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Spiritual Combat, Highlighting Satan’s Pincer Movement
A Military Maneuver
Military leaders have studied the Bible to understand war or battle strategy. Very many times, God makes military allusions in scripture. Almost since the beginning of time, a war exists. The Apostle Paul calls for soldiers and he himself fights a good fight. What strategy does Satan use?
In his art of war, Satan often uses what armed forces call a “pincer movement.” It is like it sounds if you understand getting pinched. My dad would pinch me in church when I fell asleep, so I understand the threat and possible pain of a pinching. The pincer movement is a military maneuver where an opposing army attacks simultaneously on what experts call, “both flanks.”
In 1943, General George Patton led the U.S. 7th Army in a pincer movement against Messina, Sicily, as part of the Allies’ attempt to trap Axis forces before they could retreat to the Italian mainland. The pincer movement involved the British 8th Army moving up the southeast coast of the island, while the U.S. 7th Army moved east across the north coast. During the American Revolutionary War, the British used a pincer movement, also known as a “double envelopment,” in several battles to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies and gain control of the Hudson River Valley.
Satan’s Pincer Movements
How does Satan use a pincer movement to attack a believer on both flanks? On one flank, he attacks with a force of persecution or punishment. Satan threatens the believer to succumb to his pressure of persecution.
As the believer looks at the flank of persecution and moves away from it, Satan lures the same believer with the allurements of the flesh. He feels justified gratifying his flesh because of the poor treatment he experiences. You can see these two working in tandem in different places in scripture.
Anyone in the world of Noah saw what he endured as a preacher of righteousness. At the same time “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair” (Genesis 6:2). Those are the very two pincers of lust and persecution.
Satan brought the pressure against Israel from Pharoah with his harsh treatment of those people before the Exodus. He made their work harder by not providing straw for brick making. Israel also craved for the leeks, garlic, and onions that they had in Egypt.
Overall, the merchants of Babylon in Revelation 18:15 prospered through Babylon’s luxury under the leadership of the Satanic Antichrist. On the other hand, he makes war against and starves those who are against him in Revelation 13.
The Defeat of the Satanic Strategy
God uses many different examples in the Bible of Satan using the pincer movement in his war against God. Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 12:11 of not being ignorant of Satan’s devices. Satan employs a strategic approach often likened to a military pincer movement in his ongoing conflict against God and humanity. This tactic involves attacking from two flanks simultaneously, creating pressure that can overwhelm and confuse the target.
The flank of persecution and the other of lust are not the only pincers he uses. Sometimes he couples lust with the intellectual onslaught of false teachers. Other times one side are those false teachers and on the other are the personal conflicts with believers either inside or outside the church. Very often Satan fights his war on two fronts just like the United States faced both the Japanese and the Germans on two different ones in World War 2.
Like all war and battle against Satan, believers must recognize what Satan does. They should engage in prayer and put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). Believers can also find support and relief from their brothers in the church (Hebrews 10:24-25). They should focus on the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and their future of eternal rewards that awaits them.
The Significance of Mediation in Reconciliation and Relationship, pt. 3
Whatever came between two parties that was a barrier for reconciliation most often continues to be why they need a mediator. Before they can reconcile, they must come together, but they cannot even come together without mediation either. The two sides need a mediator before a conversation can or will occur that could lead to a restoration in the relationship.
A first party says the fault is on the other side. The second party says the first party is the one at fault. Both sides dig in or stiffen their backs. They both at the same time say, “It’s not my fault! He started it!” Now they cannot even listen to each other. It’s possible that emotion and personal grievance disallows either side from seeing their own fault.
I grew up playing chess, but not enough to be any good. Even when I did, I played with a self-destructive myopia. I was so focused on my own pieces and where I would move them, that I missed what the other player was doing. I lacked perspective to see all that happened or was happening.
A mediator has an opportunity to see both sides and to call out either one. All each can see is his own side of the board, to go with the chess analogy. He does not see the big picture. He does not see his own offenses, only the ones of the other party. The other side is solely responsible for this break in relationship.
