The caption reads, “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” The devil’s sales pitch
hasn’t changed since Adam and Eve! If satan can cause us to doubt God’s goodness, he can
persuade us to disobey God’s guidelines. So many people are suffering the consequences of sin
because they were led to believe they would be missing out on “fun” if they obeyed God’s
commands!
It is absolutely true that the devil’s bag of tricks hasn’t changed much since the beginning of
time. He still uses the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16) to
deceive people. Eve was persuaded by satan that the fruit in the garden was good for food, was
pleasing to the eyes and was desirable to make one wise (Gen. 3:6). The devil still plays on our
appetites and our pride to dupe us into buying his bill of goods.
Moses recognized that all the fun and advantages of the palace in Egypt were only
temporary. He understood that practicing some self-control and humbling himself to identify
with God’s people offered more in the long run than palace life. Many of his contemporaries
may have thought he was crazy, but he was wise. He was able to count the cost. The Apostle
Paul penned these words of encouragement in 2 Cor. 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart.
Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.” Moses was not looking at the things which are so easily seen and enjoyed, but he was
looking at the unseen things which are eternal.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “...and with all unrighteous deception among those who
perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
reason God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that all may be
condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10-
12). Don’t trade the birthright of the eternal reward for a mere mess of porridge of fun here on
earth!

~Scott Gage, South Hill church of Christ
via PreacherStuff, Dan Williams, Harding University