By Staff
In the Old Testament the enemies of God were Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, etc. The common thread among all these enemies of God was idol worship.
The people of God were continually drawn to worship the idols of God's enemies. Even though God's people saw the powerlessness of these idol worshippers, they still yearned for the idols. The glaring question from those days has to be, "Why would the people of the Living God of Heaven choose to bow down to lifeless idols?"
We now live in New Testament days. Not much has changed except the enemies of God are no longer primarily specific nations, but they are specific sins which lure God's people into disobedience.
The age-old enemy of God is the Devil. Revelation, chapter 12, verse 9, speaks of him: "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 Lucifer, was created by God and given great position in heaven, but he fell when he determined to lift himself above God (Isaiah 14:12-15).
As Satan will be bound with chains and cast into a bottomless pit for a thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3), and the angels who rebelled against God are in chains (Jude 6), so are the enemies of God described in Colossians, chapter 2, verse 15. They are disarmed; they are put on public display. Jesus Christ is triumphant over every one of them.
Picture lust, fear, jealousy, envy, greed, hatred, bitterness, anger, immorality, idolatry, sorcery, heresy, death, the grave, hell, etc., all grouped there publicly displayed in disarming defeat. Every agent of evil, every enemy of God was dealt with completely by Jesus Christ on the cross.
The cross of Jesus Christ was payment for every sin committed, as described in Colossians, chapter 2, verse 14: "[God through Christ] wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
The cross of Christ not only dealt with the sins we have committed, but the cross also breaks the power of sin over us. The public spectacle spoken of in Colossians, chapter 2, verse 15, is not a heap of dead bodies, it is a group of disarmed powers who are still alive and can, if we allow, still lure us to destruction.
In the Old Testament God gave His people great victories over idolatrous nations. Some of those nations were never completely destroyed, but continued as remnants steeped in pagan religions and idol worship. Even though God's people had witnessed the power of God over His enemies, they would soon drift over to the heathens' practice and indulge in idolatry.
As ludicrous as we may think those Old Testament people were at times, we do the same thing by allowing ourselves to be tempted and lured into sin by the very powers that Jesus Christ has disarmed.
Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords now. He is victor! He stands never too far from that group of disarmed evil agents with the wounds in His hands, feet, and side, gently proclaiming His victory and the new life in Him.
It is all about choosing; it has always been about choosing. Adam and Eve chose to listen to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As much as we think we would have been smarter and stronger than they, we can fall for the same lies every day.
The picture in our mind must be disarmed enemies of God, publicly displayed in defeat because of the crucified, buried, risen, and victorious Jesus Christ.