And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient
serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he
was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Rev. 12:9)
For Jennifer and Jeremy
Sutcliffe, it was supposed to be a relaxing day at home. A daughter and granddaughter
were coming to visit. A family cookout was planned for later in the afternoon. But
by the end of that day, Jeremy Sutcliffe would be in a coma, his body ravaged
by rattlesnake venom and doctors unsure whether the 40-year-old would survive.
It all started with some
yard work. To prepare for the day’s festivities, the couple decided to tidy up
the yard of their home near Lake Corpus Christi in southern Texas. Jennifer was
working in a flower bed when she discovered an invader that was much more
sinister than pesky weeds. Hiding among her flowers was a four-foot-long
Western diamondback rattlesnake.
Alerted by his wife’s
panic, Jeremy came over with a shovel and decapitated the snake, a move that
for many other animals would have meant swift death. But what the Sutcliffes
didn’t know is that snakes can still bite and inject venom for at least an
hour, if not more, after being decapitated. When Jeremy went to pick up the
snake’s head about 10 minutes later, he never expected it to bite him in the
hand.
Jeremy had to be airlifted
to the hospital where he received an antidote. Fortunately, he survived and suffered
no long-term complications from the bite.[1]
According to Genesis 3:15,
which is the first prophecy of the Bible, Jesus dealt a fatal blow to Satan
when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. God declared war on the
Serpent saying, “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.”
Jesus defeated Satan at
Calvary (1 John 3:8), but the old Serpent still has the ability to strike at
us. From God’s perspective, he’s in his final hour. But we must guard against
him day and night, realizing, though defeated, he is still a dangerous enemy.
One day, Michael and his angel warriors will cast Satan down to the Earth (Rev.
12:8-9) and ultimately Christ will cast him into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).
Until then, we must be on guard against one of his subtle strikes.
One toxic venom that Satan
tries to inject in our hearts is the poison of pride. It was pride that caused
Satan’s original fall in the first place (1 Tim. 3:6). Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Satan’s
desire is not just to work against the church from the outside, but to corrupt
the church from the inside. Pride is one of his chief weapons. If he can get a
pastor proud of his preaching, a Sunday School teacher proud of his class
growth, a deacon or officer proud of his position, a singer proud of his or her
voice, or a Christian too proud to pray, then Satan has a foothold from which
to launch his attack.”[2]
Prayer is the antidote to the
venom of pride. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so
that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). Let’s ask the Lord to cleanse our
hearts of pride today. -DM
[1]
Allyson Chiu, “A Texas man decapitated a rattlesnake. It bit him anyway and he
nearly died, his wife says.,” The Washington Post, 7 June 2018 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/07/a-texas-man-decapitated-a-rattlesnake-it-bit-him-anyway-and-he-nearly-died-his-wife-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f0aefe66d421>
[2]
Warren Wiersbe, The Strategy of Satan (Carol Stream IL: Tyndale, 1979),
57.
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