God’s Devil - Part 13: What the Serpent Wants From Us

We are in a war. The struggle keeps raging even after we have walked with God under His grace given salvation for years. Sins we thought were gone keep cropping up in our minds. What does Satan want from us? He wants us to sin so that our souls will be diminished from our fellowship with the Lord. We are the targets of his relentless attacks. If we are believers he knows our souls are eternally secure so the very best he can hope for is to damage our fellowship.

He will do for us what God will not do. We will not have to humble ourselves to be blessed by Satan. We do not have to confess sin to be honored by Satan. We do not have to submit to the Almighty to make Satan happy. All we need is to be self-absorbed, self-motivated, and self-driven. The serpent hisses in joy when we show that side of ourselves.

His chief method is to make sin pretty and desirable and to convince us that we can control it when the truth is that it comes to control us.

God does not tempt us to evil, but He does give us the opportunity to show how much we love Him. Every temptation Satan brings to us turns out to be a test of our loyalty to God.

In previous ages, It seems sure that Christ and Lucifer had met many times in heaven. After Lucifer's rebellion. He found it impossible to tempt Christ in the heavens above. But now that “the Word was made flesh” Satan likely thought his chances were better with Jesus on the earth and now a man as well as God. Though Jesus, as God, could not sin, Jesus as man might be able to be tempted. It was a new opportunity for Satan and one that the Lord welcomed since scripture teaches us that Jesus was “driven” into the wilderness for the temptation to occur. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that Christ was in every respect tempted as we are.

So Satan used his best persuasion on the Lord in this moment. First he tried to get Jesus to turn away from the will of God. Matthew 4:3 reveals Satan told Jesus to turn stones to bread to resolve His hunger. The second temptation was trickier and more sly.

He tried to get Jesus to turn away from the word of God. He quoted Psalms and tried to get Jesus to throw Himself down from the Temple to see if the angels would save Him, again quoting Psalms. The third temptation was seeking to get Jesus to turn away from the cross. He offered Christ all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just once worship Satan. The world, of course, was made by Jesus and already was His. 

Jesus used the scriptures to respond to all three moments and never yielded. He taught us here that temptation is not sin, yielding is sinful.

Today Satan and Jesus no longer meet in the wilderness of Judea. Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father and remains head of the church. He has in His possession the key of David. He describes Himself as the “Holy One” who can open and no man shut and shut and no man open. (Rev 3:7).

There is no easy answer to those who are saved but still under Satan's attacks. While the answer is not easy, it is evident. What God wants is to purify us. He wishes us to declare our full spirit and life to Him in loyalty. We cannot say that we truly love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul unless we are willing to make difficult choices in His favor. 

God is also glorified when we believe that the truth of His Word is stronger than the error of Satan's lies.

God's further purpose is to reveal Himself to us, to come to us in the renewal of love and understanding. Sometimes God teaches us more while we suffer in temptation than in the few moments we find ourselves free from it.

We should consider a few words from a man who was under Satan's attack for a very long time without ever knowing why. His story is a great lesson for us.

Job 23:10-12:

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, my way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.”

He never relented in his love for the Lord and never gave Satan any victory.

He reminded all that we receive both good and evil at the hand of God. 

He continued in one thought throughout his trials:

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.