God's Purpose in Satan's Hindrance
by Pastor Kevin Sadler
"Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us" (1 Thes. 2:18).
God
has a plan for each of our lives, a plan that is for our good and His
glory. We should not forget, however, that Satan has a plan for the
believer's life as well. His designs are for destroying our lives and
testimony for Christ through sin, false beliefs, and poor decisions.
Paul's mention of "the wiles of the devil" in Ephesians 6:11 teaches us
that Satan has strategies, methods, and schemes to make us fall or run
away in the spiritual battle. Satan can't take away your salvation (Col.
3:3), but he can destroy your testimony. Like a thief, he can also rob
you of your joy in Christ and your assurance of salvation.
After
establishing the church at Thessalonica, Paul had tried "once and
again" to reconnect and visit them, but it had not worked out. The
reason, Paul wrote, was that "Satan hindered us." The Greek word for
"hindered" is used of making a road impassable. In the context of
athletics, it meant cutting someone off during a race. In a military
context, it referred to cutting a trench in front of an advancing army
to prevent the enemy's progress. Satan does the same thing in our
Christian lives: he blocks the path, cuts us off in mid-stride to trip
us up, or impedes our spiritual progress.
We
do not know specifically what Satan did to keep Paul from going back to
Thessalonica, but we do know that Paul attributed the obstruction to
Satan himself. However, we see now how even Satan's hindrance was part
of God's providence for Paul's life. God allowed and used Satan's
opposition and brought good out of this roadblock which Paul perceived
as bad. As He did with the Cross, God accomplished His own purposes,
using the devil to do so.
The
consequence of Paul's inability to go to Thessalonica was the writing
of a letter, a letter that became part of our Bible. This letter, in
turn, has resulted in glory to God and, for the past 2000 years, untold
multitudes have benefited from Paul's First Epistle to the Thessalonians
and have been blessed by its divine truths -- our blessed hope of the
Rapture (4:13-18), to name just one. It was because Paul faced a satanic
roadblock in his life that we have 1 Thessalonians. We do well to
remember this anytime we face a blocked road or barrier in life that we
perceive as bad, because God can work to bring something good out of it
for His glory and our blessing.
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