I’m fascinated by war documentaries. The people, the places, the tactics, the technology… Much has changed in war (especially military hardware) but the strategy of code and camouflage has remained the same. Code and camouflage are all about keeping your plans a mystery and your location a secret. It can be as simple as invisible ink and face paint, or as advanced as computer ciphers and stealth fighters.
Camouflage, codes, secrets; the more mysterious you are to the enemy the more you have the advantage. When your enemy doesn’t know where you are or what you are doing he can’t plot or scheme against you. Numbers are no longer a deciding factor. Secrecy makes great acts of sabotage possible. Being mysterious is both defensive and offensive.
The Bible contains numerous references to fighting and spiritual warfare (1 Peter 2:11, 2 Corinthians 10:3-4). Like it or not, we are in a war against ‘the cosmic powers over this present darkness’, ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6:12). In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis likens this world to ‘enemy occupied territory’ and Christians to a resistance movement on a ‘great campaign of sabotage’. Considering Satan is ‘the god of this world’ (2 Corinthians 4:4) and Christians are persecuted in so many countries, Lewis’ comparison is well founded.
The Word of God is a most valuable weapon in this war against evil. Not only does it tell us the truth about ourselves, but also of our enemy. The Bible completely blows Satan’s cover. We discover from reading the Bible that the mind of evil is one tracked; it can only think the way of pride and power. In other words, the kingdom of darkness cannot comprehend meekness. Evil does not know the way of sacrifice and humility. Tolkien illustrates this truth masterfully in his classic book The Lord of the Rings.
The Fellowship that left from Rivendell to destroy the Ring had broken up. Boromir was dead. Merry and Pippin were in Treebeard’s hands and Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn were wandering in Fangorn Forrest. After the trio was unexpectedly reunited with a ‘resurrected’ Gandalf, Aragorn explained how Frodo (the Ring bearer), and most likely Sam, had escaped capture and were on their way to Mordor (the heart of enemy territory) to destroy the Ring, but they were alone and unprotected. This news did not dash Gandalf’s hopes; it had quite the opposite effect. It put ‘a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face’. Musing to himself about the avalanche these small hobbits had started and the fate of Sauron’s evil empire, Gandalf went on to say:
‘The Enemy, of course, has long known that the Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell, and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our purpose clearly. He supposes that we were all going to Minas Tirith; for that is what he would himself have done in our place. And according to his wisdom it would have been a heavy stroke against his power. Indeed he is in great fear, knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind. That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet entered into his darkest dream.’ (The Two Towers, p. 115-116, italics mine)
Destroying the Ring and refusing to use its power was completely inconceivable to the pride of Sauron. To the forces of darkness nothing could be so foolish as sending a hobbit, the weakest creature of Middle Earth, to Mordor, the stronghold of evil. Surely the weak can’t defeat the strong, especially on their own territory! The meek can’t inherit Middle Earth, can they?
Pride is small-minded and unable to think outside itself. Christ’s Beatitudes in Matthew 5 are more than pride can comprehend. Pride only sees the way of power. A helpless baby in a feeding trough was a mystery to Satan, and a Roman cross foolishness to the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. They were incapable of understanding ‘Christ and Him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 2:2). It was the hidden wisdom of God.
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. — 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (ESV)
Not only were ‘the rulers of this age’ unable to understand, ‘Christ and Him crucified’ was hidden behind so much humility that Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it either. No one really got it even though there were prophesies, signs and wonders. Jesus talked openly about His mission and the reason He came to earth. He even read the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue! (see Luke 4:16-21) But divine humility is a foreign language to the ears of the arrogant. The world was too proud to understand this infinitely humble God.
God hid the cure for our sin in the weakness of human flesh. Camouflaged by humility Christ entered the very heart of ‘enemy occupied territory’, even hell itself. It was there He carried out the greatest act of sabotage and defeated Satan and ‘the rulers of this age’. They didn’t see it coming. Humility flies under the radar of pride. Meekness is an enigma to the kingdom of darkness. Satan will never decipher it. Humility is the secret. It’s the power of the gospel and the fabric from which the garment of salvation is made.
Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us. – Andrew Murray, Humility, Chap. 2, p. 11
Humility is more than the secret to good camouflage; it’s part of God’s divine nature and the beauty of His character. Jesus did not learn humility when He was incarnated as a man. He was already humble. It’s God’s divine humility that enables Him to share His life, His image, His holiness with creatures who are infinitely less than Himself. God is humble by nature.
Humility is the deciding factor in this war against ‘the spiritual forces of evil’. It’s is our best defence and offence. The kingdom of darkness has no answer to our secret of humility.