Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
Jesus Christ triumphed over Satan.
1 Peter 5 :8
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Apostle Peter writes this ominous message about the devil to each one of us. Had it been resounded at certain critical moments in history perhaps the outcome would have been different. Let us examine two such critical moments of life in mankind’s history.
In the beginning of the first life, Satan enters the Garden-of-Eden. A garden set aside by God for humankind to enjoy. But the devil enters it uninvited with his full armor of deception, temptation and cunningness. His goal is to entrap mankind into his domain. Upon his entrance, he approaches, rather coyly, to Eve and poses the first question to her. “Did God really say you must not eat from “any” tree in the garden?” Satan very well knows the specific tree that God had intended for man to not eat from. But he chose to paint himself to be uninformed and appear rather bashful. Eve no longer sees the devil as the serpent with ulterior motive. In her mind she is having a friendly conversation with something that is as innocent as a rabbit or a kitten. When that happens, Eve, and we as well, will succumb to Satan’s control. One has to wonder, what if Eve was sober. What-if she was alert as Apostle Peter instructs us to be. What-if she saw through the deception and the temptation. Perhaps mankind would not have fallen from the state of grace to the state of sin. In the beginning of the new life, a time of the birth of the redemptive state whereby our Father in heaven sent his son Lord Jesus to restore us to the original state that He intended, we see that Satan again enters to prevent us from leaving his state, the state of sin.
This time he enters through King Herod. King Herod was at the top of his world. He ruled over multitudes, increased his land and wealth, built fortresses and other large-scale monuments. But, Satan controls him by tugging at the thing that Herod values the most – his ego. He valued it so much that he lost his ability to reason or even question the credibility of the threat to his kingship. He got punch-drunk on Satan’s words. If King Herod was sober we would not have witnessed the carnage of the innocent. Had King Herod been alert, he would have realized that Jesus did not come to take on the trappings of his kingship. Unfortunately, Satan controlled him now and Herod turned into a savage beast that devoured and tore apart families. A state of rejoicing and happiness turned into a state of despair and loneliness. We should not loose hope because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ triumphed over Satan. But we do need to be sober and alert. We will be restored to the original state that our Father intended through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Father we thank you for sending your son Lord Jesus, who shed his precious blood so that we may be washed and purified to stand before you, honorably without shame or stain – just as you intended. Amen