Gaal was standing at the city gates when Abimelech and his army came out of hiding. When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, there are people coming down from the hilltops!” Zebul replied, “It’s just the shadows of the hills that look like men.” – Judges 9:35-36
Satan’s primary objective is to blind our eyes to the truth. Gaal could clearly see people attacking the city, but Zebul implied, “I know you see what you think you see, but what you see is not what you think!”
How does Satan work? He tries to get us to deny the reality of what we see about sin until it is too late. Once the deception is complete and it is too late to reverse it, he says to us, “Now where is that big mouth of yours? . . . Go out and fight them!” (Judges 9:38). Satan will mock for eternity those in hell that were deceived by him.
Jesus, on the other hand, is in the business of opening our minds. For the eleven disciples, He “opened their minds to understand” the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). When Jesus opens our eyes, we begin to recognize the dangers we did not even see before. “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death” (Proverbs 14:12). Lord, give us eyes to see!
