Witness Lee: "Little Serpent, what are you doing?"

If you are unfamiliar with Witness Lee, just click on his name in this sentence and the link will take you to the Wikipedia page that tells about him and his life. The following quotation I took from his book Abraham, Called By God. The book is a transcription from the audio of a series of radio broadcasts he made some years ago. So when reading it, pretend you are listening to someone speaking to an audience.The context is a discussion of the apparent breakdown of God's program beginning with the introduction of the serpent in chapter 3 of Genesis and going through all the havoc wreaked by the fall of man, through the flood, and all the way up to the introduction of Abram at the end of chapter 11. What he says here will all make perfect sense when put into the context of tomorrow's Sunday School lesson.

'Although Satan, working through fallen man, had apparently driven God out from the earth, God is sovereign and cannot be defeated or frustrated by any kind of attack. All of Satan's work simply affords Him an excellent opportunity to display His wisdom. Although sometimes I was sorry that I was a fallen person, most of the time I rejoiced, because I had been redeemed, regenerated, and regained. Because of the fall, our relationship with God the Father is sweeter and more meaningful than it would have been without the fall. If you will spend some time to review your life, I believe you will weep, not in sorrow, but in sweet remembrance of God's wise and gracious work. When we enter into eternity, we shall exercise our spirit and recall our time on earth, and the memory of that time will be sweet, tasteful, and meaningful. God is wise. He allowed the serpent to come in. God watched the serpent and seemed to say, "Little serpent, what are you doing? Go ahead and do more. The more you do, the more opportunity I have to manifest My wisdom. Little serpent, do your best. Go on until you are satisfied and can do nothing more." Eventually Satan had to say, "I have done all that I can do. I have exhausted myself in causing mankind to fall lower and lower. I cannot make him fall any further. This is all I can do. I am finished." When this point was reached, God came in, not as Elohim, but as Jehovah, the seed that was promised in 3:15. Nothing can frustrate God, defeat Him, or force Him to forsake His eternal purpose. He will complete what He has determined to perform.'--Witness Lee, *Abraham, Called By God*, p.9