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GOD’S “CHESS MATCH” WITH SATAN
“…None Can Stay His Hand, Or Say Unto Him, What Doest
Thou?” Daniel 4:35(b) (KJV)
“…I Will Do All My Pleasure And Purpose” Isaiah 46:9(b)
(KJV)
My personal belief is that the “anointed cherub that covereth” (Ez.28:12-16)—evidently the chief among the cherubim who later became Satan—learned of God’s ultimate plan prior to the foundation of the world. Because the Bible tells us that plan included the choice (election) and redemption of a particular group of people before the material universe or “people” even existed (Eph.1:4)! So it seems reasonable to conclude that the devil’s treachery immediately after mankind became a reality indicates both prior knowledge and a plan to counter God. That ongoing battle between good and evil is similar to a chess match in that each side makes moves and counter moves in a quest to emerge victorious. But of course the struggle has never been, nor will ever be, a “fair fight.” Because on the best day the devil will ever see, the fact remains that he is just a created being and no match for our sovereign God! Yet, he persists in pursuing his wicked agenda and, according to God’s Word, will continue to do so until that day in the future when God finally throws him “kicking and screaming” into the lake of fire (Rev.20:10).
How did this epitome of all that is unholy come into existence? And why did an omniscient God create him? There are some clues regarding the former question, but the answer to the latter remains hidden in the secret counsels of the Almighty. However, at some point prior to what I will call the “second creation” (heaven with its angels, cherubim, etc., being the first), the supernatural being now known as Satan was lifted up with pride and enticed some of the angels to follow him in rebellion. We know the devil has “his angels” because the events of Revelation 12:7-9, which are still in the future, establish that fact. Then the narrative of Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ez.28:12-16 clearly refer to an entity that cannot possibly be limited to the human kings of Babylon or Tyre, respectively—even though God addresses him as such! And the passage from Ezekiel should remove all doubt because we are told that he had been in the Garden of Eden and was perfect in his ways until iniquity was discovered within him. That “iniquity” was the origination of sin: Disobedience to God, where nothing of the sort existed previously.
Therefore, a Savior—the “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) of God’s eternal plan—became necessary once sin entered the picture. But His arrival on earth did not take place for thousands of years after the fall of man in the Garden. And our “chess match” took place during that interval as Satan tried his best to figure out God’s next move. As soon as the first humans were created, he began what turned out to be a long series of attempts to thwart the heavenly plan. So in my imagination I can almost hear the taunts as he makes his initial move “to place God’s King in “[CHECK!]” by enticing Adam and Eve to disobey, thereby introducing sin into their world. That tactic is another strong indication he knew the Savior would be God incarnate (in a human body) and therefore without sin! In other words, if all of humanity could be plunged into sin, the plan for a Savior would—according to his twisted logic—be impossible!
But God’s [COUNTER MOVE] took away any thoughts of a quick
victory as He Personally “covered” the sin of His fallen creatures. The
principle of innocent blood being shed to cover sins of the guilty was
instituted as God took the life of some animals in order to make garments from
their skins and clothe the naked humans (Gen. 3:21). And thus a blood sacrifice
to atone for sin was a requirement from that day forward—until the ultimate
shedding of innocent blood took place at
Immediately after the fall and prior to chiding His fallen
creatures for their disobedience, God told the serpent something that is called
“the Protoevangel” by theologians (a hint or prototype of the Gospel message):
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your
head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel” Genesis
3:15 (Amplified Bible).
At that time the eternal plan of the ages was partially revealed: God was going to send mankind a Savior and He would be the offspring of Eve—a human! Therefore, every male child born from that day forward who could be that Savior, or was potentially within His lineage, became a target for Satan’s rage. And when we carefully examine the “family tree” of Jesus Christ as given to us in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38, we will see numerous instances in the Old Testament of how the devil tried to intervene and cut off the lineage of Israel’s Messiah.
