If Satan is the Accuser, Yeshuah is our Defense Lawyer!
We all know the destructive and seductive character of Satan. These traits of character attached to him will culminate during the simultaneous reigns of the two beasts described in Revelation 13, one rising up out of the sea and the second one coming up out of the earth.
Revelation 13 shows indeed that the great dragon, whose name is Satan as indicated in Revelation 12: 9, will give his throne and all his power to the first beast. This will be at the origin of a worldwide seduction of all the human beings on earth and they will start to worship both the beast and Satan. A seduction at such a scale never existed in the past!
But Satan, the father of sin, will not stop there: indeed, after the 1000 years reign of Yeshuah Christ, a period during which Satan will be reduced to impotence in the bottomless pit, but as soon as he will be released for a short period of time, will have only one haste, rush to seduce all the nations on earth pushing them to destroy the people of the Saints! This story can be read in Revelation 20 and Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Satan uses his power of seduction blindly for the sole purpose of destroying all the creation of Yehoah Elohim; he is doing this blindly because Satan like the world does not see that Elohim is Almighty!
Satan, the accuser of the people of Elohim night and day!
But another character trait of Satan the Devil, that I suggest to cover more in depth today, it is the one of accuser of all those who are doing their best to be part of the Kingdom of Elohim. Not only is Satan an accuser, but more than that, he will do “his best” to cause the fall of righteous men like for instance Job! This is what we are told in Job 1 and 2.
After his miserable failure with Job, the Devil didn’t give up his unhealthy addiction to destroy another righteous man. This time, his target was the lamb without blemish and without spot, I mean Yeshuah whom some people may call more correctly Yeshua. The story of Satan's repeated temptations to bring down Yeshuah are given in Matthew 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4. Here again it was a complete failure because our Savior always turned his eyes towards His Father to obey Him carefully.
Psalm 109, verses 6 and the following ones, is another reference showing the role of accuser played by Satan when Judas is incarnated by him during the last Passover of Yeshuah on earth. It is also very interesting to note that verse 6 that says " Set thou a wicked man over him: and let an accuser stand at his right hand. " while the original Hebrew text used the name of Satan instead of accuser! And this is well in line with what happened approximately 1000 years later when Satan enters Judas. Judas, one of the twelve disciples, then committed suicide after his denunciation and was replaced by another. I invite you to read about this John 13 and Acts 1.
There are several other stories in the Bible where misguided men play the bad role of accuser.
It begins at the very beginning of the story of Adam's accusing his wife as having been the cause of his sin. Other examples are Potiphar's wife who will falsely accuse Joseph of trying to abuse her. Several hundred years later, Saul blames his people for sparing Agag, king of Amalek and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. This was against the order of the Lord asking to eliminate and destroy completely all the Amalekites and their goods as indicated in I Samuel 15.
There is also the horrible attitude of Doëg, the Edomite close servant of Saul, who accuses the priest Ahimelech to have provided food to David. Following his accusation, Doeg will become a heinous criminal as, unlike Saul's other servants, Doeg will exterminate Ahimelech and his entire family of 85 members. Abiathar will be the only survivor of this massacre! This story can be read in I Samuel 21 and 22.
Many prophets have also suffered putting their life at risk as a result of accusations made by jealous or rebellious men who have automatically become Satan's slaves. These were the cases of Elijah (I Kings 17 and following), Zechariah, son of Yehoyada the priest (II Chronicles 24), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26 and following), the three friends of Daniel, Shadrach, Mechak and Abed-Nego ( Daniel 3) and Daniel himself (Daniel 6).
Yeshuah, our defense lawyer!
Now let us switch to the completely opposite attitude, the one of Yeshuah, our Savior. We are going to see how our Savior is at the antipodes of Satan when he makes every effort to defend sinners and to encourage them to free themselves from their slavery to the world of sin. Yeshuah does not go like Satan to denounce the faults of others in the public square. On the contrary, he will protect men and women who have sinned and he will encourage them to eliminate sins as we will see in many examples given in the Bible.
Let us start with this prostitute: Yeshuah is invited to share the meal with the Pharisee Simon, a woman whose conduct was reprehensible makes a lot of efforts to approach him and ask forgiveness for his past conduct. As can be read in Luke 7: 36-50, this woman's attitude is marked by a great deal of love and respect for the one in whom she sees righteously and with faith her Savior. See also how kindly Yeshuah will explain to the Pharisee Simon that he must stop being in himself an accuser of others. Indeed, this Pharisee, considering himself infinitely better than this woman, would have wished that Yeshuah would blame her publicly.
Yeshuah is looking after people who feel guilty and want to change by good doings around them. The story of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector in Jericho people, who is considered by his neighborhood to be not frequentable, is another example that you can read in Luke 19: 1-10. Yeshuah concludes by saying: " for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Yeshuah is dealing with everyone in the same way and he is always open to a constructive dialogue even with people having completely opposite ideas:
Here are few examples to illustrate the behavior of our Savior.
Despite the fact that Yeshuah has righteously very hard words about the behavior of the Pharisees comparing them with snakes or vipers and calling them sons of the devil, he does not close the door to any representative of the Pharisees coming to question him with sincerity. This was the case when Nicodemus came secretly acknowledging that Yeshuah is indeed sent by Elohim. Yeshuah did not reject him, quite the contrary, he teaches him in the most appropriate way as we can read in John 3.
