We Are in a War: The Goals, Strategy, and Tactics of the Enemy and How to Fight Him

Hello Folks and welcome to this edition of the Messianic Jewish expositor. We’re going to talk today about “The Goals, Strategy, and Tactics of the Enemy and How to Fight Him”. Before we get into the message I want to read a Scripture to you:

Revelation 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Satan also known as the Devil, the Enemy, and the Father of Lies, has two main goals:

‌ To prevent the Messiah from crushing his head.

‌ To replace God Almighty.

‌Everything that the Enemy does, all of his strategies and tactics, are done in pursuit of these two goals.

‌What are the practical out-workings of these two goals for you and for me?

Gen 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Satan visibly appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent who very likely did not look like an ugly slithering snake. He deceived Eve by telling her lies. Satan does the same to us today and he does not need to be visible in order to plant lies in our minds. Let me give you an example from the Scriptures:

1 Chronicles 21:1 “Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.”

The Hebrew word for moved in this verse means to lead astray, to seduce, or to incite. It can also mean to stir up as in this verse:

1 Kings 21:25 “25 But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.”

‌A while back I did a podcast about the root cause of Antisemitism and of course I spoke about the Enemy, Satan. Satan is behind Antisemitism. In this post we will talk about what else he is behind.

Recently, my wife told me about the murder of a major presidential candidate in Ecuador. I immediately thought of my friend Raul who is a Christian brother originally from Ecuador and I wanted to know more. I found an article by Ioan Grillo in Substack, a free online publication, which provides a detailed analysis of what happened. The name of Grillo’s Substack publication is Narco Politics and the title of the article is Ecuador’s Gangster Warlords and the Murder of a Presidential Candidate . If you’re interested you can find the article on Substack. When I read the article I had the feeling that what happened in Ecuador came “straight from the pit of hell”. Talking with Raul a few days later strengthened this feeling.

Folks, We are in a war. The war is not just in Ecuador; it is worldwide. As with any war there are two sides. On one side is God, the God of the Bible: all powerful, all knowing, present everywhere and good, always good. On the other side is Satan, the Devil, an actual being who is powerful, but not all powerful, extremely knowledgeable but not all knowing, and ruler of demons who are everywhere although Satan himself cannot be everywhere at once. Satan is evil, always evil and always malevolent. There is absolutely nothing good in him.

‌I said that we are in a war. In every war the leaders of the two sides have goals, strategies, and tactics. This war is no different. I’m going to try to explain this in as simple a manner as possible and I will give you the source that backs up what I’m saying. Thousands of years ago, Satan was told by God that because of what he, Satan, had done a deliverer would come and crush his head:

Genesis 3:14-15

(NIV) So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. [15] And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

This deliverer is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Offspring or Seed of the woman. One of Satan’s two goals is to prevent his head from being crushed. The Messiah who will do this would come from the Jewish people, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later through King David. Satan’s head will be crushed by the Messiah at His return (the Second Coming). Since Satan can’t kill the Messiah, (he tried once 2,000 years ago and failed, at the cross) Satan’s strategy has been to prevent the return of the Messiah. He has attempted to do this by annihilating the entire Jewish race. But this Enemy, Satan, will himself be destroyed at Messiah’s Second Coming:

Revelation 19:11-16

“11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”

Revelation 20:1-3

“1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.”

Revelation 20:7-10

“7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

This Second Coming, and Satan’s doom, will not occur until the Jewish people en masse call for Messiah’s return. How do we know this? The scriptures tell us:

Matthew 23:37-39

“37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”” (bold added)

‌Hosea 5:15

“15 I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”” (bold added)

The Jewish people will, at a time that is growing nearer every day be greatly afflicted, more than ever before, more even than they were in Hitler’s Holocaust. That time is called The Time of Jacob’s Trouble also known as The Great Tribulation. It is the second half of the seven year Tribulation also known as Daniel’s seventieth week. At the end of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble the Jewish people will in desperation seek Yeshua, their Messiah, and they will then repent of the crucifixion of Jesus:

Zechariah 12:9-10

“9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (bold added)

They will also at that time say “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD”, which is a direct quote from Psalm 118:26, a Messianic Psalm which Jesus Himself quoted (see above) in Matthew 23.

