Screwtape Letter #13 – Discussion Guide

Screwtape Letter #13 – Discussion Guide is article #28 in the series: Screwtape Letters. Click button to view titles for entire series

Letter #13

The Screwtape Letters Study Guide

The previous letter asks if things can go too well.
We’re about to find out.

 


 

My dear Wormwood,

It seems to me that you take a great many pages to tell a very simple story. The long and the short of it is that you have let the man slip through your fingers. … It amounts to a second conversion—and probably on a deeper level than the first.

As you ought to have known, … Some humans are permanently surrounded by it and therefore inaccessible to us.

13.1) Letter # 12 starts off with “Obviously you are making excellent progress. My only fear is lest in attempting to hurry the patient you awaken him to a sense of his real position.”

It seems that something has happened. Talk about how Wormwood “messed up”. What was God’s involvement in this? What are some of the differences between the way God reacts when we do something wrong versus the way Screwtape is reacting to Wormwood’s mistake?

 

Compare to Nathan rebuking David

We can look at David – after Nathan rebuked him for what he did with Bathsheba – Psalm 51 was David’s prayer for restoration with God. See verses 10-12 –

Ps 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Ps 51:11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Ps 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

It’s likely that something happened that got the patient to ask for a renewal of his relationship with God.

What does this teach us about God's relationship with us

As to why this could be a defeat of the “first order” – see the next verse of Psalm 51 –

Ps 51:13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

Not only is David’s relationship with God renewed – he’s going to be renewed in bringing others back to God as well. A very powerful witness.

When we do mess up – God is quick to forgive us – and with the blood of Jesus our sins are washed away as if they never existed.

When Wormwood messes up – The situation is very grave, and I really see no reason why I should try to shield you from the consequences of your inefficiency – he’s in big trouble and there’s no offer of redemption.

 

 

And now for your blunders. …. Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger of this? … Didn’t you foresee … Now, all that is undone.

 

13.2) After letting Wormwood know that he (Wormwood) made a huge mistake, Screwtape gets down to specifics.

What mistake did Wormwood make? Think about the line from Letter #11, where Screwtape says “I divide the causes of human laughter into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy.”

 

If we look at the difference between joy and pleasure ...

If we look at the definitions of joy and pleasure – there’s an interesting difference:

Joy – a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated.

Pleasure – enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking; gratification; delight. Also – worldly or frivolous enjoyment.

There’s the element of valued / appreciated in joy – in this case something / someone valued by God. There’s no valuing of us by Satan – other than maybe as a tasty morsel for dinner.

On the other hand – pleasure – what one “like” or is frivolous – that’s more like Satan.

By using the words “positive pleasure” – C. S. Lewis takes the walk out in the country out of the realm of frivolous pleasure and turns it into joy. 

If we do NOT look at the difference between joy and pleasure ...

If we don’t take the time to actually notice the difference between the two – and to see which of them fits the things we spend our time on – we can easily be misled. Screwtape is telling Wormwood that he should not have let the patient realize this.

From Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary:
Joy is the fruit of a right relation with God. It is not something people can create by their own efforts. The Bible distinguishes joy from pleasure. The Greek word for pleasure is the word from which we get our word “hedonism,” the philosophy of self-centered pleasure seeking. Paul referred to false teachers as “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4 HCSB).

And

Luke 15 is the most famous biblical reference to God’s joy. The Pharisees and scribes had criticized Jesus for receiving sinners and eating with them. Then Jesus told three parables—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. The explicit theme of each parable is joy over one sinner who repents.  1From Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. 2003 (C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, T. C. Butler & B. Latta, Ed.). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Of these three, especially the lost son parable is right on target for this discussion, since the son who was lost left the family and went after pleasure –

Lk 15:11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons.  12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

Lk 15:13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”

 

 

Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. … I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions.

13.3) We see more of the differences between God’s view of us and Satan’s view.

A homonym is a word which is the same as another in sound and spelling but with a different meaning. God and Satan both want to “detach men from themselves, but in a different way”. Talk about this – for instance in what ways, why they have a different view of us, and what is the end result?

 

Consider God's promise to Jeremiah about his future

From Jeremiah we see –

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

God will bring us back from where Satan will take us – if we ask.

 

 

It remains to consider how we can retrieve this disaster. … The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel,

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE

 

13.4) Now that Screwtape has plainly laid the blame on Wormwood, it’s time to move forward.

What is Screwtape suggesting? Do you think it might work? Why or why not?

 

Consider 'darkness' versus 'light'

For one thing – Screwtape is suggesting trying to return the patient to the darkness – to take him out of his moment of reality where he sees the difference between what’s being offered by God and Satan.

Will it work>

From what we’ve read so far – depends on the patient –

How strong is his desire to return? We saw that God can really use this re-rebirth. If it’s genuine.
What will happen with his friends? Will he go towards his church friends – or towards his “perfect joke” friends?
Will he focus on the reality of a good book or a walk in the countryside – or will he go back to the joke and thinking he’s better than everyone else?
The re-rebirth is a time of great possibilities and high activity for both God and Satan.

Will God really take him back – again – and maybe again and again?

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Mt 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Mt 18:22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” 

 

 

Vocabulary:

Sterilising – Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilising the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul.

Sterilising – Informal. to isolate or completely protect from unwanted, unauthorized, or unwholesome activities, attitudes, influences, etc.
In this case – killing whatever type of thought (seed) was planted by God.

Footnotes

  • 1
    From Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. 2003 (C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, E. R. Clendenen, T. C. Butler & B. Latta, Ed.). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

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