“His watchmen are blind, all of them know nothing. All fo them are mute dogs unable to bark, dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; and the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied. And they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each one to his unjust gain, to the last one. ‘Come,’ they say, ‘let us get wine and let us drink heavily of strong drink; and tomorrow will be like today, only more so.’” -Isaiah 56:10-12

There is a fairly well-known proverb that says, “let sleeping dogs lie.” Perhaps you have a better hold on this than I do. I have a puppy that I am drawn to hug and overwhelm with affection when he is sleeping, resting, or sitting by himself. For this reason I have experienced an elbow (dogs have elbows, right?) to the face and a fat lip.

This idiom is meant to advise us to leave some things as they are if they are not causing any trouble, lest trouble will be stirred. It should make perfect sense to those of us that are married; if an argument or a possible area of tension has been dropped, do not reopen the issue unless necessary.

Let sleeping dogs lie. 

Recently, I heard a friend teaching over spiritual warfare and the reality of Ephesians 6. He explained the need for sobriety when looking at our present reality as it is: a very real war. In real battle, he explained, there is little room for joking, playing games or long lasting skirmishes among the same camp. Friendly fire is devastating. There is definitely no room for a soldier who is unwilling to address the fact that there is a real life enemy shooting at them! 

As gently as he set up the argument, he ended it with a statement that hit me with the utmost conviction: “When it comes to the very real war that Christians are fighting with God, against Satan and his demonic forces, Satan has no need to distract, bind, attack or oppose those that have already done his job for him. All he has to do is let sleeping saints lie.”

Christians are called to fight in such a way that “..the gates of hell will not  prevail over it” (Matthew 16:18). If I have no intentions of overpowering, invading or climbing over a gate or wall, what kind of threat is it to me? I have not heard of an aggressively hostile gate, sneaking up on the unexpecting.

The reason that I flush out all of these thoughts (sarcastic and otherwise) is that we have to recognize the climate in which we live. It means very little and it costs even less to call yourself “Christian” in 21st century America (it used to be a networking faux pas to say anything else). In a culture where associating myself with Jesus Christ can mean nothing more than having closed my eyes and checked a box when I was in middle school, what motivation does the opposition have to...oppose? His job is already done! Satan is simply watching his investments gain interest. That person poses no threat to the gates of hell.

The question I pose, and that I challenge you to extend to those around you with a cross tattoo or a Jesus chain is this: “Are you actually in the battle or did you just buy the jersey of your favorite team?” Look at your life! War requires sacrifice. A battle is not a battle until shots are fired. Are you being shot at? And if you are, is it a surprising thing that you quickly surrender or retreat from? 

Kaiser Soze in The Usual Suspects aptly said, “The greatest trick that the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist.” 

The greatest investments are those that you do not have to touch in order to gain capital. The best crops are those that require no upkeep. The greatest attack is one that goes unattributed and unnoticed, continually depleting the resources of one’s enemy. 

Make for certain that you are not a pseudo-warrior for Christ who’s enemy has the marching orders, “let sleeping saints lie.” Otherwise, you may be one of his greatest tools to discourage and distract the rest of the fleet.