I love being able to take something that isn’t Christian, or is only Christian-adjacent, and use it to teach a Christian message. Not only does it freshen up whatever lesson I’m using it to teach and potentially reach more people, but it also serves to affirm that the things of this world point back to the God who made it, even if they’re not always intended to by the person who idealized it.
So, today, let’s take a look at the popular country song by Charlie Daniels, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
I think most people look at this song in a pretty positive light, as in “Wow, Johnny faced down Satan and won. I can, too!” If they took this song that deep in meaning, that is. I, however, want to use it to explain why you should not try to face down the devil in a challenge of skill, wit, endurance, guts, or what have you, because the outcome is the same no matter the result. If you lose, you lose, and if you win, you lose. It’s best not to do battle at all if you don’t have to.
So, let’s detail the story of Johnny’s fiddle showdown with Satan. It starts with Satan doing what he’s always doing: trying to steal souls and cause people to experience eternal suffering. And let me pause for just a minute because the imagery from “He was lookin’ for a soul to steal” is so potent. It should serve as a reminder that your soul doesn’t belong to the devil. You and your soul belong to God; Satan’s trying to steal you away from Him.
When Satan appears to Johnny and challenges him to a duel, he appeals to two different sins. In fact, if you’re familiar with some Roman Catholic church teachings, you’ll note that they happen to be two of the seven deadly sins: greed and pride.
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the Devil his due.
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you.
The first thing he does is appeal to greed. Look, I’ll give you a shiny fiddle made entirely of gold! Do you know how much a solid gold fiddle would be worth? Well, I did the research so you wouldn’t have to guess. A solid gold fiddle would weigh around 30 pounds and be worth $251,520 in 1979 when Daniels released this song. In today’s money, that’s $901,730.38.
Next, Satan appeals to Johnny’s pride. He basically pulled the, “Anything you can do, I can do better” card. So, not only does he have the hook into Johnny on the value of the fiddle—despite the fact that Johnny clearly has a perfectly good one in his hands—he also suckered him in on claims that he wasn’t good enough.
So, what does Johnny do in response? He sins, and he knows it, too.
The boy said, "My name's Johnny, and it might be a sin,
But I'll take your bet
And you're gonna regret 'cause I'm the best there's ever been.
He admits that what he’s doing is wrong, but he’s been so thoroughly ensnared by his greed and his desire to prove his superiority that he jumps right into boiling water without thinking twice. There’s also something incredibly dangerous in the last line above, but hold off on that in the back of your mind until I get through the next two verses.
Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard.
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia and the Devil deals the cards.
Have you heard the saying, “The house always wins?” In gambling, it’s a poorly hidden allusion to the understanding that even when you win you lose because, at the end of the day, no matter how much money you make, the house always makes more. The house always comes out better than the people gambling in the casino—how else do you think a casino manages to run itself if it doesn’t win more money than its patrons?
That’s the case here, too. It doesn’t matter if Johnny comes out on top in the fiddle duel because the devil’s victory is so much larger than Johnny’s. That’s why you don’t gamble with Satan/sin. When you do, Satan always deals, and the dealer always wins.
When the Devil finished, Johnny said, "Well, you're pretty good ol' son, But sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it's done."
If you’ll refer back to the idea I wanted you to keep in mind earlier, here’s where the devil’s plan all falls into place. In the context of the song, the “let me show you how it’s done” from Johnny right here sounds like he’s talking about playing fiddle. However, if you take it in the context I’m providing, he’s actually claiming hierarchical superiority over Satan, and even over God.
We know that Satan’s biggest wrongdoing was when he tried to claim himself as God’s equal. One of the things about pride is that it makes you believe you’re superior to your own position. If you apply what Johnny says in the context of his pride and the theme of sin, you don’t get an uppity boy claiming to be better at fiddling than Satan. You get a boy claiming to be better at sinning than the devil. You get a boy saying, “Satan, this is how you challenge God. Clearly, you’ve been doing it wrong.” Because what else is sin but challenging God as if you’re equal to Him?
The Devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
And he laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet.
Johnny said, "Devil, just come on back if you ever wanna try again,
'Cause I've told you once--you son of a gun*--I'm the best there's ever been.
Bear with me; there’s a lot left for me to unpack to wrap this up, but it’s fairly simple. When the devil bows his head here, I can guarantee to you that he’s not doing it to admit defeat but to hide the ear-to-ear smirk on his face. Because even though the song says the devil was beaten in the fiddle battle, he didn’t lose the war.
Here’s how he won: to start with, Johnny’s prize is meaningless. He’s a fiddler, but he receives a useless fiddle. How on Earth are you going to play a fiddle of solid gold? You wouldn’t be able to hold it up, and even if you could, the strings wouldn’t reverberate. Even if they did, though, the acoustics would be horrible. It’d never work. Sure, he could sell it, I guess, but that’s like throwing away the prize from the story he could be telling everyone.
Real quick metaphor time because I know that reads a little awkward. Selling the fiddle would be like trying to hide the sin in your past and acting like you never messed up. It doesn’t do justice to your story or the story God’s working in your life when you repent.
Goal 2 in Satan’s winning plan is that Johnny’s pride is still intact. He still firmly believes himself to be above Satan and above God because he thinks he fought off sin and won on his own.
The final phase of Satan’s winning outcome stems from the third line when Johnny says to Satan, “Come on back whenever you want now.” He’s given the devil free reign to continue inviting sin into his life. And you know what that means? It means that Satan walked out of Georgia one soul richer. That line was enough to indicate that Satan won Johnny’s soul in the battle. Why? Because the way the devil gets your soul is by you continuing to act against God’s will and grace by sinning against Him.
Johnny thought he won by gambling himself against Satan, but Satan had two pocket aces the whole time. In the end, when we try to beat sin by wagering ourselves against it, we only lose. The only way to win against Satan is to walk away from the table, to not be dealt a hand at all. Because even if you’re walking away from the cards with a couple extra dollars in your pocket, Satan’s walking away with your sinful soul.