1 Peter 5:8…. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Here the devil is described as “a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour”. The definition of the term “devour” is “to completely gulp down”, “To overcome entirely” and “To profit by consuming”.
This is Satan’s desire... to benefit from the dominance of God’s people… we see this exemplified in several different examples in the Bible:
1. In the book of Job, we find Satan, under the Sovereign allowance of God, attempting to overcome, dominate and consume Job. He did this through the use of natural disasters, poverty, loss of health, loss of family and discouragement at the hands of friends and family. What motivated this horrible Satanic outpouring of tragedy upon Job? It was rooted in Satan’s desire to undue the wonderful testimony of Job’s life…. He “was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
2. Another example of Satan’s desire to hinder and consume God’s servants is found 2 Cor 12:6-10 where Paul gives us a bit of insight into a physical affliction that he was struggling with. He calls this affliction “the messenger of Satan to buffet (to hit with the fist) me”. He goes on to say that the Sovereign Lord allowed this infirmity to continue in his life as a benefit to himself, forcing him to continue to rely upon the Lord and look to Him for divine supplies. What was Satan’s motivation in this instance? Paul’s life was lived in faithfulness his Lord… “I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
3. Our last example of Satan’s attempts to devour God’s people is found in John’s advice to the church at Smyrna concerning the workings of Satan in their midst… “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
These are just a few of the many accounts of Satan desiring to consume God’s servants in an attempt to stop the work of Christ on earth. We have seen in these examples, he uses a great variety of different weapons, all which are under God’s Sovereign control, to attempt to hinder our service.
As we enter into our day let’s keep in mind, we have an enemy who is constantly seeking to consume us. Trials in life should not surprise us. They are a part of faithfully serving our Lord. But we have been given the great assurance that we have been given the victory over all these things through the love and care of our Lord Jesus “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:35-39 (KJV)
May the Lord bless us as we “Think On These Things”.
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