It was an hour later, or perhaps two, when Steve woke up, his head still resting on his hands folded over the Bible. He straightened up, rubbed his eyes, and took a few sips of Mary’s broth. Opening Harold’s Bible to the next marker, he noted that he was now in the New Testament. Harold had highlighted the first eleven verses of Chapter Four of Matthew’s Gospel, the account of the devil’s stealthy attempt to co-opt Jesus at the very start of His public ministry. Steve read the passage attentively.
“What was Satan’s strategy here?” he asked himself when he had finished reading. “In a word, to sever Jesus from His human nature so that He could not fulfill His mission. How? By enticing Him to use His power as the Son of God to serve Himself, not the Will of God. That would have put Jesus on Satan’s side. That same strategy had worked with Eve. But now the devil has thrown everything he had at Jesus and failed. And then what?”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
Steve sat there pondering how easy it would have been for the average person to fall into Satan’s trap. His enticements were perfectly in line with the cravings of fallen human nature: appetite, personal popularity, power—all self-serving. It reminded him of “the good life” as defined by most of the people they had met at Reedville. He sat there shaking his head.
Jesus knew what we needed to be delivered from, and He stuck to His guns. Those angels must have been a welcome sight when it was all over.
The next marker took him to Matthew sixteen, where only verse twenty-three was highlighted.
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.”
Exactly! Apart from Jesus’ influence, direct or indirect, human beings and Satan think alike! They’re on the same side! The Lord’s Prayer is chockfull of stuff that can put us on Jesus’ side in this battle zone, but you have to build your whole life around it. Jesus really means business in the few words of this prayer. They’re our defense against the evil one. Why didn’t I see this sooner?
And Steve’s mind wandered off into a tangle of events and choices that had taken him in the wrong direction over the years.
The next marker reinforced this one. It led him to John 8:44–45.
You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.
So here also Jesus says that the devil and the human race are on the same wavelength, that doing Satan’s will comes naturally to us in our fallen state. I suppose that’s what’s meant by “original sin.” He hooks us only to murder us, using clever lies and deceptions to suck us in. They become our ‘truth,’ and everything Jesus says which really is Truth, we reject because it doesn’t match the devil’s lies. Without God’s help, we’ll choose the murderer over the Life-Giver every time.
The last marker led him to John 14:30–31.
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me; but I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
That is strong language.
A marginal note from Harold cross-referenced I John 5:19.
We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.
That is even stronger language, and it sets us up for a lifetime of constant conflict if we are of God.
Another marginal note led him to I John 3:8b.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
That’s the whole reason He came? Uffda!
From there to Luke 10:17–20.
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
And then straight to John 12:31–32.
“Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
So, even though the devil may win many battles, he has already lost the war. How many times have we heard in our Gospel readings about the demons’ fear of Jesus and His absolute power over them? The demons are even forced to submit to the disciples! The Gospels are filled with Jesus’ confrontation with Satan. And what about Pastor Engstrom’s missionaries?
Harold’s note now led him to Mark 16 where the first half of verse 17 and all of verse 20 were underscored.
“And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons….” And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it.
Isn’t that exactly what happened in the early church in Asia Minor, and in Tanganyika in our own time, and who knows where else?
So it seems to me on the basis of the evidence here that Satan and his hosts can control individuals and societies in two ways—by doing everything he can to get people to ignore Jesus and live by their own instincts which are the same as his, and by harassing and possessing and afflicting people directly for the sheer pleasure of torturing them and driving them and their loved ones to despair. Jesus not only exposes and defeats Satan in both of these guises, but He expects us as believers to be doing it too. I would say that the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount give us the “new normal” for life in this sinful world for anyone living by faith under our heavenly Father, delivered from bondage to our infernal father. When I am done following Harold’s trail, I will have to soak up everything I can find in Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Kay loved it so much, and she lived it.
Steve’s eyes watered up at the memory of Kay sitting with him at the kitchen table. It had always made him happy when she took the lead in those few minutes of quiet devotion and prayer they spent together there each evening.
From Mark 16, Harold took Steve to two verses from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians (11:13–14).
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
“Eve thought she was being enlightened by him, and she plunged into darkness. I did too.”
From there Steve was led straight into Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter Six, verses ten through seventeen. He recognized the passage instantly. It was Paul’s “Manual for Survival” in the battle for souls on earth between God and the devil. He read it slowly, reflecting on it verse by verse, as he and Kay had often done with similar passages over the years.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
A call to avoid from the outset the disaster of relying on our own strength.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Without the whole armor of God, we would never be able to stand before the wiles of the devil. He will find any chink in our armor, Paul says, any unprotected spot, and move right in on us. Of course, if we are oblivious to the wiles of the devil, we won’t pay any attention to God’s armor. That explains a lot….
For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Uffda…. Paul really lays it on thick. These enemies are nothing to be trifled with. They operate behind the scenes, manipulating “flesh and blood” to serve their treacherous purposes. They raise up a Stalin and a Hitler whose capacity for evil knows no bounds and they turn them into pathetic stooges of Satan. Men like them may act like gods, but Satan is pulling their strings.
Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
“Therefore!” he says. That is, making a correct estimate of the strength of the enemy and of the certainty that he will have his day, take what God is giving you to survive his assaults if you want to find yourself still on your feet at the end of the evil day.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth,
We’ve already seen that this is a basic difference between God and the devil, between the Father of Truth and the father of lies. I can see why God’s truth goes on first, right up against my skin. Everything else builds on that.
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
“That would be my commitment to making the Sermon on the Mount my whole way of life.”
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
That means that wherever we go, we will live and spread the gift of peace with God through Jesus in a world which has made its peace with Satan. If we don’t, we’ve already fallen prey to the enemy.
above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one.
Unshakable faith in God disarms the devil completely, as we saw in the failed attempts of his flaming darts to kill Jesus spiritually in the wilderness.
And take the helmet of salvation
To protect your head. That’s the helmet that makes victors out of martyrs.
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Everything else about God’s armor is there to protect us. The Word of God defeats the enemy, as we also just saw in Jesus’ wilderness temptation by the devil. Faithfulness to God’s Word in a fickle world full of words is the only weapon we have and the only one we need.
From there Harold directed him to 1 Peter 5:8–9.
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.
Don’t let your guard down, Peter is saying, because if you do, you haven’t got a chance. The devil will swallow you whole. And he did. More than once. But Jesus kept fishing me back out of his gullet, and He still is. I am sure that the prayers of my angels in Heaven have something to do with this…. Only weeks ago I had all but given up hope.
The marginal note here said: “Now to the ‘Revelation to John.’ Read the marked passages aloud in rapid succession. Then ponder them all together.”
Steve turned to the last book in the Bible. These were the passages marked by Harold:
“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (2:10)
“I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; you hold fast My name and have not denied My faith….” (2:13)
And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour the child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the dragon has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short!
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child…. Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. (12:1–13,17)
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while. (20:1–3)
Hmmmm. Pastor Engstrom says that at Fatima Mary proclaimed that there will be an era of peace before the close of the age. Such a thing could never happen if the devil were still on the loose. But the conditions described here make room for it.
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations…. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (20:7–8a,10)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And He who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also He said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be My son….” (21:1–7)
Steve slowly closed the Bible. His mind was reeling. Suddenly he felt very very tired. He folded his hands over the Bible and once again laid his forehead on them. And that is how Mary found him sound asleep when she arrived at 4:45.