P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

NOTHING BUT SILENCE FROM SATAN

It's been 42 years since audiences around the world watched General Lew Wallace's great spiritual novel come to life on the screen, but the story Ben Hur has a moment in it where not a word is said — and yet enormous strength and divine power are revealed.
Maybe you remember how Charlton Heston, arrested by the Roman leader Messala, is trekking across the hot Palestine desert with other prisoners. For days they march toward the sea where a life in the galley ships awaits them, chained below the decks to their oars. But at this moment, the parched, half-starved inmates can only think of one thing: water. They're literally dying for a drink of water.

Well, they arrive at a small village. And the camera angles are very subdued; we see just the hands of a young Carpenter, a Man around 30 years old. Strong hands, strong arms . . . but we don't see a face. And then these prisoners come into view. The villagers, moved with pity, bring the gift of water to the men. One after the other, the prisoners clutch at the little bowl for a few desperately needed swallows.

And for some reason, the Roman guard, a short, arrogant little man, decides that Judah Ben Hur shouldn't get any on this particular day. "No water for him!" he snaps at the women, enjoying his authority. "No water for him!" And Charlton Heston slumps down in the sand and the dirt, broken in spirit. Will no one come to his rescue? And he murmurs a prayer, not really expecting an answer: "God, help me."
All at once, he feels a hand next to his face. A strong hand is lifting him up, and giving him a long drink of cool water. He guzzles the cold liquid, gratefully looking up at this face we in the audience cannot see.

Suddenly an angry voice cuts through the scene. "I said no water for him! Stop! No water for him!" And this runty little Roman guard, all filled up with pompous indignation, comes roaring up, expecting his adversary to fall down and cower in the dust.

And then there's this scene which I hope will live forever in the vaults even of heaven's archival records. Because this Man, this unseen Carpenter with the hands that are both strong and kind, slowly stands up. His back is to us so we can't see who it is, but evidently He shows power in His face, in His eyes. He doesn't say a word; He simply stands up. And somehow He seems to just get taller and taller. He's a tower of quiet, silent, unspeaking strength. And this Roman guard has the words of authority die on his lips. "I said . . no water for . . ." He shrinks away, overcome by the righteous power of this Person he is facing there in the hot desert sun. Everyone there knows that the Roman has lost and that this whoever-He-is . . . has beaten him.

You know, if there has ever been a scene of someone saying "shut up" without having to say "shut up," I guess it's that scene right there. I'd give eleven Oscars just for that one wonderful moment. Jesus saying to all the forces of sin, of persecution, of oppression: "Shut up!" But He has such power that He doesn't have to even say it. He just stands up, and the unspoken words take their effect. Isn't that a tremendous picture?
I mentioned yesterday how the great archangel Michael went to the grave site of the fallen hero, Moses. And Lucifer was there with his lookout guards and his barbed-wire fence. "Hey! You can't come in here," he says. "Moses belongs to me. Death is my territory. All the cemeteries of this world are my domain."

In an old book entitled Patriarchs and Prophets, the author suggests that this mighty warrior, Michael, could easily have entered into an argument with Lucifer. Notice:

"He might have brought against him the cruel work which his deceptions had wrought in heaven, causing the ruin of a vast number of its inhabitants. He might have pointed to the falsehoods told in Eden, that had led to Adam's sin and brought death upon the human race. He might have reminded Satan that it was his own work in tempting Israel to murmuring and rebellion which had wearied the long-suffering patience of their leader, and in an unguarded moment had surprised him into the sin for which he had fallen under the power of death."

And Michael could have told his foe all these things; he could have debated and gone round and round with Satan until they were both blue in the face.
But he didn't. He said very simply, with quiet strength, "The Lord rebuke thee." That's it — those four words. "The Lord rebuke thee." In other words, a quiet "shut up." Discussion is over, devil, because the Lord is rebuking you. And he goes about the very simple task of resurrecting Moses — right there in front of Lucifer, "in his face," as we say now — and taking him up to glory. That's the kind of wonderful "shut up's" we sometimes hear from heaven.

And we find in the Word of God the wonderful news that the mouth of Satan — and boy, what a mouth he's got — is going to someday be closed up for good. Revelation is such a wonderful book because Jesus wins and Satan loses. Here's chapter 12, verse 10:

"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."

The Message Bible puts it this way:
"The Accuser of our brothers and sisters thrown out."

It says back in verse eight, in most Bible versions, that Lucifer and his army were forced out of heaven, or cast down. The King James puts it this way:

"And prevailed not [Lucifer, that is]; neither was their place found any more in heaven."

Now friend, we don't know what kind of a war this was. How literal was the fighting? How literal was the casting down, as the Bible puts it? You and I weren't there. But I've read suggestions that as the holy angels of heaven began to understand the character of Satan, and his kingdom, and his agenda . . . that they simply lost all patience with him. One writer puts it this way, especially in writing about Calvary:

"The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken."

And in a sense, the casting down of Satan might have been just a huge, universal "Shut up!" on the part of all God's creation. All the angels. All the seraphim and cherubim. All the sinless beings from other worlds — whoever they might be. For several thousand years they might have at least turned one ear in Lucifer's direction, as he ranted on about freedom and every-angel-for-himself and "I did it my way" and all the rest. But on that Friday afternoon, as they watched Jesus die on the cross, as they watched Lucifer work through the priests and the Pharisees to kill him, the whole universe kind of rose up and said to the devil: "Shut up! We've heard enough out of you!" And from that moment on, he simply didn't have a place in heaven any longer. A sign was hanging out on the front gate: "Persona non grata. Get lost, Lucifer." And you know, it was signed by every single angel up there.

I find one more great moment of heavenly victory for our consideration, and it's in the book of Philippians chapter two. Jesus, who humbled Himself and went to that cross on a lonely hill, who became a servant and a slave and a death row convict for you and for me, is finally exalted by God Himself. He puts Jesus on the throne He deserves; He awards Him the great crown of victory and rulership that all of us want Christ to wear forever. And then notice in verses 10 and 11:

"That at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Keeping that Ben Hur scene of silent triumph in our minds for just one more minute here, let me suggest to you — as the Bible tells us — that a day is coming when even Lucifer will have no more evil charges to make against Jesus Christ. For 6000 years he's been lying about his Enemy. He's put falsehoods in your head and in mine. He's been screaming out his blasphemous accusations, getting his agenda on our TV sets and in the CDs we buy. But at the end of time, there will come a moment when all of us will bow. Every creature from this planet — the saved and the lost. Those who love Christ and those who reject Him. And even Lucifer will be there.

The Bible doesn't say that God will tell His ancient foe at that moment to "shut up." But the very goodness of God, the universal impact, that tidal wave of grace which starts at Calvary and washes through the universe, will be such overwhelming proof to all of us, and even to Satan, that God won't have to tell Lucifer to shut up with his lies. Even Satan will finally kneel and confess that Jesus is right. That Jesus is the Redeemer. That Jesus is the King who deserves the throne. That Jesus is the one who is to be worshiped.
Jesus won't insist that Satan say all these things. No, but the evidence from the cross will be so huge that the confession will come anyway. Jesus will stand and Satan will kneel. And you know, I certainly want to be there to hear it.