Knowing Your Enemy

Strategy is crucial when fighting a battle. To be successful in war a General must do his homework. He must devise a plan and plot out a course for victory. Perhaps no one was better at this than Hannibal. Hannibal lived around 200 B.C. and is universally ranked as one of the greatest military commanders and tacticians in history. One military historian even dubbed him the father of strategy. Hannibal lived in a period of tension in the Mediterranean with both Carthage and Rome vying for control of the region. Considered by many as the greatest hero of Carthage, Hannibal is best known for his achievements in the Second Punic War, where he defeated the Roman army in a series of battles. Hannibal’s reputation as a brilliant strategist was due, in part, to his decision to use elephants in battle. These war elephants, as they were called, proved to be highly successful. For years Roman soldiers and their horses were ineffective against these elephants. Until one day Hannibal met his match when it came to strategy. A man by the name of Scipio Africanus, commander of the Roman Republic, finally devised a plan for defeating the great Hannibal. At the Battle of Zama, near Carthage, Hannibal entered with 58,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 80 war elephants. The Roman army came in fairly well stocked with soldiers also: 34,000 infantry, 3,000 Roman cavalry and 6,000 Numidian cavalry. They were doomed to fail, however, without the proper strategy. Scipio Africanus made a brilliant strategical move. He used trumpets to fight the battle. By blowing these trumpets the elephants became startled. Realizing that elephants would only charge forward in a straight line, Scipio intentionally left gaps in his line of troops. As the elephants charged through these gaps the Roman soldiers simply picked off Hannibal’s troops as they passed by. Scipio’s troops then fell into formation and continued to march on. Carthage lost approximately 31,000 soldiers and an additional 15,000 were wounded, whereas the Romans only suffered about 1500 casualties. The battle resulted in a loss of respect for Hannibal by his fellow Carthaginians, and eventually he went into voluntary exile. The Battle of Zama also marked the last major battle of the Second Punic War with Rome the victors. The conditions of defeat were such that Carthage could no longer battle for Mediterranean supremacy. Still, to this day, military historians laud the brilliant strategy of Scipio who found success on the battlefield by using his mind before using his weapons.

Strategy is crucial when fighting a battle, and Satan is a highly-skilled tactician. He’s a brilliant strategist. He knows our faults, our weaknesses, our downfalls, our temptations, and it’s his job to exploit them. Satan knows he can’t dethrone God; therefore, he attempts to do the next best thing—-destroy mankind. He makes sin appear attractive. He presents immorality as being pleasant. He promises pleasure but pays with pain. Satan is crafty, cunning and always probing to see what forbidden fruit we will find tempting to our eye.

Ephesians 6:11-12 reads, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” While we are engaged in spiritual warfare, we're also involved in one on one combat. Satan has singled you out. He desires for you to live as far from God as possible. He doesn’t care if you choose to follow him or join the Church of Satan or some other demonic cult. He simply wants you not to choose God, and not to follow Christ.

I once read an article discussing how one of the more difficult things about the Vietnam War was that it was sometimes hard to determine who the enemy was. They didn’t always wear uniforms, nor did they have distinguishing details that pointed them out. One particular U.S. soldier was quoted as saying, “We don’t know who is the enemy and who is friendly, so we walk up and ask them, ‘Are you the enemy?’ and if they answer, ‘Yes,’ we shoot them. Do we know our enemy? Do we know who we are fighting against? Are we wise to his schemes? Are we cognizant of his devices? Do we know how to combat him?

If we are going to be successful in winning the spiritual battle, we must develop a game plan. We must devise a strategy. We must know our opponent, and be confident and prepared to withstand whatever he throws at us. We face a formidable foe, but not an invincible one.

Over the next few posts we will be discussing our great adversary and what we can do to assure victory!