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Satan's defeat Pt. 4  

Thoughts on the Passage

Here we see satan’s attack against the Israel of God. He tried to destroy her in two different ways. 

First, attacking her in the desert where she fled for safety and then through a flood. As we see from the description in Isaiah, these descriptions are symbolic of nations attacking and trying to destroy them. When we look at the history of Israel after Jesus (but before this letter is written), we see that Rome did exactly these things. They attacked not just Jerusalem, but the other strongholds where the Jewish people fled. Although they destroyed much, and killed many people, they were not able to destroy God’s people. God took care to protect them from being destroyed by the Roman armies.

We see that satan fails here again – for the sixth and seventh times. This is the seven-fold failure of satan in his plans to destroy God’s people.

However, satan is not done. He now focuses his attacks on the “other children” – the churches that have arisen throughout the world. His anger is focused on them. He cannot use his authority as ruler of this world – the authority of the churches is greater. He cannot attack them directly – they are small and dispersed. He cannot attack one location and destroy the head of the church (like destroying a capital city and taking over a nation) because it is dispersed and there is no one central church location. Where will satan go to attack the churches? He goes to mankind – he stands before the sea – and he looks for people, leaders, who will do it for him. Jesus gives mankind a measure of grace as He waits for them to repent. Some leaders will use this period of grace to attack the Church.  They willing take satan’s plan to destroy God’s people and do their best to fulfill it. We call these people – anti-Christs. 

Prayer

Father, I see that satan’s only hope to destroy us is to turn mankind against the Church. He has suffered his seven-fold failure and can only rely on people to fulfill his plans. Mankind has been given a measure of grace so that they will repent – they take advantage of it to try and destroy Your people. Father, that means that we do not need to fear. Though we face attacks from man, we suffer from the hands of those who You have extended grace to, and we see the hand of satan moving them to do his bidding; we do not lose hope and courage. The same authority that You gave us to overcome satan is our testimony to our fellow man. So give me a heart to see them as You see them – people who need forgiveness and people You wait patiently for. Help me to show Your love, patience, mercy and truth to everyone around me. In Jesus Name, Amen.