“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
seeking whom he may devour
The devil seeks out vulnerable Christians. In contrast, the Lord Jesus came to “seek and save” the lost,
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
“Devour” comes from two words to drink and down, coming to the thought of gulp or swallow down. “Devour” means to cause something to pass through the mouth and into the stomach–to gulp down.
The Bible presents the devil as a ferocious beast of prey. The devil wants more than to nibble on Christians, but he also seeks to devour them completely. He wants to consume them entirely to gain complete victory. He wants to devour Christians by eradicating their faith so that they wholly cease from walking dynamically with God. He wants to ruin their testimony.
PRINCIPLE:
The devil seeks to annihilate the believer’s walk with God.
APPLICATION:
The devil desires to swallow Christians whole. He is interested in their total destruction.
“Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Jesus came seeking sinners; now, the devil seeks saints. He looks for Christians with their guard down. This foe could not keep Christians from becoming believers, but now the devil wants to make them ineffective Christians. He will do everything in his diabolical power to render them unusable. He wants an impotent Christian and an impotent church. He will slander, hinder, and handicap you. He will do everything in his power to keep you from sharing Christ with a non-Christian. He lost you by Jesus saving your soul, but now he seeks to ensure that no one around you will come to Christ.
The devil is not interested in nibbling on us; he seeks to gulp us down. He looks for those who play into his clutches. He lurks in the spiritual bushes waiting for the Christian to come along. If we do not stay on the path, he will have a booby trap waiting to deform us for life spiritually. Christians must stay “alert” to the devil’s wiles. Do you have a spiritual mine detector?
“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
The devil seeks to destroy the Christian’s testimony and delude the non-Christian from accepting Christ (Colossians 2:8). He wants to blind them to the gospel,
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [the devil] has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3- 4).
