Just as Satan in the Garden appealed to human desire so he did with Jesus who had gone forty days and forty nights without food. Just as he did in the Garden, Satan sought to lead the second Man to test God. Just as the devil quoted God’s word in the Garden, so he twisted God’s word to find leverage with the last Adam. In each instance, Jesus rebuffed the devil with the sword of the Spirit from the book of Deuteronomy.

Battle lines were drawn in the opening chapters of Genesis, even before our first parents’ exile from Eden. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). The offspring of the woman would come to bring victory and deliverance.

Many centuries later, in the fullness of time, we read of the arrival of that promised Deliverer, with mission in hand. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

The writer of Hebrews lends his voice to the announcement. In the first chapter of his pastoral treatise, the writer clarifies the identity of the Deliverer as the only begotten Son worthy of worship and eternal with the Father. Then turning to His incarnation as Man on messianic mission, the writer explains: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).

Christ’s first encounter with the devil was at His birth. In the book of Revelation, John sees a horrific dragon, that great serpent and deceiver of the whole world (Rev. 12:9; 1 John 5:19) and the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10).

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