Your Achilles Heel

In our study of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness last Sunday (Matthew 4:1-11), I said this:  "The story of Achilles, the Greek warrior, is that his armor was complete, covered his whole body—he looked invincible:  except for his heel.  And that’s where the arrow struck, and it took his life.  So too, Satan aims at your weakness."

So too, it was when Jesus had endured a LONG fast and was hungry that the Tempter tried to entice him into turning the stones to bread.  "Food is good, you're hungry, eat!"

In his thoughtful and practical book, Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices, Pastor Thomas Brooks elaborates on this tactic of the Devil--how he comes at us seeking to take advantage of us where we are most vulnerable.  In particular, he fans the flames of our besetting sins:

"Whatever sin the heart of man is most prone to, that the devil will help forward.  If David be proud of his people, Satan willl provoke him to number them, that he may be yet prouder (2 Sam. 24)."

"If Peter be slavishly fearful, Satan will put upon him rebuking and denying of Christ, to save his own skin (Matt. 16. 22; 26: 69-75).  If Ahab's prophets be given to flatter, the devil will straightaway become a lying spirit in the mouths of four hundred of them, and they will flatter Ahab to his ruin (1 Kings 22).  If Judas will be a traitor, Satan will quickly enter into his heart, and make him sell his master for money, which some heathens would never have done (John 13. 2).  If Ananias will lie for advantage, Satan will fill his heart that he may lie, with a witness to the Holy Ghost (Acts 5. 3).  Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men's temptations to their conditions and inclinations.  If they be in prosperity, he will tempt them to deny God (Prov. 30. 9); if they be in adversity, he will tempt them to distrust God; if their knowledge be weak, he will tempt them to have low thoughts of God; if their conscience be tender, he will tempt them to scrupulosity; if large, to carnal security; if bold-spirited, he will tempt to presumption; if timorous, to desperation; if flexible, to inconstancy; if stiff, to impenitency...."

Satan "hath several devices to destroy the great and the honourable, the wise and the learned, the blind and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the real and the nominal saints" (p. 16).

Friends, let the Word of God and the insights of a pastor from the 17th century warn you, and challenge you, to trust in the Lord, rest in his mercy, and depend upon his help in time of temptation:  "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you; draw near to God and he will draw near to you" (James 4:7-8).  Follow Jesus' lead, take your stand on Scripture, and be assured of the final victory of Christ.