The Olive Branch
Real peace does not come through the threat of destruction or annihilation. It comes by offering what some people call the “olive branch.” The olive branch is a symbol that comes from the Bible, because the dove, which also symbolizes this peace, came back to Noah’s ark, signaling a future on earth for Noah and his family. Through the intermediary, the dove, God offered man an olive branch. Noah and his family offered God a sacrifice.
God had already offered man a way out, a way of salvation through the ark. Noah preached over a hundred years, warning man of his predicament. But man rejected reconciliation and the mediating work of Noah. Later in 1 Peter 3, Peter says that Jesus Himself preached through Noah to those people.
A mediator is an olive branch. The offer of an olive branch, a mediator, says, I want this relationship. I am even willing to sit under judgment, but it must be neutral, it must be just. When the mediator is rejected, that says, I do not want this relationship.
For my lifetime, I have always judged rejection of mediation as rejection of reconciliation. This is not in the nature of a good and loving God, who provided a mediator. It is the opposite of Him. Nothing characterizes God more than forgiveness and reconciliation. The opposite is also true.
Fear or Rejection of Mediation
I understand the fear of mediation. We like to be in control. We want a conversation to turn out like we want it to turn out. That might even seem right to us. “We know the truth and everyone else should believe it like we do. Others just need to kowtow to us, because we have an ethic and method that surpasses others. The mediator would just mess things us. There is a risk that the mediator will say that I have been wrong. I know I’m not wrong.”
Both parties may think the other is proud, both pointing their fingers at the other’s pride. Mediation is a tonic. The proud reject the mediator. He cannot submit to another authority than himself.
No doubt two sides must agree to a good mediator, a neutral arbitrator. True mediators are out there. This is the classic Elijah statement of 7,000 not bowing the knee to Baal. Not every possible mediator has yet bowed the knee to Baal. Some possible mediators have departed from the faith, but not everyone.
Mediation within the church should stay in the church. This is 1 Corinthians 6. When the two parties reside in different churches, however, then a third party comes in. True mediation, just and fair mediation, is very unlikely when the mediator comes from one of the sides. Mediation requires neutrality. No one should hand pick a mediator for his bias.
In my past, I have agreed to mediation from the other side. I just wanted a mediator. A hand picked mediator by only one side is not a good way to go, definitely not the best, but in my opinion it was better than nothing.
The Peacemaker
For my salvation, I trust Jesus Christ. I trust my advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. For earth, I trust someone who I do believe loves both sides. He will obey the truth. I would want him to know the Bible. Use it. He should be strong enough to stand up to either side, unlike the debate moderator I talked about earlier.
Reconciliation, mediation, forgiveness, and restoration are greater than the grievances, the felt personal wrongs. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph 4:26). Jesus said, Turn the other cheek (Mt 5:39). Someone turned the other cheek after someone had slapped him. Cheek slapping produced a personal grievance. With mediation, a neutral arbitrator, two people can trade in their grievances for restoration.
The peace of reconciliation contradicts anger. Peace relates to at least two truths. One, peace erases the barrier. Two, peace is an effect of calm or tranquility. Anger keeps from peace and peace solves the anger.
As you read this, I hope you consider or reconsider mediation of a relationship for the purpose of reconciliation. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Like all the other beatitudes, this is strong language. Children of God want a peacemaker. It characterizes them to want it. A tougher question is, what is a person who does not want a peacemaker? Peacemaking in the Bible means a mediator most of the time. May we consider or reconsider once again by the grace of God.
More to Come
What Formed Crater Lake?
Certain questions, like the title of this post, seem rather remote and disconnected from every day life. Like I like to put it to people, “It seems like an island that has nothing to do with the mainland, so why paddle out to that.” The world, however, takes great note of these questions and their answers. We should have the true answer and be able to state it — not to every such question, but to such questions. We introduce the world to the real world. They are stuck in their alternative reality and we are responsible to deliver them from it. I know that today people state it as taking the red pill, but if this is a pill, it’s probably not red or blue, but the concept itself is valid.
