A Great Cloud of Witnesses

“You think you know best—you can’t even tell wrong from right!—God’s ‘greatest’ creation!’”

This was the first thing I heard this morning.

The voice of Satan—or one of his demons—sarcasm thick in his accusing tone. I knew what the reference was. I made a choice to sin last night…

“You think you know best—you can’t even tell wrong from right!— God’s ‘greatest’ creation!’”

Surely God’s “greatest creation” would know to follow the voice of her Father and not her own will…

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Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

There is a “great cloud of witnesses” watching me (and all believers and unbelievers). The writer of Hebrews never specifies that the “great cloud” was comprised of only Yahweh and the angels; Satan and his demons are watching as well. I don’t know why I’m slightly surprised at this realization. I mean, 1 Peter 5:8 (Amplified) says “Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.”

And, like, I knew that—how else are we tempted to let go of the hand of our Savior (sinful nature aside)? —but with that sarcastic statement this morning, it just hit super hard.

Proverbs 14: 12 says “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Ouch. I embodied—fulfilled—that Scripture last night. Satan was right (imagine that!). I foolishly thought I knew better than Yahweh in that moment but I fell to my demise instead.

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Shane and Shane’s “Embracing Accusation” is playing now, and it is an apropos reminder that Yahweh, in His grace and mercy, has “redeemed us from the curse of the law” and that every sin has been paid with the blood of Jesus, the sacrificial lamb slain for the sins of the world, for the sins of all those who are adopted heirs of the Kingdom of God.

I contemplated, before writing, if I should really expose myself like this. But as the Scripture says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Whether in private or public, sin is sin. And the “great cloud of witnesses” sees everything, whether I expose myself or not.

I suppose the decision to write about this came about primarily as an act of obedience to the Holy Spirit and, as I started to write, from a desire to possibly help someone else. I write to remind myself, and any other believer who reads this, that because we have a great cloud of witnesses we can rest in the strength of those witnesses (the righteous ones anyway), and as a call to remember that we need to be diligent to not fall prey to temptation or give the enemy a footstool. The demonic entity that came to me this morning was right despite the sarcasm: we are God’s greatest creation. We are the only creation He took His time on, handcrafting us with patience, intention, and care.

As an aside, when we fall—because we will fall—-it’s okay to be vulnerable with God and other believers. At the very least, God can make beauty from ashes and if I have to be put on the chopping block so God can create something beautiful from my self-inflicted woes for the sake of someone else, then so be it.