You realize that doesn’t make sense.
If someone is in prison, bound and sealed by God, how can he persecute people but not deceive them?
The idea of being sealed is he is powerless and could do nothing. Allowing him to do anything other than deceive and calling his imprisonment by God, sealed, is not logical.
Either he is sealed and completely powerless or he’s not sealed.
During the Old Testament era, God controlled one single nation whereas Satan controlled the nations (
ethnos - the Gentiles) plural.
2 Samuel 7:23-24 says:
“what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible.”
Psalm 135:4 records:
“For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.”
Psalm 147:19-20:
“He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation.”
Amos 3:2 confirms this, saying of Israel:
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
Salvation was largely kept within the boundaries of one small nation within the Middle East for centuries before the cross. Satan had the rest. The opposite is the case today.
Even during Christ’s earthly ministry, the Gospel had to first go to the Jews. It was largely limited to national Israel. Gentiles were classed as unclean throughout the old covenant ceremonial system. This truth is seen in Matthew 4:8-9 where
“the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
During the temptations of Christ in the desert, Satan offers Jesus the world if He would only bow down before him. Satan was well within his rights to make such an offer since Adam handed over world dominion to him when he allowed himself to be subject to Satan's will.
The parallel passage in Luke 4:5-7 says:
“And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”
Manifestly, through Adam’s sin, Satan was able to present a legitimate temptation to Christ. The fact the devil had the capability to tempt the Lord with this enticement proves he enjoyed authority over the nations that had to be broken. Ultimately, God permitted Satan to have this authority. But it was Adam that relinquished this rule over the earth in the Fall. After all, this was a definite and a real legitimate temptation. The devil had huge power over this world.
Matthew 4:10 records,
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
The Lord would not win the nations by bowing down to Satan, but by dying on the cross. Christ defeats Satan on the grounds of the Word of God. Christ here quotes Deuteronomy 6:13.
Salvation was largely kept within the boundaries of one small nation within the Middle East for centuries before the cross. Satan had the rest. The opposite is the case today.
Throughout the OT the prophets spoke of "the nations" or "all nations" coming to God at a particular time. The term were interchangeable with the term strangers / heathen and Gentiles.
In Matthew 10:5-6 He commission the disciples with important racial restricts,
“Go not into the way of the Gentiles ethnos (or)
, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But why? It was still too early for this to happen. The transaction that would eventually defeat the god of the Gentiles – Satan – and unseat him from his unchallenged global reign had still to occur. The cross was central to the curbing of Satan.
What about the story in Matthew 15 where Jesus the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. It says in verse 22,
“And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Matthew 15:22-28).
This Gentile woman received the blessing because of her faith and her persistence. She was absolutely determined.
While the earthly ministry of Christ bound Satan, the event that turned things around is repeatedly depicted as the cross. Scripture shows the spiritual curtailing of Satan at the cross. It also depicts the Gentiles generally as being in darkness, bondage and ignorance prior to the cross. However, even though the Gentiles are constantly depicted in Scripture as being in darkness and ignorance before the cross many entered into a personal relationship with God. Just because there were occasional exceptions does not negate these verses. The same is the case in the converse enlightenment. There is no necessity to take this as a wholesale all-inclusive statement.
God controlled one single nation spiritually. Satan controlled the nations plural.
There is no doubt that the Jews were the focus of Christ’s earthly ministry. That situation continued on for a while throughout the book of Acts. But redemption didn’t stop there. His sheep were not limited to the house of Israel. His heart for Israel did not in any way diminish His intention to reach the Gentile nations with salvation. Jesus said prior to the cross, speaking to His Jewish converts, in John 10:14-16,
“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”
