Daniel Defoe wrote, “Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there,
And 'twill be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.”
As God worked through Barnabas and others to provide for his people, the Devil inspired Ananias and Sapphira to try to get the same credit, without actually giving the money they made. What exactly were they thinking? We cannot be certain. For some reason, perhaps selfishness, they kept some of the money for themselves, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. This did not end well.
Peter confronted Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit. At any point, he and his wife could have just said, “We sold the property and want to give part of the money to the poor.” By trying to deceive the apostles, they foolishly thought they could deceive God. Except God can never be fooled. Holy fear gripped the church when he died.
It is never safe to take God for granted. He is not to be patronized. Stories like this remind us of Uzzah who touched the Ark of the Covenant to keep it from falling off the cart. Something inside me wants to protest, “Lord, he was just trying to help out. Isn’t this severe?” God is both loving and holy. We dare not relax the rubber band on either side. When the church sacrifices the holiness of God, it ceases to be the church. The gospel itself was at stake in their attempt to deceive.
Our finite minds struggle to comprehend our infinite God. We must know for sure that he is to be taken seriously. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis’s description of Aslan, “He is not safe. But he is good.”
