Walking into the Noose

Reading:   Deuteronomy 7

Satan is not an overt enemy.  He uses deceit, subterfuge, small whisperings and secret combinations to whittle down the barriers of defense. Once his prey is sufficiently weakened, Satan will strike hard and with relentless fervor until every fiber of righteousness has been destroyed and the prey becomes a weapon unto him.  That is the simple battle plan of evil.  God will not suffer such underhanded tactics but will confront unrighteousness and evil head-on...

DEUTERONOMY 7:9-10

9    Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;  

10    And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. 

There is an intense review of these verses (primarily verse 10) from Matthew Henry...

Willful sinners are haters of God; for the carnal mind is enmity against him. Idolaters are so in a special manner, for they are in league with his rivals. Those that hate God cannot hurt him, but certainly ruin themselves. He will repay them to their face, in defiance of them and all their impotent malice. His arrows are said to be "...made ready against the face of them," (Ps. 21:12).

I especially like the middle part...

Those that hate God cannot hurt him, 

but certainly ruin themselves.

It would be much easier to choose righteousness if we were able to physically see the arrows pointed at our face but we cannot and must therefore find faith in understanding the tactics of Satan.  Understanding that by choosing evil we are not only facing the arrows of The Lord but willingly walking into the noose of the great deceiver.  We ruin ourselves!

~Kipling