The promised seed came. The Son of God took on the creature's garb and
became man, the son of David and son of Abraham, according to the
flesh. All Satan had done for 4,000 years had been in vain. God had
kept His promise. King Herod was the seed of the serpent and when the
child was born, Satan moved him to seek the young child to destroy him.
Herod, inspired by the murderer from the beginning, "exceeding wroth,
sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all
the coasts thereof from two years old and under" (Matt. ii:16). But
God had watched, and the young child was on the way to Egypt when
Satan's suggestion was carried out by the Roman soldiers.
And how many more times he must have made the same attempt! When Satan
had taken him on the pinnacle of the temple and suggested "cast thyself
down," he tried it once more. The people of Nazareth were the
serpent's seed and under his control when they rushed him out of the
city and attempted to cast him headlong down a precipice. The storms
on the lake were Satan's work to take His life. Little did he know
that the ship in which the Son of God slept peacefully, though it
filled with water, was the only unsinkable ship which sailed the seas.
He could not touch the seed of the woman, for He was holy, without sin,
and death had not claim on Him.
Yet He had come to die "that through death He might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil." He knew that the Lord
Jesus would get the victory and the dominion over this earth by the way
of the Cross. That is why he took Him on the exceeding high mountain
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.
He offered all to the Son of Man, if He but would fall down before him.
He wanted Him to keep away from the cross for he knew then and knows
now, far better than many a so-called theologian, that redemption for
the individual and redemption for this earth, the nations and groaning
creation has its blessed source in the work of the Cross. He was
defeated in all his malice and cunning. And finally the Cross,
preceded by the agony in Gethsemane. Satan was there; with unspeakable
hatred he planned His death. He entered into Judas; he used the
Pharisees and Sadducees, the priests and elders, which were all Satan's
seed, to have Him put to death. The cry "Away with Him! Crucify Him!"
was inspired by himself. He used man to dishonor the Son of God, to
revile Him, spit in His face, to scourge Him and finally to nail Him to
the Cross. Did he think that he might yet get the victory and keep the
Lord Jesus from finishing the work the Father gave Him to do? We do
not know if such was the case, but we know that while the Son of God
gave Himself, Satan had also his part in His rejection and His death.
Our Lord conquered. He won the victory and those blessed
never-to-be-forgotten words, "It is finished" tell of the final doom of
Satan and the coming glories of a new heaven and a new earth. The
thorn-crowned Man of that cross of shame will some day be the
glory-crowned Man who claims His inheritance, and because he wore the
thorns and paid for all sin's curse, He will rid this earth from the
works of the devil.
The tomb was closed with the big stone and then sealed with the Roman
seal. A watch too is set. How careful Satan is! What a good memory
he has! Yet how blind! He wanted to prevent His triumphant
resurrection, as if he had more power than God! On the third day the
stone was rolled away. He came forth. Death and the grave are
conquered. He is the resurrection and the life. Then the man-child,
whom the dragon wanted to devour (Rev. xii) was caught up to the throne
of God, destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Like another
Joash, He is hidden in the house of God. He fills the throne there and
awaits in that place of glorious exaltation the time when Satan will be
dethroned and He, the Son of Man, will receive His own throne.