A Serpent in Paradise

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  1 Peter 5:8

My backyard is a little slice of paradise. It is not fancy or sophisticated but is full of a hodgepodge of sweet-smelling flowers, wild birds, and big shady trees where they nest. Naively, I thought a rail fence around my paradise was enough to protect all the creatures within from the predators without. Then one day I arrived home and found an enormous black snake wrapped around one of the birdhouses. Its head was already inside the opening. Fortunately, I grew up in the country and knew how to handle a garden hoe. Good-bye, Mr. Black Snake!

Perhaps Eve was just as shocked when she discovered that old Serpent, the Devil, in her paradise (see Genesis 3). How different the book might have read if she had smacked him in the head with a hoe and chased him from her garden. But in reality, he sank his fangs into her heart in the third chapter of the Old Testament, and we don’t see him turning her descendants loose until the end of the Bible (see Revelation 20). Throughout history Satan has been busy accusing God to man and man to God. An avowed enemy of God’s people, he hates people and never tires of cunningly devising ways to destroy anything God loves.

That makes you a target of the Devil’s fury (see Revelation 12:12). He is still out there prowling around looking for someone to destroy. A sharpened garden hoe is no defense against this Serpent (see 2 Corinthians 10:4). He is the spirit being who had the audacity to make war in heaven with God’s angels (see Revelation 12:7-12). Since his defeat and eviction this ancient Serpent has quite successfully worked to lead the whole world astray (see Revelation 12:9). Against such evil you are powerless. But be encouraged! The battle is not yours to fight, but the Lord’s! We are encouraged, “His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?” (Job 9:4).

Great God, powerful and mighty, unlock Your spiritual arsenal and dispense Your formidable spiritual weapons against the Enemy that threatens those You love. We have no power to prevail against our crushing opponent, but You do! Please come to our defense. Rescue us! Amen.