FOUR FORMS OF EVIL

FOUR FORMS OF EVIL

There are four forms of evil against us. The first — Pharaoh — has been destroyed. He has destroyed him that had the power of death. He has abolished death. Satan in that form is gone, but Amalek, Balaam, and the seven nations remain. Amalek is the power of Satan to ^[p. 86] hinder you in the wilderness, to turn you back; with us, literally, it is the effort of Satan to prevent us from taking the pilgrim’s place as in the wilderness dependent on God. Then there is Balaam. Balaam is the power against us when we have, in a sense, left the wilderness. In another sense, we never leave it while we remain here, but it is when we are marching to heaven as the children of Israel were marching to Canaan, after Numbers 21, that Satan, in the Balaam form, seeks to hinder us, and this power is very subtle. The attempt is to draw you into social intimacy with the world, and then you are defiled by their false worship. The Thessalonians suffered more from Amalek, and the Corinthians from Balaam.

The seven nations are the wicked spirits in the heavenly places, and we suffer from them when we take our place here as heavenly men, and for them we require the whole armour of God.