Lesson 30: God’s Enemy, Satan (part 2)
Read: Ephesians 6:10-18 - www.bible.com/bible/59/eph.6.esv
We talked in the last lesson about how Satan lies to us to get us to a place where he can defeat us. How are we to deal with this very dangerous enemy? We trust God, the One who has already dealt him his lethal wound. Look at the very first promise in Scripture that a Savior would be sent so we could be saved – Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” God is addressing both the creature (the snake) and Satan. Woman’s offspring, her children, are usually afraid of snakes even today. But the last part of the verse is spoken in the singular – “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
“You” is Satan, and “He” is Christ. Now, if you’ve ever had an injury to your heel, you know how excruciatingly painful it is. That’s what Satan would do to Christ. But Christ’s wound to Satan would be to his head – a lethal blow. Those wounds were delivered to each other on the cross. When Christ died, and then rose again, He delivered the deadly blow to Satan’s head. He is now a defeated foe. But as with any wounded animal, it can carry on with its mad destruction for a short while before it actually lies down to move no more. That’s where Satan is today. But as the Bible says, “Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4.4).
James (4:7) also tells us to “resist” him and he will “flee” from us. The important thing here is we must first do what the first part of the verse commands – submit to God. We cannot fight Satan in our own strength, we can’t even recognize him on our own. But we do not need to be terrified of him because we have the Victor and King of all Ages living in us.
Satan will never leave us alone while we are trusting God and doing His will, but our Master is Lord over him too. God may very well call us to Satan’s attention at times (see Job 1), but it is never vindictive, and He never leaves us to our own devices. He is always with us, He never leaves us alone.
One last subject we need to address in this discussion about Satan is our battle-dress in this fight against him. We find this in Ephesians 6:10-18. Let’s look at the different pieces. Write what each piece of armor is:
*Girdle or belt of ____. This belt was used to keep clothing out of the way of legs and feet in battle so the soldier wouldn’t get entangled and fall.
*Breastplate of _____. The breastplate covers the important organs such as the heart.
*Shoes of the _____. The gospel of peace with God is what gives us sure footing on the rock.
*Shield of ____. The shield can be moved to any part of the body needing protection.
*Helmet of ____. The helmet protects the head.
*Sword of the Spirit, _____. This sword was more of a dagger and required close, personal contact with the enemy.
We must learn to see our real enemy behind the human faces we encounter. When it is someone we know who lies to us, gets angry with us, accuses us of something not true, we need to focus on the real enemy behind the familiar face. Our real battle is not “against flesh and blood.” This is the hardest part of battle. The flesh-and-blood face before us is someone God loves and wants to bring to Himself. That’s why our battle is up close and personal. Only the Word of God can separate the sinner from his sin, can separate “joints from marrow” (Hebrews 4:12). Only God’s hands are sure and steady enough to use His “sword” to accomplish His purpose. In any and every case, we need all of our armor in place to keep us protected.
Lesson 30: God’s Enemy, Satan (part 2) Print
Modified on: Tue, 15 Dec, 2020 at 12:59 PM
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