THE DEVILS CRUSHED; DEFEATED

The Devils Crushed; Defeated

Romans 16:20 (NIV) The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Back in the early 1980s Eleanor and I had the privilege of serving a church in North Florida. It was a rural setting and the parsonage and church were located in the middle of hundreds of acres of farm land. The place was well known for its rattlesnakes and alligators. Alligators are quite visible but rattlesnakes are stealthy and easy to overlook and miss.

Several men, members of the church, loved to drop by the parsonage and would pull in front of it and wait for us to come outside, especially Eleanor. She was a city girl and they loved to tease her. One day Albert and Quinteen Deas drove up in their truck, got out and waited for us to come out. Eleanor saw him and walked out to see at he wanted. They told her they wanted to show her something so she walked over to the truck without thinking anything about it. When she looked down into the truck bed there was a 5 foot diamondback rattlesnake.  Now Eleanor doesn't even like pictures of snakes, she screamed and ran for the house. Of course she had no way of knowing it was dead. They got a big laugh out of her reaction which is exactly what they wanted. They told her the snake was dead and when she looked again she could see that the head of the snake had been crushed. Albert then proceeded to prove the snake was dead by reaching in and grabbing the snake by the tail. As soon as he touched the snake’s tail the head of the snake immediately darted around as though it was trying to strike him. Albert jumped back! This is a strange phenomenon known to those who have handled snakes. Even though the head may be crushed, even completely cut off, the body can continue to move and to twitch for several hours.  Needless to say, Eleanor got the last laugh!

This rattlesnake as big and fearsome as it looked, even with its quivering and moving, was dead. It had suffered a mortal wound, a crushed head and was powerless to inflict any damage to anyone attempting to handle it. Even though its head was crushed it was still able to cause an individual to jump back in fear and to keep their distance.

Our enemy the devil is much like a headless snake. He may look and sound frightening but his bite is gone and he is a defeated foe. The evil and ungodly trials that result in great spiritual battles that often try our faith are coming from a defeated foe. Satan is an enemy of God who is consistently lying to us, attempting to mislead us and cause us to sin and live in fear. He wants to take away the joy of our salvation and our reliance upon the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. He wants us to think our lives are out of control and there is nothing we can do about. Whenever we lose our peace, he rejoices. Whenever we doubt our salvation and question the security that is ours in Christ, he thinks he’s winning the battle. He may look formidable; he may look fearsome but he has no authority over a child of God; his threats are empty just like the quivering and striking motion of that rattlesnake. The deceptions, lies and counterfeits that have been used so effectively in the lives of countless millions of individual will one day come to an end. 

That old snake, that old serpent, the devil, will be destroyed for time and eternity. He will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur with the antichrist and the false prophet along with his dreams of ruling and reigning over the people of God. He will come to a dismal end and rather than ruling, he will spend eternity in torment (Revelation 20:10). PTL! 

Don’t waste your time and energy fighting a dead enemy, resist him and use the weapon, God’s Word against him and he will flee. God wants you to spend your time reading the Word and obeying it; serving the living God!

Beloved, be ready to come under attack after reading this. Satan will test you but remember you are an over-comer in the victory of Christ. david