The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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[See posts #1, #2, and #3 on Satan: The Destroyer]

In this post, we continue our examination of 1 Peter 5:6-9:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

Prowling, roaring, ravaging

Peter depicts Satan as a prowling, roaring, and voracious lion, seeking “anyone he can devour.” First, he prowls around (peripateo – to make one’s way; to make due use of opportunities). This harkens back to Job 1:7 and 2:2, in which the Lord asks the satan where he has come from. “From roaming through the earth,” the adversary replies, “and walking around on it.” According to Marvin Vincent, the word peripateo gave identity to a sect of Greek philosophers known as Peripatetics, who walked around while teaching or disputing.  Satan is the consummate Peripatetic – always on the move, and always looking for a fight.

Next, Satan roars. The particular Greek word oruomenos is used only here in the New Testament. It describes the howl of a beast in fierce hunger. His purpose is to produce fear in our hearts. In the context of 1 Peter, the evil one uses persecution – verbal and social abuse at the hands of Greco-Roman neighbors, who ostracize Christians because they no longer participate in their pagan practices (1 Pet. 4:3-4) – to scare believers back into their previous lifestyles. In stark contrast to God, who tenderly cares for his children, the evil one stalks and terrifies believers in order to devour their confidence in God and thus lose rewards they are storing up in heaven. 

Finally, Satan is a ravaging lion. The apostle John refers to Jesus as “the Lion” for his courage (Rev. 5:5). In contrast, Satan is “a roaring lion” because of his fierceness. One is the true Lion of Judah, while the other is a counterfeit. One comes to deliver, the other to devour. One comes to conquer, the other to crush. One comes to defend, the other to decimate. One comes to restore, the other to carry out a scorched-earth policy before he is caged and declawed. One is to be celebrated, the other to be feared. One ultimately is to be worshiped, the other to be tormented night and day forever (Rev. 20:10).

Drinking down

Peter notes that the evil one, like a ferocious lion, seeks to “devour.” The Greek word Peter uses here is katapino, which means “to drink down, swallow, destroy.” New Testament writers use the term in a variety of ways. When Jesus calls the scribes and Pharisees “blind guides,” he accuses them of straining out a gnat but gulping down a camel (Matt. 23:24). Paul looks forward to the day when death is swallowed up in victory at the resurrection of the just (1 Cor. 15:54). Paul further urges Corinthian believers to forgive a repentant sinner, lest he be “overwhelmed by excessive grief” (2 Cor. 2:7). 

The writer of Hebrews remembers that when the Egyptians sought to cross the Red Sea on dry ground, they were drowned (Heb. 11:29). And in his vision of the woman, the child, and the dragon, John sees that the earth helps the woman (Israel) as she escapes the flood waters the dragon has spewed in her path: “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth” (Rev. 12:16). No doubt, in Peter’s reference to Satan, we see a desire to completely consume those who follow Jesus, especially those who remain faithful in persecution.

The earth is Satan’s domain. As such, he roams it freely, moving from place to place. And believers, who are in this world but not of it (cf. John 17:14-15), are vulnerable prey. As David Walls and Max Anders note in the Holman New Testament Commentary:

Peter envisions the devil as a cunning and evil personal being who has the ability to attack Christians and to disrupt the life and unity of the church…. He is the master of ingenious strategies, and his tactics must not be allowed to catch us unaware.

But how, exactly, do we see evidence of Satan’s destructive work in people’s lives? The New Testament reveals certain human characteristics that Satan and demons may prompt: 

(1) bizarre or violently irrational evil behavior, especially in opposition to the gospel or to Christians (Mark 1:24; 5:2-5; 9:18; Acts 16:16-18; Rev. 2:10); 

(2) malicious slander and falsehood in speech (John 8:44; 1 John 4:1-3); 

(3) increasing bondage to self-destructive behavior (Mark 5:5; 9:20); 

(4) stubborn advocacy of false doctrine (1 John 4:1-6); 

(5) the sudden and unexplained onslaughts of emotions, such as fear, hatred, depression, anxiety, violent anger, etc., which are both contrary to God’s will and inappropriate in one’s situation (note the “flaming arrows of the evil one” in Eph. 6:16); 

(6) deep spiritual evil, which God gifts some Christians to discern (1 Cor. 12:10).

Next: Targeting Our Temples (Satan: The Destroyer – Part 5)