Toxicologists Frank LoVecchio and Jeffrey Suchard at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Phoenix did some research on rattlesnakes a few years ago and came up with this conclusion: Dead rattlesnakes can bite.
They discovered that 15% of Arizona rattlesnake attacks occurred after the snakes “had been mortally shot, bludgeoned, or even beheaded.”
A couple of examples:
One man shot and decapitated a snake, then waited five minutes before picking up the severed head — which lunged and bit him once on each hand. Another victim was holding a dead rattler’s severed head with its fangs pointed away from him when the snake suddenly shifted its jaw and sank its teeth into one of his fingers, which had to be amputated.
According to LoVecchio and Suchard, touch sensors in a rattler’s skin and the heat-seeking pit organ between its nostrils and eyes can trigger a strike-and-bite reflex for up to an hour after the animal dies. Suchard’s advice: Treat a decapitated rattler as “a very short snake.”
The snake is dead, but still is dangerous. That reminds me of another “snake.” Satan also has not only been wounded, but has been fully defeated and rendered powerless by the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. But he’s still dangerous. Like the rattlesnakes in the account above, he can still inflict damage on believers, even while his certain and final end looms.
For this reason, Paul warns believers to stand firm against his schemes (Eph. 6:11) — his methods and strategies and wiles which he unleashes against believers in an attempt to lead them astray from Christ.
What are the schemes that he uses? While Paul is not specific in this passage (his exhortation is simply to be attentive to the Satanic methods without delineating the many manipulative manners of Satan), the rest of Scripture gives ample illustrations of the kinds of deceitful practices he launches against the church. A few examples:
He will use our own fleshly inclinations against us. No, he cannot read our minds, and no he cannot implant ideas in our minds, but he and his henchmen (v. 12) are observant. They know our tendencies. They know our frailties and they may place obstacles in our pathway that tempt us to sin. He cannot force us to sin, but he can entice our flesh to follow ungodly desires by external temptations (see 4:26-27). This is why Paul is adamant that believers should not even name (or talk about) immorality, impurity and greed (5:3), and why we are to expose instead of engaging in sinful activities (5:11-12). Satan is incapable of making us succumb to the desires of our flesh — but given that we still have a flesh, he will do all he can to manipulate that and keep us living fleshly rather than spiritually.
He will influence us through the ideology of the world system (2 Cor. 10:1-5). Not every attack of Satan is a direct attack against us individually. Some of his attacks are a perversion of the truth through the world system. He creates philosophies that are perversions of the truth that the world accepts as the truth and then propagates through a variety of means (like movies and literature and political ideologies and court rulings and television advertisements and university curricula). Bombarded with those philosophies, we sometimes forget to examine their origin and we accept them as true — and the ultimate end of believing those lies will lead us away from Christ.
He will use the kinds of appeals that he used with Adam and Eve to maximize our pride and our discontent with God and distort the truth of God (Gen. 3:1-5). In general, when we sin, it’s not because we don’t know that what we’re doing is sin or that that we’re unaware that our sin will produce a mess (I’ve had words come out of my mouth, knowing that in 5 minutes I’d have to confess those very words!). We sin because we have come to believe that the sin and its consequences are better than righteousness. And that was part of Satan’s very scheme against Adam and Eve. They were knowledgeable; they were not ignorant of the dangers of Satan. Eve even recounted to Satan her discussion with God. But the appeal to pride and the anticipation of knowing something forbidden (“how could God withhold that from us!” might well have been in their minds) was a greater attraction at that moment than faithful obedience to God.
He will use the kinds of appeals that he used with Christ (Matt. 4:1-11). Satan will entice us to worship ourselves, rebel against God (and deny His good purposes), or even make direct appeals to worship him. At the end of the temptation of Christ, it is notable that Satan abandons all attempts at pretense. He no longer attempts to deceive Christ (is that the greatest definition of futility — attempting to deceive the omniscient One?). Rather, he gives in to what Christ really will be — the king of all the kingdoms on earth — but he appeals to Christ to circumvent the plan and purpose of the Father. “Be the King — just do it my way. Don’t go to the bother of the cross; I can keep You from that agony,” he might have said. And here is a great delusion of Satan. He will have us pursue religiosity and righteousness, but he would have us to do it in a way that is cross-less. Avoid the cross and avoid Christ, and he will be delighted to have you be as religious as you like.
Here is the summation: Satan is a liar and deceiver (2 Cor. 4:4; 11:14). And he will make the truth look like a lie and the lie look like the truth. Because he’s a liar and deceiver, he will do anything to make us forget God and worship and love anything more than God. He will entice us with anything to keep us away from God and the gospel.
So when Paul says, “stand firm against the schemes of the devil”, his intent is to make us vigilant, always testing — is this deceptive or is it truth? Is this good for my heart and soul, or is this destructive? If you and I are going to stand against Satan, we must be ever attentive to his schemes.
Thomas Watson was correct when he wrote:
Satan is full of rage against mankind and will show no mercy. As he puts forth all his subtlety in tempting man, so he puts out all his cruelty in tormenting man. [The Fight of Faith Crowned.]
One final note: Remember also that Paul did not write these words to discourage us about the impossibility of our situation. Rather, he wrote to affirm our position and the wealth of God’s provision at our disposal. The take away for this passage is not, “you have a big problem,” but, “you have a great God who has provided all you need to stand against these schemes.” Yes, Satan is working against you. But he’s a dead snake. Just be attentive to his ability to bite you on his way to his final doom.
Words of Grace 