Satan Bruised Under Your Feet

Today's verse reaches back to the first promise in the Bible. In a garden in Genesis, God told the serpent that the woman's seed would one day crush it: "it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Paul's sentence is built on that old promise.

Paul is near the end of Romans, the longest letter he ever wrote. A man named Tertius was writing it down for him, and two verses later Tertius adds a greeting of his own: "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." The part of the chapter before our verse is a long list of ordinary names. There is Phebe, a servant of the church at Cenchrea, whom Paul asks the Romans to welcome. There are Priscilla and Aquila, who made tents for a living. There is Rufus, and his mother, whom Paul calls "his mother and mine." There is the household of a man called Narcissus. Then comes a warning to watch out for people who "cause divisions," and then this promise.

Notice who does the crushing. Paul calls Him "the God of peace." You might expect a warrior's title in a sentence about crushing an enemy, but Paul chose this one on purpose, right after warning them about people who stir up division. Notice also where it happens: "under your feet." It happens under the feet of Phebe and Tertius and that household, on the floors where they stood while the letter was read aloud to them. And "shortly" is Paul's own word for when.

So take the ground you are actually standing on: the kitchen, the drive to work, the desk where the same old thought finds you every afternoon. You do not have to feel strong first. Ask the God of peace to do the crushing there, and then get on with the next ordinary duty while He does it. He made this promise to ordinary people, and He keeps His word.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 271 is How Shall I Give Thee Up (Hosea 11:8).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna