INTERLUDE

The Unfaithful Bride and the Faithful Groom: The Biblical Story of Covenant Making, Breaking and Renewal: McKinlay, Neil Cullan, Schwartz, D. Rudi: 9798375129211: Amazon.com: Books

Have you ever been at a movie theatre where they’ve had an intermission or an interlude at the opera? After sitting in the dark, the lights come on giving you opportunity to enjoy a “comfort break” or purchase some popcorn or have a cocktail. Well, during this break as our eyes adjust to the light, let’s use our time between Part One – The Unfaithful Bride and Part Two – The Faithful Groom to discuss some of the background to this book. Throughout this book we have used the term “piano man” as a device to engage the reader. Satan is a mysterious invisible spirit-being. The “piano man” anthropomorphizes him. It helps us to identify the Devil, to see the invisible.  The first reference is of course to a 1973 Billy Joel song by the same title. Piano Man, the lyrics of which describe a Saturday night in a busy bar whose patrons are asking the piano man to play them a song because he has them “feelin’ alright.” One can easily picture the scene. They’re all having a good time and he’s the one who’s making the revellers feel good as they have a drink. 

The second reference is not so easy to picture. It is of course Satan, an evil but invisible creature who capitalizes on our constant craving for “feelin’ alright,” our desire to feel good –whether we are at work, rest, play, yes, even at worship. The trouble for us, like some of those patrons mentioned in the Piano Man song, is that we all would like to forget about our troubles. In the case of the bar patrons, they do it through song. So, here’s where we drew our connection between Satan and “Piano Man.” Apologies, if you find it a little technical as we discuss the meanings of a couple of words, viz., “timbrels and pipes,” but we think it necessary to help your eyes adjust to the light so that you can more clearly see the evil creature that lurks around in the shadows. 

One of the many judgments the LORD brought upon Tyre for its wickedness was, “I will put an end to your noisy songs, and the music of your harps will be heard no more” (Ezek. 26:13 NIV). Isaiah speaks of the same, “The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers” (Isa. 24:8-9 NIV).  No more “feelin’ alright” for the Tyrians!  

We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that throughout Scripture the LORD may bring judgments on a people with a view to them repenting of their wickedness. However, the king of Tyre was the epitome of Satan, he anthropomorphized him, so much so, that the LORD said the following, 

Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you’ (Ezek. 28:12:15 NKJV). 

It would seem that in the garden of Eden there were precious stones all over the place! However, since their burial in the Flood, we now have to dig these gems (not to mention other blessings such as oil, gas, and coal) out of the ground. But let’s not distract ourselves (like fish going after a lure), with the sparkly things that the Devil may use to tempt us. Rather, let’s look at the words “timbrels and pipes” as they relate to Satan and his minion, the king of Tyre. For this is one of the places where we connect our “piano man” with Satan.  

A timbrel (tabret KJV), as it is used here, like a piano, is a percussion instrument, related to the drum. It is a tambourine. (See e.g., Gen. 31:27; 1 Sam. 10:5, 18:6; Isa. 5:12, 24:8, 30:22; Jer. 31:4 where the NIV, like the NKJV, translates תֹּ֧ף top as timbrel, as does Jay Green).129 The word translated as pipes (וּנְקָבֶ֙יךָ֙ neqeb) in Ezekiel 28:12 is a little more difficult. The TWOT alerts us to the difficulty, “The meaning of this noun, which occurs in Ezk 28:13, is uncertain. Suggestions include “pipes” (KJV), “engravings” (RSV)…”130 So, the NKJV’s “timbrels (tabrets) and pipes” is as an acceptable translation as the NIV’s “settings and mountings”. Anyway, that was just to let you know how we ended up with our “piano man.” 

