Matthew 4

“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (v. 19)

Forgive me if I take this verse out of context, but there is an illustration that one can apply here that teaches us a great truth. You see, Satan too is a good “fisher of men”. It is as if he casts the bait out into the sea of life, and just waits to see who bites. The bait may be drugs, sex, or alcohol, or anything, it may be simply a proud heart, but the emphasis is not on the bait, but on the catch. We may not bite the worm of alcohol; or the lure of drugs; we may not get caught up in immorality, or thievery, but somewhere in the tackle box of Satan, he has a lure that will get our attention, and we will bite. We may nibble a little at first, as fish often do, but then he just throws out more of the same bait until we swallow the hook. In this way, he sees our weakness, and feeds it until we are hooked. The devil does not have the ability to be omniscient, all knowing, as many of us seem to think; we need not give him so much credit as to emulate the characteristics of God. He is not all present, as God is, nor all powerful, but he is wily, and very, very subtle. Yes, he is a fisher of men too, or rather a fisher for men. Peter knew this, and wrote, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, “Be sOBer, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” The devil doesn’t care how he gets you to stumble, as long as he does it. It makes no difference to him which bait you take, or how much of it you take, but his concern is to side-track you, and to get you off course with the Lord. You see, once you are saved, he can never get you back again, but he will work night and day to destroy your joy; or to get you to stray away from truth and right. In this way, he gets the victory; in this way, he devours us.

The remedy for this baiting is to stay close to the Lord. Be vigilant; be on guard; and walk circumspectly. The remedy is seen in the verse we quoted in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sOBer, be vigilant….” And the reason for such carefulness is also given, (the rest of the verse), it is, therefore a warning as well as a wise admonition, be watchful, and be very careful. Satan’s tackle box has something in it for each of us, something that we will bite on, and he knows that if he throws enough bait out there, that we will bite on something.
Let’s lean on the grace of God, and hope that when we bite, it is just a nibble and that old Slewfoot doesn’t hook us, and reel us in. We need to rely on the Lord’s strength and not our own. Our strength is weakness, our victory is in Jesus.