Stupid Satan

A short one today...I'm supposed to be working - but keep thinking of this, so I'm sharing!

Last week sometime, I was reading in Zechariah (chapter 3) and I've been thinking on this, as well as challenged to believe it, over the past week. In this chapter, Zechariah was allowed to witness a very unusual sight - basically Satan was standing next to Joshua, God's high priest, and accusing him of spiritual inadequacy (Zechariah 3:1-2). How often to we hear him accusing us in that fashion?? You didn't do your devotions this morning....You missed youth group last week...You don't pray enough. Here's the cool part - God let Satan know that Joshua was one of God's own and that God Himself had made him acceptable. God made Him acceptable - not anything Joshua had done on his own accord! And Zechariah is not the only Biblical character to have observed Satan accusing one of God's people. John also saw Satan as the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God (Revelation 12:10).

Satan accuses us night and day - but here's the beautiful thing - we don't have to fear his accusations because we have a defender standing with us before God. We have One who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1). So Satan accuses us...Jesus defends us...but it goes even further! (How awesome is our Father!) In Zechariah 3, the angel of the Lord stood by Joshua's side (verse 5...the angel of the Lord was the preincarnate Jesus if I'm not mistaken!). And Zechariah observed the angel speaking to Joshua and offering forgiveness and fresh, clean robes in which he could serve God. Wow! Not only does Jesus defend us against the enemy's accusations - but when we are obedient to run to God when we sin - He clothes us with righteousness.

ps...I know this sounds an awful lot like my message last week...but it's so foundational to us understanding who we are in Christ - and living free lives before Him. Grab hold of it - and run!!