Somewhere else Yeshuah does not hesitate to begin a benevolent conversation with a Samaritan woman. At that time the Samaritans knew that Jewish people should never have any contact with them as they were considered as being unclean. But Yeshuah here again had a so fruitful conversation with this Samaritan lady that many Samaritans of her city asked him to stay with them to teach them the good news and Yeshuah agreed to share with them his message. (To read in John 4).
Yeshuah did not condemn the adulterous woman after she escapes the stoning that the scribes and Pharisees wanted her to suffer. On the contrary, he lets her go, encouraging her to stop sinning. (John 8)
Until his last breath, Yeshuah will act as a defender of the creatures of his Father although they are yet at the origin of his execution! In Luke 23:34, when he is already on the cross, he asks his father to forgive the crowd who, a few hours earlier, shouted against him calling authorities to execute him. He also promises forgiveness and resurrection to one of the evildoers who repented of the curses pronounced against Yeshuah. (Matthew 27:44 and Luke 23: 41-43).
John in his first letter, chapter 2, confirms Yeshuah's advocacy role in our favor:
" My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Yeshuah Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. "
All this must make us think and must guide our attitude: We must not imitate Satan by constantly accusing people around us. We must, like Yeshuah, look after people who, hopefully like us, are trying to become better. We should not throw these people on a public square to publish their sins, knowing that everyone, we included, is reprehensible. On the contrary, like Yeshuah, we must learn to be good defense lawyer for them in the court of our Father.
If we do our job successfully, our reward will be great:
" Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.»
(James 5: 19-20)
But what attitude should we to adopt if we are accused?
As written earlier, we understand that our Father Yehoah Elohim and his Son, Yeshuah our Lord, are asking us to not imitate Satan and to not be accusers of our neighbor. But what about if we are accused by our neighborhood? How should we behave and how should we defend ourselves? Should we seek for revenge?
**It is very important to answer these questions because if we are truly believers at the end of this world, close to the advent of our Lord, the prophecies of the Bible informs us that most of us will be hated by the people. We should be ready to become the object of false and even shocking accusations to be made by all the nations and their population who will be worshiping the all-mighty Beast on earth thanks to the power of the adversary, Satan, whose role as an accuser is confirmed in Revelation 12:
" Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our Elohim, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our Elohim day and night, has been cast down. "
We will try to find the answers to these questions in the Bible thanks firstly to the examples given to us and secondly through his teachings. So let's go and find for these writings that can help us and give us the support and courage to become winners!
In many places in the Bible, the believers are compared to a flock of sheep, especially sheep, whom the world wishes to send to the slaughterhouse to go to the butcher. Paul reiterates this comparison in Romans 8: 35-37 quoting the text of Psalm 44:
" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of Elohim which is in Christ Yeshuah our Lord. "
The only reason behind this hate of the world against the believers is their attachment to their Elohim and to his Son, Yeshuah, the Shepherd!
But the comparison made between believers and sheep is the key for us to understand the attitude we must adopt when we are attacked and even falsely accused. Indeed, a sheep does not respond to aggression and does not seek for revenge. The sheep will try to take refuge near its shepherd looking for its rod and if it is lost, it will try to hide and escape their aggressors.
There are two spectacular examples where this kind of admirable attitude has existed. The first one is our Savior, Yeshuah, who has always shown us the way to follow. Let's read in the Bible how Yeshuah goes to trial in court "where Satan is the judge"!
First of all in Luke 22: 41-44 before he was arrested:
“And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. "
Then in John 17:
" Yeshuah spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Yeshuah Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was."
We see here that Yeshuah seeks for help by turning in the first place to his Father, his shepherd somehow. Then, when he is delivered "to the butcher" as it is written in the prophecy of Isaiah 53, in verses 6 and 7:
" All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And Yehoah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. "
Later on, Yeshuah, as we have read in the prophecy above, will no longer open his mouth before those who want to kill him. But when still speaking before, Yeshuah was never violent nor vindictive.
Let's read in Mark 15:
“Then Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” He answered and said to him, “It is as you say.” And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, “Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!” But Yeshuah still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled. "
Let us go now to another striking example about a similar and admirable behavior to be compared with the one of Yeshuah. It is the behavior of the Jewish people during the Shoah and often during the two thousand years of diaspora. We have here a second dramatic example of this remarkable attitude. Indeed, the Jewish people have always behaved like sheep trying to keep traditions, most of which originate in the Bible. But at the same time, wherever they were scattered, the Jewish people made all their efforts to contribute to the welfare of the society around them, and they never responded by violence to the violence inflicted on them. The peak of their suffering was the Holocaust, during which the Nazi beast tried powerfully to destroy them all without mercy. And yet, the Jewish people, while trying to escape this fatal fate, allowed themselves to be led to the butchery as written in Psalm 44, which we quoted above. We do not wish to anyone what the Jewish people has suffered but would we be able to have the same attitude as they had under similar conditions. Unconsciously, the Jewish people followed the example of their Messiah that for the time being they don’t know yet!
But there are many other examples of the right attitude to adopt against our accusers. To name but a few, remember how Joseph behaved by welcoming his brethren in Egypt, these brethren who had planned to kill him!
You can also read how David behaved with Saul who was trying to kill him by all means.
Daniel, of whom we have spoken above, has always tried to contribute to the good of those who were ready to have him killed, be it Nebuchadnezzar or Darius.
Read also how Etienne spoke before being stoned with violence by the religious authorities of his time.
I wish us to have the same courage as all these witnesses in front of their accusers and keep in mind Paul's advice in Colossians 4, verses 5 and 6:
" Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. "