were constrained to bring him gifts. As a consequence his name spread abroad to Egypt

`for he strengthened himself exceedingly' (26: 8), but there is an ominous omission of

any recognition or reference to the Lord as was recorded of him earlier.

He built towns and fortified the gates and armed his forces but the record goes on to

say `he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and

upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal and his name spread far

abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong his

heart was lifted up to his destruction" (26: 9-16). Here is where human inventions

came in and led his mind away from trust and dependence upon the Lord to trust in self

and weapons of war and then pride had the mastery and he became its slave. The Hebrew

word for `engine' is chishshebonoth, the same word being used in Ecclesiastes. Perhaps

the greatest blow to all who trust in such inventions, is to read in Eccles. 9: 10:

Coming back to Genesis, we note that one son of Lamech was `the father of all such

as handle the harp and the organ' and another `the instructor of every artifice in brass and

iron' (Gen. 4: 21, 22). We need not rush to extremes and deduce from this, as some do,

that all music and art proceed from Satan. There could have been no music or colour

unless the Creator had made these possible. Moreover we note that Satan, in his unfallen

state was given `tabrets' and `pipes' by the God Who made him and when we come later

to Israel's Temple we note the provision God made in ordaining a choir and a large

orchestra to accompany His praise, and we have a number of references in the N.T. to

singing and music in heaven, though this will doubtless transcend anything we know on

this earth. God Himself is the supreme Musician and Artist and we see evidences of this

around us in nature even though man has fallen and creation is subject to vanity. Who

can look at a beautiful sunset with all its gorgeous colouring, without being moved?

Satan certainly did not invent that! And the final city, that God Himself will build, the

new Jerusalem is graphically described by the Apostle John in Rev. 21: where every

colour is lavished on it and its supreme beauty will be an object lesson to the whole

Satan, in his wickedness, is quite prepared to use good things as well as evil things to

achieve his ends, but because he uses them, this does not make them wrong in

themselves. In Genesis, the boast of Lamech that he had slain a man and could avenge

himself seventy and sevenfold was in direct opposition to Lamech, the descendant of

Seth, of whom it is stated: