“The Devil Went Down To Georgia” is a masterful country-fried piece of theology.
The lyrics take us through the temptation of a young fiddle player named Johnny who is promised Satan’s golden violin if he can outplay the devil’s fiddling.
The interesting centerpiece of the gauntlet is that there is little that can draw the youth into a battle because he already has everything he needs: he’s the best at the violin and has an instrument that obviously does the job. What more could the lad want?
His ancestors Adam and Eve also were the best and brightest of creation and wanted for nothing and yet Satan succeeded in luring them into his web of promises. A side “note” here is that Satan actually keeps his promise to both: Johnny did get the violin and the Garden’s pair got to know evil.
Johnny was sure that God had given him everything he desired: “I’m the best that’s ever been,” he chided the devil.
It’s too bad Adam and Eve didn’t use Johnny’s line when Satan fed them his.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Outfoxing the devil comes down to believing that “God said.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”…Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew…The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Genesis 3:1 NIV, Judges 6:39,40 NIV, Matthew 4:3,4 NIV