Now Streaming Week 6: The Queen's Gambitنموونە

The Queen's Gambit has achieved both critical acclaim and record-breaking popularity. The series won Golden Globes for best television limited series and for best actress for Anya Taylor-Joy's performance as orphan chess prodigy Beth Harmon. Netflix's most-watched scripted miniseries was the number one show in over twelve countries. The storyline includes abandonment, addiction, coming of age, and obsessive rivalry, although most of the action surrounds adversaries across a chessboard.

For Christians, our fiercest adversary is not the opponent across the chessboard. We have a brutal, attacking, unrelenting Enemy, and he is described in 1 Peter 5. "Be sober," wrote Peter, "be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (v. 8). Our Enemy—far deadlier than any lion on this earth—is the Devil. The word devil means one who slanders. It's a term used thirty-five times in Scripture; he is referred to as "Satan" another fifty-four times. When Jesus talked about the Devil, He never referred to him as an "it" or a "that," but a "he" and a "him." He used personal pronouns to emphasize his realness.

Although Peter likened the Devil to a lion, Jesus warned that false teachers, the Devil's close allies,  appear like ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing (see Matthew 7:15). You see the Devil is all about the cover-up, the deception. He doesn't work as overtly as an enemy, but as a friend in disguise. The roaring lion walks around undetected, ready to pounce and devour.

How does the Devil devour us? Simply put, he wants you to burn in hell forever. That's his primary intent. If he can't get that—and the only reason he couldn't is if a person has said yes to Jesus, breaking their allegiance with Satan—he settles for making you weak, impotent, and ineffective. He'll weigh you down with your career, your family, your health, anything to prevent you from advancing the kingdom of God.

Everyone has a relationship with Satan. He's either your friend or he's your enemy. For believers he is indeed our Enemy. Make sure he is your Enemy because one day he will be in chains for eternity.