For instance, Eve’s first son was Cain and his sinful attitude and actions were clearly prompted by Satan. The offering God had prescribed for sin was to be the shedding of blood, but Cain insisted upon offering fruits and vegetables he had grown himself. Then when that attempt at personal works for salvation was rejected, he murdered his younger brother Abel (whose sacrifice had been acceptable), thereby seemingly ending any chance of a Redeemer-Messiah being born. Of the two sons there was no godly lineage left—Cain was cursed by God, driven away to “the land of Nod” (Gen.4:16), and the “goody-goody” Abel had been eliminated. [CHECK!] But not to worry, God proceeded to bless Eve with more children—both sons and daughters (Gen.5:4) [COUNTER MOVE]. And the third son born to Adam and Eve was Seth, a godly man through whose lineage the Messiah would come.
When these additional sons and daughters were born, men began to multiply rapidly and it made Satan’s quest more difficult in trying to figure out those whom God intended to use. So he was forced to adopt a “shotgun” approach. Since he could no longer be absolutely sure of the precise lineage, it became clear that he would have to unleash every weapon in his supernatural arsenal in an attempt to make them all as wicked as possible! Hey, it worked with Cain, so why not apply the same concept across the board (pun intended) to put God’s King in check?
Well, as we see from the record in Genesis Chapter 6, the
devil’s plan almost worked to perfection:
“The Lord saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the
earth, and He was grieved at heart. 7 So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out,
and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the
ground—not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of
the air—for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them”
Genesis 6:5-7 (Amplified Bible). [CHECK!]
However, Satan’s failure is that he is too proud to accept the concept of divine grace. He thought that if he could force God into exacting judgment upon these fallen creatures, it would eliminate all possible heirs to the throne. But as far as God is concerned, the spiritual condition of all men everywhere hit rock bottom when Adam sinned because all died in him (1 Cor.15:22). So when these people were goaded into extreme wickedness, it was impossible for them to become any deader! From the very outset, they were born as bad off spiritually as it is possible for a human to be and only the unmerited favor of God could save any of them. And of course the same is true of us today.
So from Satan’s point of view it appeared that he had a
straight shot at God’s King, placing Him firmly in check. And unless a counter
move could be made (an impossibility, he obviously thought), it would be “check
mate and chalk one up for the god of this world.” But the Lord had a mind
blowing move up His sleeve that the devil never saw coming. Even though the
anticipated judgment against both man and animals was pronounced (Gen.6:7
and13), there was an added aspect that caused the angels in heaven to sit up and
take notice. They were already aware that God had provided a temporary “fix” for
the sin problem—the sacrifice of innocent blood was instituted to cover
sin. Now they learn that He ultimately intended to forgive and remove
that sin purely as a matter of grace on His part! We see that fact demonstrated
in the following remarkable passage:
“But Noah found grace in the
eyes of the LORD” Genesis 6:8 (KJV). [COUNTER
MOVE]
From among the teeming masses of the extremely wicked antediluvian (pre-flood) civilization, God opted to extend His amazing grace to only one man and his family. When the waters of judgment poured down upon the world, those eight souls were spared out of a total population that, by that time, would doubtless have numbered in the millions. And among those chosen few was Shem, the son specifically chosen to carry on the lineage of Jesus Christ. But were not those eight people sinners just like all the rest? Sure they were! Please back up and take note of Genesis 6:5 (cited earlier) where it says “…every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.” So at some point the “all” had to have included Noah and his family. But the monumental difference is that through the principle of unmerited, or undeserved, favor (the definition of grace), God chose to save them and continue the Messianic lineage.
Then after the flood, men began to “multiply and replenish
the earth” as God had instructed Noah (Gen.9:1). But rather than continue to
spread out, many of them congregated in the
Man’s intellect was severely diminished by Adam’s fall from
grace. But by gathering together, pooling their resources, and sharing
knowledge, they were led to understand it was possible for them to achieve
tremendous things. The
That new eruption of wickedness prompted the following
comments and action by God:
“And the Lord said, Behold, they
are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning
of what they will do, and now nothing
they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confound (mix up,
confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon
the face of the whole earth, and they gave up building the city” Genesis 11:6-8
(Amplified Bible, emphasis mine). [COUNTER
MOVE]
While the tenets of
the “mystery religions” were not totally erased from their memories, the
confusion of languages slowed down the spread of Gnosticism for many centuries
thereafter. And now in these “last days” it is resurging with a vengeance!
