Deals are made every day between two people, or organizations, or corporations. But a deal with the devil is something to stop and think about.
A few years back, Nancy asked me to take her to the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. This movie was about a high-powered fashion magazine editor, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. Andrea Sacks, a recent college graduate who traveled to New York to work as a journalist is played by Anne Hathaway. However, Andrea gets a job as a co-assistant working with Miranda Priestly and gets the deal of her life—travel, money, power—all right in the center of the women’s fashion world.
The only problems she had were losing her boyfriend, betraying her co-worker, telling lies, sleeping with a co-worker, etc. She sold her life to the devil. She sacrificed her personal life for her career.
I remember another movie of the same genre. I did not see the movie, Bedazzled, released around 2001-2002. The story was about a naïve Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser) who is granted seven wishes by the devil to share Allison (Elizabeth Hurley), the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul.
Somewhere in the 1940’s a hit movie was made called, The Devil and Daniel Webster (later re-released under the title, All That Money Can Buy). This RKO movie is about a poor, downtrodden former Jabez Stone, who in 1840 New Hampshire, sells his soul to “Mr. Scratch” in return for seven years of luck and prosperity. All he wants in money shows up because he took advantage of his neighbors. He is alienated from his wife, so “Mr. Scratch” sends Stone a beautiful house servant that entrances him. His son is also under her influence and acts out in rebellion.
With the clock running out, Mr. Stone begs for help from the attorney and orator and fellow New Hampshirite, Daniel Webster. Mr. Stone asks if there is some way to cancel the debt to the devil. Daniel Webster takes the case.
A trial is held and the jury is made up of popular Americans, now deceased, who were all classified as evil men—all men who were tricked by Satan just like Mr. Stone. Webster wins the trial by convincing the jury that they were tricked and says, “Don’t let the country go to the devil, free Stone.”
The jury agreed and as Daniel Webster leaves the courthouse, the devil whispers to him, “I promise you, your dream of being President of the U.S. will not happen because of what you did today.”
This very popular genre of literature and movies all started with the German legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles back in the 15-16th century.
Even Charlie Daniels and his band wrote a ballad about this: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”—a great country song.
The Bible tells us a lot about bad deals:
· Esau selling his birthright for a single meal (Gen 25:28-34; Heb 12:16-17)
· Sons of Jacob selling their brother Joseph into Egypt (Gen 37:27-28)
· King Saul bargaining with the witch of Endor (1 Sam 28:3-25)
· Herod bargaining with Salome (Mk 6:21-28) which ended with death of John the Baptist
· Judas bargaining with chief priests (Matt 26:14-16)—betrayal of Jesus
If you put a bottom line to this blog, it would be two-fold:
· Don’t bargain your life away. Invest it for God and people. 2 Cor 5:9, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
· No person on earth gets a second chance after death. Rom 6:16-17, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed.”
God Bless,
Woody
P.S. Don’t fall for “fool’s gold”! The devil always offers that which cannot satisfy, because he masquerades as an “angel of light”. (2 Cor 11:14)
Stay alert!!!
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