After about a year in Oregon, a friend and member of our church in California came up to visit on the weekend, we went door-to-door evangelizing Friday and Saturday, had Sunday services, and yesterday, we drove up to Crater Lake, which is also a national park about an hour and a half drive from where we live. Crater Lake is beautiful. It is essentially the top of a mountain that has been hollowed out with no outlet and water has accumulated there through various means over a long period of time. It looks like a crater filled with the brightest blue, almost transparent water. In the lake is another old volcano that also has a crater, a mini-island within the crater, a mountain within a mountain. It was hazy, when we visited Crater Lake on Monday, because of wind blowing smoke up from fires in California. Nevertheless, the views, as we drove all the way around and hiked to two locations and got out of the car at least ten times to look, were awe inspiring (if you click on the pictures, they get bigger and better).
Requisite now for national parks, which are very often very beautiful, are historical and apparent scientific explanations. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and it is the ninth deepest lake in the world. At many of the scenic overlooks were placards and displays that talked about the formation.
The explanation for Crater Lake is that it was Mount Mazama, which became an active volcanoe, which erupted 6,000 to 8,000 years ago which blew out twelve cubit miles worth of material to form a cadera, the gigantic crater. That bowl filled up with water from huge snows and the melting of the snow pack in the winter. Since there are no inlets or outlets, it is very pure water, some of the purest of the world, and it is estimated the water completely changes every 250 years through the exchange of evaporation and precipitation.
If you read the descriptions on any of the placards or displays, there is no mention of God. God does not enter into the explanation. He should. Crater Lake formed by means of a universal flood over the entire earth from which the original water also came. Yes, it has since been replenished in the way described, but was a lake at the time of the great flood, revealed in Genesis 6-9 in the Bible.
God was angry with mankind and so He revealed to a righteous man, named Noah, that rain and a flood and destruction were coming, because of man’s sin. Man was sinning and unrepentant of it. Violating the moral law of God brings consequences. God doesn’t allow man to interminably get away with sin. He reacts with righteous indignation and true justice.
God is also merciful, because He instructed Noah to preach to mankind to warn him for 120 years. God also provided for a way to escape the destruction of the flood, an ark. Noah and his family would build the ark to save whoever would repent and believe. No one did, so except for the eight people in Noah’s family, everyone died.
The flood changed the topography of the earth. Water came from beneath the earth’s surface and from above. A feature of the earth before the flood was the firmament, waters which protected the earth from factors that would greatly shorten people’s life spans. Proceeding from God’s power, waters broke forth from beneath the surface of the earth and rained down from above it.
The pressure of the water that covered the earth completely changed the topography of the planet. There was a tremendous upheaval that is responsible for what the earth looks like now. This occurred by the powerful judgment of God and then the natural forces that followed from that. Genesis 10 talks about the division of the earth. It took awhile for the earth to settle. The population was very small and in one location and everywhere else were massive changes from which are repercussions still today.
The forces at work from the worldwide flood caused volcanic eruptions and huge shifts of the earth’s crust, leaving still the consequences of sin in the way of volcanic and seismic activity. The earth still often shakes with the shifting of plates and destroys what’s on the surface, leading to further death. Giant waves form and hit the shore of populated area, destroying life and property. The weather that followed the flood has continued to wreak havoc everywhere and all the time with the far less stable living environment than what existed before the flood. Life changed drastically and it was all because of sin.
God’s judgment of sin formed Crater Lake. It also formed the Rogue Gorge, which is nearby Crater Lake about 45 minutes away.
These formations are beautiful to see. They are powerful. All of them have arisen from the power of God’s destruction of a former world because of its sin. No one mentions that at either location, but it is true and it is the most important story at both Crater Lake and Rogue Gorge.
Further judgment is coming to the world. God has already warned about it. He wants His children, His saints, to preach about it. It’s obviously nearer today than it ever has been. Even the smoke over Crater Lake reminds me of that future fire that will destroy the world. Like Noah and his family could be saved, God offers salvation. Let’s not miss that. A former world was destroyed without repentance. Only those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ will escape the next judgment of God.
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