The Messiah will then return, right then, and that will spell Satan’s doom. Therefore Satan will do everything in his power to make sure that there is not one single remaining Jewish voice to say Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD. The Holocaust is an example of Satan’s work. It failed. But Satan will never stop trying. He has been trying to annihilate the Nation of Israel since its founding in 1948.

‌Now you might be saying: “Art, you told me all this when you spoke about the root cause of antisemitism”. I know, folks. But stick with me. There is new stuff coming now.

The Messiah’s return, which will occur immediately after the whole Jewish Nation cries out for Him, will not occur until the full number of the Gentiles who are to be saved by God, to be born again, are saved. How do we know this?

Romans 11:25-26

“25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;”

It is my belief that the full number of the Gentiles who are to be saved will not be reached until the end of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. To me that’s clear from the Romans 11 passage we read a moment ago. The Church will be complete and raptured before the Tribulation but there are many, many, many Gentiles who will yet be saved after the rapture, during the Tribulation.

Therefore, Satan will do everything that he can to prevent the full number of the Gentiles from coming in. He is doing it now and he will do it even more during the Tribulation. He will kill Christians in large numbers and he will attempt to prevent the gospel from being shared by killing missionaries, closing churches, corrupting Christian teaching, and much, much, more. Turning churches woke is part of this plan. He wants to kill and weaken those who are Christians now and he wants to do anything and everything he can to prevent the birth of new Christians. He will do whatever it takes to keep the full number of the Gentiles who are to be saved from being reached.

Satan’s other goal, the most important one, is to replace God as supreme ruler of the universe and to receive all the worship that is owed to God. More about that shortly.

At this point I’m going to digress for a moment to explain a couple of things. How did Satan become the ruler of this world and does the Bible tell us that he is the ruler of this world? The Bible tells us. Adam, the first man, was given dominion of the world:

‌Gen 1:26

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””

Gen 1:28

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Adam lost this dominion at the Fall. In case you have forgotten what the Fall is, I’d better explain. Let’s look at the Scriptures:

Genesis 2:15-17

(NIV) The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; [17] but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

As you know, Adam and Eve did eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after Satan tempted them to do so. Sin and death then entered the human race and have been passed down to every human ever born. Adam and Eve died spiritually that very day and every human born ever since is born spiritually dead and separated from God. This utter catastrophe is known as the Fall.

After the Fall, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Adam’s dominion was transferred to Satan. How do we know that his dominion was transferred to Satan? In the New Testament, Satan is called the god of this age - that’s god with a small g - and the ruler of this world:

Jesus says it in John 12:31

“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

and Paul says it in 2 Cor 4:4

“whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

So, we can deduce that the rulership of this world was taken from Adam and given to Satan. And this 2 Corinthians verse also tells us that Satan works on the mind in this case blinding the minds of people so that they do not believe.

Now please realize that God is always sovereign. When Adam was given dominion of the world he was never above God. He was a co-regent with God but God was always supreme. With Satan it is similar. God is supreme but He allows Satan to rule. Everything that Satan does is done only with God’s permission. How do we know this and why is that the case? I’ll say a few words about that at the end of this message.

But back to Satan’s goals. How do we know Satan’s goals? There is one main goal and the Scriptures tell us what that is:

Isaiah 14:12-14

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! [13] For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

Before Satan fell from heaven his name was Lucifer and he was the highest of angels. But that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be like God:

Matt 4:8-11

“8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Satan tried to subvert Jesus. He tried to get the Son of God to worship him. There was no chance of that happening! But we can see what Satan’s goal is in this passage from Matthew: his goal is to be worshipped, to be God.