Now, just before the lights are dimmed so that we can we can view Part Two – The Faithful Groom, let’s make some more brief observations about Satan. Says Thomas Books, 

Satan hath cast such sinful seed into our souls, that now he can no sooner tempt, but we are ready to assent; he can no sooner have a plot upon us, but he makes a conquest of us. If he doth show men a little of the beauty and bravery of the world, how ready are they to fall down and worship him! Whatever sin the heart of man is most prone to, that the devil will help forward.131 

So, we see that our “piano man” temps us by appealing to our heart’s desires. After the Reformation had taken off in 1517, legend has it that Martin Luther threw an inkpot at the Devil who was constantly accusing him. Visitors to Wartburg Castle are shown a faded ink-stain on the wall where this supposedly happened. I have never seen it but, in my mind’s eye, and rather cartoon like, I picture an outline of the shape of the Devil. And what if the ink was red? In C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Lewis has a senior devil writing to his nephew, a junior devil, as he tries to teach him how to get and keep a Christian (“the patient”) side-tracked from his mission on earth, 

I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that “devils” are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you. 

And any notion that he is a half-blind fully-deaf (from ringing church bells!) Quasimodo-like Hunchback of Notre-Dame needs to be expunged from our thinking. Yes, like Quasimodo, he does hide himself in the church, but he is not some grotesque rag-clad seemingly cretinous creature, but is rather more like the smooth seemingly ubiquitous Phantom of the Opera who wears a disguise, stays out of sight but secretly listens to us while collecting intelligence as he sings The Music of the Night. And so the serpent approached the woman.  

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen. 3:1). So, Satan makes his first appearance early on in the Bible. He deceives Eve upon which deception Adam is then tempted to eat the forbidden fruit and does. God curses the serpent and Satan in Genesis 3. Commenting on Genesis 3:1 Nigel Lee says, 

This particular serpent had been taken possession of by the fallen angel Satan (Gen. 3:1-4, 13, 15 & Rev, 12:3-4, 7-10 & 20:10). All of the angels had been created “very good,” and were apparently already in existence by the earth’s third day and possibly even earlier – c.f. Gen. 1:1-9, 31 & Ps. 104:4-5 & Job 34:4-7 (where the phrase “the morning stars” seems to mean the angels). Yet for His Own very good purposes, although God created Lucifer and the angels and man “very good” (Gen. 1:31 & Ezek. 28:12-15 & Jude 6 & Eccl. 7:29 & Luke 3:38), He nevertheless made them with the possibility of being able to sin, on the basis of their own responsibility (Gen. 2:16-17 & 3:14-15 & Rom. 5:12 ff & 6:23) – yet ultimately to the furtherance of Own glorious Kingdom (cf. Prov. 16:4 & Isa. 45:7 & 54:16 & Rom. 9:17-23 & 1 Pet. 2:7-9). The angel Lucifer once bore the light for Jehovah. However, apparently on God’s sabbath day, Lucifer disturbed the cosmic rest and dragged about one-third of the angels into rebellion against God (Gen.1:31 – 2:3,15 & Isa. 14:12-15 & Rev. 12:3-4, 7-12). For Lucifer and his angels fell into sin and became the devil and his demons – perhaps out of pride toward God and jealousy toward man as God’s image (Gen. 1:1, 31, & 2:15 & 3:1-15 & John 8:44 & II Pet. 2:4 & Rev. 12:1-4, 9-13).132 

Yes, Lucifer and his angels, a force to be reckoned with. Thomas Brooks offers this helpful advice. 

Now the best way to deliver poor souls from being deluded and destroyed by these messengers of Satan is, to discover them in their colours, that so, being known, poor souls may shun them, and fly from them as from hell itself.133 

So, after that brief interlude, we are now even better equipped to:  

• Recognize the wiles of the Devil and how he and the messengers try to tempt us 

• Discern what he’s up to in the church 

• Know that he operates only with God’s permission (Job 1:12) 

• Understand as much as you can of the purpose and use God has for him 

• Know that Satan is the master of disguise (2 Cor. 11:14)