Satan's strategy (1)

“Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, 

hemmed in by the desert.” (Exodus 14:3)

The Satanic strategy presented in this verse is twofold:

first, to make us wander aimlessly, and second, to put us into a corner.

Satan's first strategy is to let people wander aimlessly.

The all-knowing God already knew Pharaoh's thought, so He made it known to Moses.

I wonder why Pharaoh thought that the Israelites were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.

Although God gave the Israelites a purpose through Moses,

I wonder why Pharaoh thought they were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.

The first thing to consider here is the purpose God gave to the Israelites through Moses.

We can think of it in two ways.

The first purpose is worship.

One biblical scholar said that if our salvation is a method, then the purpose is worship.

The purpose of God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt was so that they could worship God.

The second purpose was to enter the Promised Land, Canaan.

But considering why Pharaoh thought that the Israelites were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness,

I would like to take Exodus 14:12 as an example:

“Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'?

It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

The Israelites looked back again.

In the wilderness, in the midst of hardship and adversity, looking back on the past,

they looked back to serve Egypt rather than to serve God.

The Israelites, who should say that they want to worship God and would not return to Egypt

even if they die in the wilderness as they were heading toward the Promised Land,

said that they would rather serve the Egyptians and live longer in Egypt than to die in the wilderness.

They pursued the fleshly lusts of the city, Egypt, rather than the spirituality of the wilderness.

On the way to the Promised Land of Canaan, the Israelites wandered in the desert while looking back.

As Pharaoh thought, they were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.

I think this purposeless wandering life applies to too many of us.  So many of us keep looking back

We are homesick of the old life and are trying to go back to the past life of unbelievers.

I think we are living a life of confusion rather than living a life driven by His purpose.

Maybe that’s why, from a certain point of view,

Pastor Rick Warren's book “Purpose-Driven Life” was the best seller.

I don't think there are too many souls wandering in this wilderness life

without certainty about the purpose of worship, the life that leads to heaven,

and the purpose of life that God has called us individually.

Therefore, Satan cannot help but like it.  The reason is because his strategy is working.

His first strategy is to make us wander in confusion and forget the purpose God has given us.

Finally, another strategy of Satan is to drive us into a corner in the wilderness.

If we watch boxing, we will often see a scene where a boxer tries to knock out his opponent

by pushing him into the corner.

In this way, Satan is trying to put us into the corner and knock us down.

In Exodus 14:3, Pharaoh knew that the Israelites were “hemmed in by the desert.”

If the Red Sea in front, the mountains on the left and the right, and Pharaoh following the Israelites,

the Israelites would be blocked from the east, west, north, and south,

and there would be no way for them to escape.

That was why Pharaoh went after the Israelites with officers over all of six hundred of the best chariots, 

along with all the other chariots (v. 7).

When the Israelites saw that the Egyptians were marching after them,

they were terrified and cried out to God and complained to Moses (vv. 10-11).

Rather than looking at the Promised Land, the Israelites, who were grumbling,

were controlled by the situation they were facing. 

Thus, they looked back to the past and wanted to change the object of their service.

How pleased Satan must have been.

I think too often we do what pleases Satan rather than God.

Especially when we are in a situation that seems to have no solution no matter how much we  look around, 

like the Israelites, who are trapped in the wilderness, we seem to blame God and our leaders.

When we look no matter how far we look from east to west, north and south,

and we can't see a hole to spring out of, don't we sometimes complain to God and to people

if we get frustrated in fear and discouragement?

Then, rather than looking at God, if we look back to the past,

don’t we commit the sin to God with our unbelieving words and actions

and do the things that please Satan?

Among this twofold strategy of Satan, Moses, the servant of God, did not fall for that strategy.

His purpose was clear.

And even when he was hemmed in the wilderness, he looked up to God and prayed.

And when God told him to raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the sea to divide the water,

he simply obeyed His word in faith and saw the glory of God (vv. 16-18).

What is surprising is that the battle between Moses' staff

and Pharaoh's army is incomparable to the human mind.

When Moses lifted his staff and struck the Red Sea in simple obedience,

the Israelites were saved, but Pharaoh and his army were all destroyed.

How amazing is this God's power?

Therefore, I believe that the way to overcome Satan's strategy is

to listen to God's voice in prayer like Moses and obey Him with faith.

Hearing the voice of God and being drawn to His purposes,

we must move toward that heaven, the true Promised Land.

When we move toward the heaven in faith without leaning to the left or right

and with a clear purpose of life and conviction and a life of true worship,

we are more than capable of overcoming the Satan's strategy.

I hope and pray that such a victorious life will be filled among us.