From there we move
on to the call of Abram (whom God later renamed Abraham) out of “
God promised Abraham
and Sarah a miracle son when both were old and Sarah long past child-bearing
age. But rather than wait by faith, Satan obviously prompts them to “help God
out” by having Abraham father a child by Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden. Of this
union Ishmael was born and all the spiritual honors and responsibilities of the
first-born traditionally observed by that culture were misplaced in him. And the
devil could not have been happier! Surely the promised son would never be born!
[CHECK!]
But Satan learned
something, because God made good His promise and Sarah (at least 90 years old by
that time) became pregnant! Isaac, the son of promise, was born. [COUNTER MOVE]
Isaac had twin sons—Esau, the first born and Jacob. Once again the spiritual privileges and responsibilities were misplaced in Esau. [CHECK!] But Jacob literally bought the birthright from him for a bowl of beans! [COUNTER MOVE]
Jacob’s son Judah, as it turns out, was destined to be one
through whom the Messiah would come. But he married a Canaanite woman and had
three sons—a spiritual “no-no” Abraham certainly understood and practiced
(Gen.24:3). Surely the line will be broken due to the pagan influence! [CHECK!]
But God is displeased with the wickedness of the two oldest
sons and kills them both! Then
Jacob’s son Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and
suffered incredible hardships [CHECK!], but God saw to it that he eventually
wound up the number two man in all of
Actually, there were so many checks and counter moves that
took place in the Old Testament, that the scope of this article cannot contain
them all. But before we move on to the conclusion of the “match,” the Book of
Esther must be addressed. A careful study will show that neither God nor Satan
is mentioned within its pages, but both were obviously at work! The setting was
during the “Diaspora”—the captivity and dispersal of the Jews by foreign powers
such as the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires. And through a series of events
chronicled in that book the very existence of all Jews throughout the known
world was threatened. The devil has always hated
Then when God finally sent His Son to earth, “wise men” who
were visitors from
Afterwards they came back to
And when that “chess match” was finally concluded, the result continues to reverberate throughout heaven, hell, and all of creation! God the Son was betrayed and falsely accused, whipped and beaten with fists until He no longer looked human, then nailed to a wooden cross and left to die a horrible death. [CHECK!] And at that point—when the sun hid its face and darkness covered the earth—I am convinced beyond doubt that Satan and all his demons were ecstatic because they thought there was no counter move possible and the match was finally won.
But just when it looked the darkest, the Lord summoned up all the physical strength He had left and with His last breath simply said one Word in the original Greek: tetelestai—finished! But for the purposes of our illustration, it was one move and CHECKMATE!!! Oh, the infernal regions probably continued to celebrate their apparent victory because they did not see their unholy king was hopelessly cornered and the game truly lost. But three days later when God the Son, Jesus Christ, arose victorious over death, hell, and the grave, the full knowledge and impact of their defeat became obvious and then jubilation turned to unspeakable gloom.
My friend, you can make all the “moves” in this life you care to, but God is going to win the match. So does it not just make sense to become one of His “men” rather than continue to fight a losing battle?
If you have been born again and received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.
If you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, but have come to sense His reality and the approaching End of the Age, and want to receive His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can do so now, in the privacy of your home. Once you truly believe in Him as Lord and Savior, you are spiritually Born Again, and are as assured of Heaven as if you were already there. Then, you can rest assured that the Kingdom of Antichrist will not touch you spiritually. If you would like to become Born Again, turn to our Salvation Page now.
We hope you have been blessed by this ministry, which seeks to educate and warn people, so that they can see the coming New World Order—Kingdom of Antichrist—in their daily news.
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