Satan’s Strategy for Your Life #17: Bondage
“And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"—Luke 13:16
Illnesses may have several different causes at their root. The first cause of illness is simply because of the fall of man. One of the results of the fall is sickness and death—“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."—Genesis 2:17. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree, death came. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”—Romans 5:12. So, we can see that sickness and death came as the result of the fall. However, there are also other ways that we can get sick. In his explanation of the Lord’s Supper, Paul mentions that we can get sick because of our own sin.
“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died”—1 Corinthians 11:28-30.
The implication is that taking of the Lord’s Table unworthily invites God’s direct judgment through sickness and even death. And this is not the only example. In James 5 we read about the cause of a certain sickness:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed”—James 5:14-16.
The implication in this passage is that the sick person may be sick because of sin in his life. Look at verse 16 again: “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” The sickness may or may not be the result of sin in his life; hence the conditional word “if.” But, there is a clear indication that illness and sin can be connected. That is why James writes about sin directly after writing about sickness. The two here are intertwined.
Sickness may be the result of the fall, or because of specific sins, or it may be directly from Satan as it was in the case of Job (Job 2:7). We may not know the exact cause of our sickness all the time, but in our passage for today, we can see that this illness came from Satan. Whether it was because of some sin in her life that led to her bondage, or simply from Satan’s hand as in Job’s case—we do not know. We only know that Satan had kept this woman in bondage for eighteen years by sending a “disabling spirit,” which appears to be some type of satanic agent that caused her physical disability. And it kept her in bondage—she couldn’t break free from it. She had become a hunchback. “And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself”—Luke 13:11.
She was in bondage, unable to free herself, doomed to stay in such a debilitating condition—that is, until Jesus came. The Scripture says, “When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability.' And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God."—Luke 13:12.
What did Jesus do? He didn’t rebuke the spirit as He most often did. No, He simply “freed” her from it. Jesus, the author and Lord of life, set her free from her bondage. She was made straight and then glorified God.
Satan wants to keep us in bondage—whether through illness or sin, but Jesus wants to set us free. He delights in setting us free! As He said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” If the divine Son of God sets us free from our sin and bondage, then we are free! We no longer need to submit to its tyranny—rather we bask in our newfound freedom, like the woman in today's passage, and then glorify God as she did. Amen.
Illnesses may have several different causes at their root. The first cause of illness is simply because of the fall of man. One of the results of the fall is sickness and death—“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."—Genesis 2:17. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree, death came. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”—Romans 5:12. So, we can see that sickness and death came as the result of the fall. However, there are also other ways that we can get sick. In his explanation of the Lord’s Supper, Paul mentions that we can get sick because of our own sin.
“Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died”—1 Corinthians 11:28-30.
The implication is that taking of the Lord’s Table unworthily invites God’s direct judgment through sickness and even death. And this is not the only example. In James 5 we read about the cause of a certain sickness:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed”—James 5:14-16.
The implication in this passage is that the sick person may be sick because of sin in his life. Look at verse 16 again: “And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” The sickness may or may not be the result of sin in his life; hence the conditional word “if.” But, there is a clear indication that illness and sin can be connected. That is why James writes about sin directly after writing about sickness. The two here are intertwined.
Sickness may be the result of the fall, or because of specific sins, or it may be directly from Satan as it was in the case of Job (Job 2:7). We may not know the exact cause of our sickness all the time, but in our passage for today, we can see that this illness came from Satan. Whether it was because of some sin in her life that led to her bondage, or simply from Satan’s hand as in Job’s case—we do not know. We only know that Satan had kept this woman in bondage for eighteen years by sending a “disabling spirit,” which appears to be some type of satanic agent that caused her physical disability. And it kept her in bondage—she couldn’t break free from it. She had become a hunchback. “And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself”—Luke 13:11.
She was in bondage, unable to free herself, doomed to stay in such a debilitating condition—that is, until Jesus came. The Scripture says, “When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability.' And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God."—Luke 13:12.
What did Jesus do? He didn’t rebuke the spirit as He most often did. No, He simply “freed” her from it. Jesus, the author and Lord of life, set her free from her bondage. She was made straight and then glorified God.
Satan wants to keep us in bondage—whether through illness or sin, but Jesus wants to set us free. He delights in setting us free! As He said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” If the divine Son of God sets us free from our sin and bondage, then we are free! We no longer need to submit to its tyranny—rather we bask in our newfound freedom, like the woman in today's passage, and then glorify God as she did. Amen.
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