Bewitched
“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you,” Galatians 3:1
Bewitched – The evil eye! If you are Italian or Spanish, you know the superstition about casting an evil spell with a malevolent gaze. Well, the Greeks were no different. In very ancient history, the idea that you could be harmed by an evil look scared people to death. Paul uses this Greek word (baskaino) to reprimand the Galatian believers. Who gave you the evil eye? Did you think that there was anything of merit in that old superstition? What made you so quickly leave behind the power and freedom of Christ and return to your fearful and impotent ways? Forget that nonsense about the evil eye! Don’t you know Who is in charge?
We might not believe in the “evil eye”, but we are sill ripe for Paul’s reprimand. Have we turned from the world of wishing for “luck” to the word that is wholly within God’s control? Do a little check-up. Are you confident that all the circumstances of your life are engineered by God to bring His purposes for you to fulfillment? Or do you still think that someone is out to get you? You know that life isn’t about finding a genie in a bottle, but do you live with the supreme confidence that God’s hand shows in everything around you?
Paul might have addressed his comments to us. “You foolish 21st Century believers, who made you think that luck or fate has anything to do with it?” “Who deceived you into turning away from Jesus in even the slightest of your troubles?”
We need a new picture of the world. It’s not the evil eye of Mordor that rules the world. It is the God of glory, the Creator and Conqueror, the Prince of Light and Peace.
Why were you afraid?