So now, if you didn’t already know it, you know how Satan became the ruler of this world and you know what his main goal is. He wants to be God with a capital G. You also now know, if you didn’t already, why Satan wants to destroy the Jews and also to destroy Christians. But why does Satan facilitate Narco Wars in Latin America and the assassination of an Ecuadoran presidential candidate? Why is the Green Climate Agenda embraced at great cost to our economy and welfare? Why the COVID lockdowns that have crippled our economy and mandatory vaccines that don’t work and are dangerous? Why is cheap and effective therapy for COVID made so difficult to obtain in America? Why is the weakening of the American government and the opening of our Southern border happening? Why have there been more than 60 million abortions in our country? Why is Darwinian Evolution the default teaching in nearly all of our schools? Why is Israel labeled an apartheid state so often and threatened with nuclear annihilation by Iran? Why is there such a push to weaken or eliminate the Second Amendment, free speech, and freedom of the press in our country? Why are children relentlessly encouraged to question their God-given biological sex and to change it? Why was the last President of the United States accused of being a Russian agent, why is Critical Race Theory taught in our schools and the 1619 Project embraced, and why is the whole woke agenda moving forward at breakneck speed with the encouragement of so many of our leaders including our president? And this is not a complete list! All of these things have Satan’s fingerprints all over them and all of them, some directly and some indirectly, are designed to help Satan accomplish his goals.

There is chaos and division in our country and all over the world, All this has to do with the Devil’s strategy and tactics. All of these things I’ve listed, and more, discourage people and cause them to doubt God. None of these things make sense and none of these things are logical (by the way, that is a hallmark of the enemy’s tactics). Christians and potential Christians are killed, the going forth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is hampered, Jews and the Jewish Nation are threatened with extinction. And the collateral damage in Satan’s war is incalculable! Satan doesn’t care. Jesus told us:

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Satan also wants to get the world ready to be ruled by the Antichrist under his, Satan’s, authority, who will be manifested at the beginning of the Tribulation and whom Satan will empower. Accordingly Satan is pushing globalism and doing whatever he can to cause the formation of a one world government. That is one of his major strategies.

So, What Can We Do? Is There Any Hope For Us, For Our World? ABSOLUTELY!

Please never forget this:

1 John 4:2-4

“2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

The apostle John is writing to followers of Yeshua here, to people who are born again.

So, What Can We Do? Here are some things that we can do:

Accept Jesus, Yeshua, as your Lord and Savior.

Do not be deceived. Reading and studying the Bible daily will help you to know deception when you see it.

‌Tell others about Jesus.

Pray that Godly leaders would return to our Nation.

Read God’s word, the Bible, every day in order to draw closer to God.

Get together with other followers of Christ and implore the Lord (pray!) to revive our Nation so that America can once again be a beacon of hope for the world.

Do not forsake the assembly of believers. Go to a Bible believing church. Worship with your Christian brothers and sisters. Study God’s word with them.

Now, before I close, I want to go back to something I said earlier, that God is supreme but He allows Satan to rule and so everything that Satan does is done only with God’s permission. We know this from the Book of Job:

Job 1:12 “12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”

Job 2:6 “6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.””

I also said that I would explain how God uses the evil that Satan does for our our good:

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Let’s be clear on this. God does this for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. How does that work? Let me give you an example:

The seven year Tribulation is coming on the earth. The first half will be very bad but second half of this will be even worse. Jesus spoke about this time:

Matthew 24:21 “21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

God will use this great tribulation to accomplish at least two things:

1. He will bring in the full number of the Gentiles, those who did not make it into the church before the rapture:

Rom 11:25 “25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

2. And then He will save the remnant of Israel:

Rom 11:26 “26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;”

That deliverer is Jesus and He will come from the heavenly Zion to do this.

Please listen to this verse also:

Romans 11:30 (NKJV)

30 For as you (Gentile believers) were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (the Jewish Nation) disobedience,

Isn’t God amazing? I don’t have the words to express it. Better to quote the Scripture:

Romans 11:33-36 “33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” 35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

Yes, the LORD glorious!!!

‌Thank you for listening my friends. Until the next time. This is Art Wolinsky signing off. God bless you.