 300 foxes and set them loose in the corn fields of his enemies. When taken and bound with cords, he broke the cords, and with the jawbone of an ass he killed a thousand men.
He was a man dominated by carnal passions. Despite the objections of his parents, he took a Philistine woman. Later he was seduced by Delilah who succeeded in discovering the secret of his strength: his uncut hair. While he was sleeping his hair was cut, and "his strength went from him" (Judg 16.19). He was taken by the Philistines who put out his eyes as had happened to king Zedekiah.
The devil illustrated by the behaviour of Elymas
During his first missionary journey, Paul, accompanied by Barnabas, crossed the island of Cyprus arriving at the port of Paphos. They were immediately summoned to the presence of the governing magistrate, the deputy Sergius Paulus, who desired to hear the message of these two men.
In the short account that we have in Acts 13, we would understand that the deputy was a man seeking for truth. But the presence of Elymas the sorcerer (v.8) also revealed the spiritual ignorance of Sergius Paulus (13.7,12). So often, there are souls in search of the knowledge of the truth of God, who are ensnared by the activities of colporteurs of error. Satan uses the divers sects to turn sincere persons from the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. They freely quote the Holy Scripture just as Satan did in Matthew 4.6, but insist that it is not possible to find peace with God outside of their particular sect.
In the face of the hostility of the Jews, the Lord Jesus told them: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (Jn 8.44).
Thus, when Paul called Elymas a son of the devil (Acts 13.10), he weighed his words and revealed the true motivation of this enemy of the gospel. This man, like Zedekiah and Samson, lost his sight, blinded because of his opposition to the truth God.
Concluded.
