Joshua 2:6-7: But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.
While the two spies sent from the camp of the Israelites were in Jericho, word went out about their presence in the house of Rahab, and certain men were sent to her house from the king to lay hands on them. But Rahab hid them inside the roof of her house. She however directed them the king’s men to look outside the gate of the city, for the Israelites, which they did for about three days (verse 22). They went on a wild-goose chase because those they were looking for had been hidden up in a roof and afterwards hid themselves for three days.
This describes what Paul, the Apostle, meant when he said we died, were raised with Christ and now have our life hidden in Christ who is with God having been raised up to the right hand of God in Heaven. And because of our new location up in the heavenly places, for all intent and purpose, we (believers in Jesus Christ) are out of the reach of Satan.
It is interesting that the men sent from the king of Jericho spent three days looking for the spies (as they had to hide themselves for the same several days), the same number of days that Jesus Christ and us by proxy (see June 14 post) spent in the grave (Satan’s territory). If we are on our own, Satan would have access to us, but now in Christ Jesus, we are unreachable; not because of us but because of Christ who hides us. Because the spies hid themselves for three days, they were not caught; also because Christ hid us for three days in himself in the grave we are no where to be found by the devil. Due to Jesus’ sinless state, Satan could not gain access to Him, ditto us, whom He shared His righteousness with (2Corinthians 5:21).
If all that is too technical for you, what I have been trying to say is that Satan hates you because you are a threat to him just as Israel was a threat to Jericho’s continued existence as a city and he wants to do something about it. He thinks that he has a chance to do that now that you’re a still on the earth, where he rules in the lives of men just as king of Jericho had the chance to kill the Israelites when they were in Jericho on the spy mission. They could not be reached for three day, first because someone hid them up in the roof of her house which I said was a type of our being hidden in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and because they hid themselves (which was of their own initiative; the initiative required of us is to believe in Jesus) for three days being a type of our being dead and buried with Christ for three days which transformed us into the body of Christ that Satan cannot access. Do you understand? Can you grasp that concept?
Satan cannot reach you to harm you now, because your life is hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3-4). Also, we were raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6, Romans 6:4-5) and have been taken by fiat from the devil’s sphere of influence to now be under God overriding influence in a new kingdom (Colossians 1:13).
Realise this: all attempts of the devil to move you away from the cover of the love of God is futile (Romans 8:35-39), we see that nothing can move us from the cover of God’s love. It is also confirmed that we are in God’s hand and no one can pluck us away from his hand (John 10:28-29). We are free from satanic influences. Have that as part of your view of yourself. There is nothing uncertain about your situation; you have been insured through the death of Jesus. Just like a worker bee
has only one chance to sting a thick-skinned victim and afterwards dies, unable to attack another victim, Jesus took on himself the sting of death (which is the way Satan manifests his power [Hebrews 2:14-15]) on our behalf. And there is nothing the devil can do except make attempts and all his efforts are going to amount to a wild-goose chase.
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