Friday, June 15, 2007

Do you dance with the devil?

"Do you like to dance with devil in the pale moonlight?" This post might be weird. One of my favorite books is "Paradise Lost." Milton portrays Satan in a very romantic kind of way. "Romantic" being defined not as having to do with love as we mostly use it, but romantic being a quality of the epic hero of most classical, medieval, and renaissance literature. He is portrayed as someone who feels remorse, pain, and longs to have mercy. Listen to Milton as Satan cries out, "O had his powerful destiny ordained me some inferior angel, I had stood then happy; no unbounded hope had raised ambition." What is it about us that we hope and long that even the most evil character still has some good? Darth vador, Gollum, Hanibal, etc. We all hope that in the end that not only will evil be vanguished but that evil will turn to good..."Is there no place left for repentence, none for pardon left?" Now i am not saying that we should feel bad for satan...however, why are God's mercy's "new every morning" and He will "remove our sins as far as east is from west." Why does God "desire that none should parish," and "long to see his creation reconciled back to him," yet turn his face from his most beautiful angel? Were we not also those that spit in the face of God? Were we not also "children of wrath," and possessing "hearts that are desperately evil." There is something charming, mysterious, and dangerous about Satan. Maybe thats why we are fascinated with him. Perhaps it is the arist inside him, for was he not the great composer of heaven, perhaps the writer of music that would melt our hearts, for no doubt it melted the heart of god at one time...yet there is only darkness in him now. Only evil and perversion from his heart. "Farewell hope, and with hope farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil be thou my good...for better to reign in hell than serve in Heav'n." But what if he repented? What if he turned to God for mercy? Would God turn him away? Would his heart not be filled with love again?

6 comments:

Eric Sidler said...

Interesting. The only thing that comes to mind for me is that though humans and angels are both created beings, angels are created to serve God whereas humans are created for relationship with him.

Anonymous said...

I have had the same thought as Eric.

Elena said...

We had some discussions about it before :) I think it's interesting to know if angels ever want to return to god or if some angels turn away from him now.... I don't know... I wonder. Actually, we never talk about the angels but the Bible has quite few references to them... It'd be interesting to know more about them.

Layne Eiler said...

HAVE YOU SEEN MEET JOE BLACK?

Dave P said...

no i have not seen it

amelia said...

thanks for the compliment, david. :)

ps: i love paradise lost. one of my favorites!

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