Sentenced to die. Slapped, spit on, made fun of, beaten and scourged with straps intertwined with pieces of metal to cut into His body, a crown of thorns shoved into His skull. Condemned to be hung on a tree and crucified. His enemies mocked and laughed at Him as He hung there, seemingly in shame and humiliation, defeated.
Satan, along with all the demonic forces of hell, rejoiced to see this, just as much as the Jewish religious leaders who were determined to not give up their position and power. They were determined to inflict as much punishment and shame on Jesus as they possibly could.
And Jesus, silently endured it all. He let them hang Him on that Cross. He did it because He knew it was the will of God. He did it because of His love for you and me. He did it because He knew something that Satan and all the religious people didn’t know. They thought they were victorious.
In the book of Genesis, the man God had created willingly disobeyed the commandment of God. It was a simple one. Do not eat of the tree of good and evil. In Genesis 2:16-17 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
The woman was deceived because she did not know the full Word of God. This is a danger to all of us who refuse to spend time reading and studying the Bible. When the woman ate from the tree of good and evil, and gave to her husband, man was instantly separated from God. Jesus, the Son of God, came to reconcile us with Him. Allowing oneself to go through the horror of what Jesus went through, doesn’t seem to make sense to us. But He did it to take the punishment for our sins.
God watched as Adam and Eve sinned. He was there the whole time. When he confronted the devil for what he had done, God said in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”. Enmity means hatred.
When Jesus hung on that Cross, He said “It is finished”. He silently endured the shame and humiliation in order to fulfill Genesis 3:15. Think about that. That means there is a wounded devil with a severe head injury on the loose. Well, at least as loose as God allows him to be. And as loose as we allow him to be.
Loose to destroy our families and marriages, our children, our own lives. If we let him. If we choose to live life “our way”. Every time we commit sin, we not only are giving Satan the okay to work through us, but we are stopping God from being able to set us free. The Bible tells us how God wants us to live. We don’t have to. We can choose to be like Adam and Eve. The Bible lists all kinds of things that God calls sin. The Old Testament has the 10 Commandments.
In the New Testament in Galatians 5:19-21 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
So even though Satan is running loose, it doesn’t mean we have to live in fear. We cannot live as we please. Satan’s job is to tempt us and get us to lose our relationship with Jesus. We just have to decide what we want. To live and please Jesus or to be led under the power of the devil. But just think about what Jesus went through to save us.
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about* with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”
I am just as guilty as most people. There are things in each of our lives that the devil knows tempts us the most. God has intervened many times in my life and in the life of others when he has delivered us from something that keeps us bound up. One of mine was fear. I had been taught to be afraid because of the abuse I endured. The Bible calls fear of man a sin. Also because of being molested and raped, God delivered me from a spirit of lust and perversion.
The world we live in has many traps for us to fall into, thanks to the devil. But Jesus gives us hope. Ask Him to deliver you and show you how the devil has ensnared you. You can be set free. Jesus died on the Cross to set us free.
In the Name of Jesus, as you read this, where you are right now, may the power of God, set you free from every demonic stronghold that the enemy wants to use to destroy you with, no matter what it is. God, as we seek You, we ask that people are set free, that spiritually blinded eyes are opened and Your Light shines into our lives to bring us out of the darkness of this world and that You translate us into the Kingdom of Your dear Son. Show us Your way. Give us a desire to read and study Your Word, put people in our path that can teach us and lift us up. You gave us the hope of Jesus who made the way for our sins to be forgiven. Let us not continue in sin but choose to be set free that You may give us life and that more abundantly. We thank You Lord for hope and for loving us so much that You were willing to die for us. May You receive the glory as people’s lives are changed forever and they are set free. AMEN!!!
Beware but be not Afraid!
