One of my favorite books is “The Screwtape Letters”, where C.S. Lewis writes in the voice of Screwtape, a tempting demon who hates God and wants to drag all of humanity down into hell.
It is very rare for Screwtape to quote the Bible in his letters, but in at least one place he does (with derision and hatred) and it happens to be this week’s verse.
He’s a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a façade. Or only like foam on the sea shore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are “pleasures for evermore”. Ugh! I don’t think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision. He’s vulgar, Wormwood. He has a bourgeois mind. He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least.
I think C.S. Lewis is correct in thinking that Satan hates this aspect of God. And if he hates it, we should love it even more.
And thank God for it.
If you are interested in listening, here is this chapter excellently read by John Cleese.
And in case you missed it – here is this week’s song.
I left a message a couple of weeks ago wanting to find out how to get a copy of a song and also how to go about getting permission to use it. We want the song based on Deut. 10:12-13 for use in our Sunday school curriculum, Dwell. Please contact me as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Lynn Setsma
By: Lynn Setsma on January 18, 2012
at 4:12 pm