2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Each morning before I begin writing to you, I present myself to God and pray that He will direct me, giving me the words to say. He continues to be generous, something for which I will be eternally grateful. This morning, He leads me to continue discussing Satan's character profile by looking at the names used for him. In Greek, his name is "Diabolos," which means "an accuser" or "slanderer." This describes a being who is about the business of lies, accusations, and maligning others. That would certainly be supported in JN 8: 44, [Christ speaking to the Pharisees] "You are the children of your father, the devil, and you want to follow your father's desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never on the side of truth, because there is not truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of lies." That's tough talk coming from our Lord, but it had to be said. There are very few real dichotomies in the universe, but the conflict between good and evil, between natural and spiritual, between God and Satan is one of them. When we go back to EX 20: 16, "Thou shalt not bear false witness," this can't be missed. Other Scriptures describing this conflict are offered for support. RO 7: 22-23 exposes the consternation that Paul feels in dealing with it inwardly. "My inner being delights in the law of God. But I see a different law at work in my body-a law that fights against the law of which my mind approves. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body." RO 8: 5, "Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants." [See also: GA 5: 16-17].
In Hebrew, the name, "Satan," means "adversary." It is a form of the verb, which means "to attack, to accuse," or "to resist." Satan resists the truth, and Satan resists God. The first time the word "Satan" is used is in 1 CH 21: 1 at the beginning of the story of how the adversary influenced King David to take the census in Israel. "Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David take the census." We can think of the metaphor of a court room, where God is the Judge, Christ is the attorney for the defense, and Satan is the attorney for the plaintiff. In a court case, the plaintiff accuses the defendant of wrongdoing. I'm not trying to say that all plaintiffs in human court cases or their attorneys are lying, but in this mental picture I'm drawing, that is the case. Satan's lies have brought so much pain and suffering on people that the extent of this is hard to imagine. King David was vulnerable to Satan's arrows in the matter of taking the census in Israel, and it brought a lot of heartache upon them. He had to pay a penalty, which was to have God bring down an epidemic on the people in which 70,000 of them died [1 CH 21: 14]. Had King David left his punishment in human hands, which he was given the choice to do, things would have been worse. I often think about the havoc that Satan causes when he makes little children grow up thinking they are worthless and have no reason to have self-confidence. But that's what he sometimes does when their parents don't have the benefit of faith in God.
HE 8: 1-2, "The whole point of what we are saying is that we have such a High Priest, Who sits at the right of the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven. He serves as High Priest in the Holy of Holies, that is the real tent which was put up by the Lord, not by man." The job that Christ takes on is one for which God has prepared Him. It is to take our prayers to God and to plead with Him on our behalf [HE 4: 15]. He is our Advocate when Satan has accused us, and God has the power to deem us innocent. RO 8: 26 reveals that the Holy Spirit assists Christ on our behalf. "In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit Himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express." Look at God's use of His judgment with Abraham in GN 15: 6 when Abraham was justified, deemed acceptable to God and imputed with His righteousness. That is what God can do for anyone who repents of his sins and comes to faith in Jesus Christ [also RO 4: 9 & GA 3: 6]. In my heart, I know that David was forgiven for his slips. One need only look at the Davidic Covenant of 2 SAM 7: 12-13 and the Psalms to know that. Rest assured that while Satan can bring us a lot of pain and suffering, he is the loser, and he knows it. Remember GN 3: 15, "I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel" [the Protevangelium]. If we still have any question how this affects our modern day lives, let it be answered by the fact that we must: 1) remain in His word and in prayer daily for discernment, 2) that we must continually examine our lives to see if we are allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to the accuser's attacks, 3) that we must confess our sins in humility before God often, and 4) that we must have confidence that Christ, our Advocate and Intercessor is pleading our case before the Father in the Holy of Holies, and God will deliver justice. As long as we endure in our faith and remember that when we praise God genuinely, Satan hates it, thus making the power of praise an effective weapon against the enemy.
PRAYER: O Lord, when David was pleading for help against his enemies in PS 35: 19-23, he knew he was going to the Source of justice. "Do not let my enemies, those liars, gloat over my defeat. Do not let those who hate me for no reason smirk with delight over my sorrow. They do not speak in a friendly way; instead, they invent all kinds of lies about peace-loving people. They accuse me, shouting, 'We saw what you did!' But You, O Lord, have seen this. So do not be silent, Lord; do not keep Yourself far away!" Dearest Abba, I cannot help but think of Yassir Arafat, who attended the Oslo peace accords and told the Israelis in English that he would try to lead the Palestinians to live as peaceful neighbors with Israel. Then, he went home to the PLO territory and told his people at a rally in their own language that they should take over Jerusalem as their capital and fight to push Israel's boarders westward to the Mediterranean Sea. We look at what is going on between Israel and Hamas today, and can see the truth of Satan's influence over this Nobel Peace Prize holder. Today, we approach Your altar to request that You empower our president and the coalition against terrorism to find a solution to the killing that is going on in the Middle East. We know that You will carry out whatever is Your will and know that Your will is always righteous. From the time the Psalms were written, You inspired the Psalmist in PS 122: 6 to plead, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love You prosper." We humbly confess our sins and offer You our adoration, worship, glory, honor, trust, obedience, diligence, loyalty, praise, and thanks for using Your power and supremacy with mankind's best interests always in mind. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I'm directed to discuss Satan's strategy as we learn about it from the book of Job and other Scriptures. Just as David knew that he could appeal to the Lord for justice, so should we. His loving faithfulness and truth can be seen all over His works throughout mankind's history. Our Lord is merciful, kind, and compassionate. His wrath is never leveled without righteousness and only at His enemies. We must never forget that His love for us prompted Him to send His Son to the cross, so we could be saved and to send us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us understand His word. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn