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The Stories Behind the Songs on Single #19
Fri., Oct. 14. 2022 5:28pm EDT
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
Here are the stories behind the songs on our 19th single of 2022:
THE DEVIL INCITES
I got the title and idea for this parody in April 2019, but I didn't do anything else with it until September 2022. The lyrics take a look at the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.
There's an old saying that goes, "Man proposes, God disposes." In other words, man can plan, but what ultimately happens is up to God. In a similar vein, the chorus of this song is "The devil incites, but man still decides." In other words, the devil can tempt, but what ultimately happens is up to you.
In fact, in Genesis 4, before Cain goes off to murder Abel, God says, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it" (Genesis 4:7).
Another New Testament passage sheds further light on the subject: "When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed" (James 1:13-14).
But make no mistake, our enemy is quite inciteful. 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that "Satan incited David to take census of Israel," and Job 2:3 tells us that God told Satan this about Job: "you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
Nevertheless, in 1 Corinthians 10:13, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that God will not allow us to be tempted in excess (INXS) of what we are able to bear, so nobody can say, "The devil made me do it."
GREED RIVER
During his lifetime, J. Paul Getty was named "richest living American" by Fortune magazine and "the world's richest private citizen by Guinness Book of Records. Someone once asked him, "How much money is enough?" His reply was telling: "A little bit more."
However, Jesus said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions" (Luke 12:15).
Paul took things a step further: "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a person is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Ephesians 5:5). It's ironic that the same people who might gain or leave an inheritance here on earth won't have one in the next world.
I got the idea for "Greed River" and some of the words to the first verse in mid-February 2021, then put it on the backburner till mid-September 2022. I'd been working on it for about a week when an interesting thing happened to me on September 22:
After dropping off my son at school, I was mulling over the lyrics but needed to stop at the grocery store. Just as I walked in, the opening guitar licks of "Green River" rang out over the store's sound system.
I'd probably shopped there at least three times a week over the previous 15 years, so that would be 2340 visits. They play a wide variety of music from many eras, but I can't remember them playing it before. Even if they did, what are they odds that song would start up the moment I entered the store while working on it?
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