ZECHARIAH 3:1-4 – Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

THEME OF THE DAY. SILENCING THE ACCUSER.  The 17th-century English Puritan pastor Thomas Brooks wrote a book called Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.  It is still in print and most helpful in educating Christians on our chief foe, Satan, and his tactics.  Brooks penned these insightful words, “Christ, Satan, the Scriptures, and our own hearts are to be the chief objects of study.”  Concerning Satan, he addresses the tactics of our arch-enemy to educate us to successfully wage war in the good fight of faith God has called us to. One such tactic is identified in today’s scripture and repeated in the New Testament book of Revelation – And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God (Revelation 12:10).  This tactic is in the form of the accuser and identifies what Satan does in this role – accuse us before God as he did Job.

This is a very effective tactic of Satan.  It becomes active and attacking when we fail the Lord, fall into sin, or even willfully sin.  Satan first comes to us as a tempter and then, if he succeeds and we “take the bait”, he “hooks” us with sin and becomes the accuser.  We will feel the fiery darts in our hearts with heated accusations, “Look at you. How can you be a Christian? You love the Lord? No way. Not the way you give into sin so easily.”  And many other scorching words of condemnation.  The huge problem we face, unlike Job, is the accusations of Satan are not lies.  We do sin.  We do fail.

When we encounter the accuser of our souls, we cannot argue with him.  The way, and only way, to silence him is the Gospel.  We tell ourselves, even him, we do sin, but the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:9). And we constantly remind ourselves, as in today’s scripture, we may sin, but we have the righteousness of Christ on us. Our position is in Him and that is not determined by our conduct.  Remember, we live the Christian life from our position in Christ that never changes, not our practice in Christ that often changes due to the war we fight daily.   That truth of position in Christ is the key to silencing the accuser and living with joy.  Take time to read Romans 6 and marvel at our position in Christ. It is a position that always silences the evil accuser and causes him to flee.

PRAYER: “Father, thank You for silencing the accuser through the blood of Your Son.”

QUOTE: “We are conquerors through Jesus against all the accusations of the evil one.”