One knows that he or she can trust another who keeps promises. God is the ultimate promise keeper. After the fall of man into sin God promises, to of all persons the devil, the coming of Jesus.
Genesis 3:14 The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this,cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;on your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eatall the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring;he shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise his heel.” ESV
It is fascinating that God would warn the devil ahead of time what would happen. This gave the devil plenty of time to fight against it and try to stop it. This shows that God’s thoughts are indeed different than ours. The last thing you do is to inform your enemy of how you intend to defeat him. In the older testament we have the record of how our adversary tries to destroy the Christ. Starting with Cain killing his brother Abel. All throughout the law, the writings and the prophets we see how antichrists were raised up to try to stomp out the lineage which would bring forth the Christ. In each circumstance God was faithful in preserving a remnant faithful to him down to our Lord’s Nativity.
We are by nature in the kingdom of the devil. For by our nature we are constantly sinning. It is who we are.
Mark 3:22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. ESV
During the life of Jesus the devil had his antichrists to resist him. In this passage we see Jesus entering into the devil’s kingdom to plunder it. We are the goods he came to plunder and to save us from the one who wishes to see us perish eternally. We can be eternally thankful that God keeps his promises even when made to the devil.
In the name of Jesus. †
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