Are God and Satan Playing Chess with My Life?
[A note from our Managing Editor: Tim Shorey, pastor and author, is one of our Gospel-Centered Discipleship staff writers. Tim is also currently battling stage 4 prostate cancer, a reality that came both recently and as a surprise. On Facebook, he’s writing about his journey. This post is a lightly edited version of his journal entry from June 16, 2022.]
Time to be real.
If I’m to tell it straight, I’ve felt a few times lately like God and Satan are playing chess, and I’m a pawn. Please don’t misunderstand. That’s just a figure of speech—though the feeling isn’t. I know that God would never use and treat me like a disposable game piece. I know, too, that I’m not cheap plastic, molded into an inanimate and passive pawn.
In truth, I am a hand-formed and divinely in-breathed person, both loved and cherished by the One who manages the game-board of my life. And while he chooses the next square where I will land, I get to choose what to do when I get there. Knowing all of this, I know that I am made to matter; and that, by the mercy of God, I will share in the victory with the Chess Master himself.
There is one more thing I know. I know that my God and Savior has been bloodied to death in this cosmic battle. He stepped into the arena as the One ready to sacrifice himself in the great universal struggle, to redeem the lost and defeated, so that we might share in his victory, glory, and love.
But still.
When I think about my present stage 4 cancer, my latest trial on a very long list (not to be recounted here), I’ve sometimes felt like God and Satan are contesting over me. Sometimes I’ve felt like a human pawn, rook or castle moved onto difficult spaces—either by God’s direct sovereign hand or by Satan’s fiendish but God-permitted hand. And even though I know that God can see and plan a thousand all-wise moves ahead, I’m still sometimes left feeling vulnerable and afraid.
In the Invisible Realms
By faith in God’s perfect Word, I take at face value those biblical texts that unveil the invisible realm. These describe a conflict between good and evil in which Satan and his minions scheme their evil, while God is always planning his good.
Consider Job. I believe that the cosmic conflict over Job, recorded in Job 1:6–2:10, really happened—that angels and demons, including Satan, really stood before God’s throne (1:6); that God called Satan’s attention to righteous Job (1:8); that Satan issued a defiant challenge to silence God’s boast over his servant, and to bring Job down (1:9–11); that God permitted Satan to afflict Job to prove Job’s character (1:12–19); that Job met all these Satanic attacks with a contented and God-enabled faith (1:20–22); and that there was a round two in the battle (2:1–10).
Likewise, I believe that Satan similarly “demanded” that God give him permission to tempt Peter. But that, when permitted, he was defeated by God’s faith-restoring grace in Peter’s life (Luke 22:31–32). Still again, I believe that Satan sent a messenger to afflict Paul to destroy him. But, though permitting Satan to attack, God overruled the devil’s move and turned that Satanic thorn into joyful growth in Paul’s faith (2 Cor. 12:7–10).
These are but a few examples of the cosmic comings and goings that I believe go on in God’s throne room all day, every day, and will do so until time is no more.
Now while some may not like the chess metaphor, the truth is that we all are part of a cosmic struggle, which means that our real enemy is not material or physical, but spiritual and invisible (Eph. 6:12). Humans are not my real enemy. Cancer is not my real enemy. In fact, not one of the physical and material trials in any of our lives is our real enemy. Satan and his demons are the ones who hate us with raw and seething hatred.
This visible realm into which we are born is merely the chessboard on which invisible cosmic warfare is being waged. It is the stage on which we live out our days, rejoice over God’s gifts, suffer in life’s hardships, weep over our losses, battle through life’s temptations and trials, beat back Satan’s assaults, and then walk through our own shadowy valley of death, the final enemy of all.
Engaging the Fight
We are here to join the fight and win the day. We are here to stand with Job as those who defy all the hellishness of life and persevere with patient endurance (James 5:11). We are here, like Peter, to be restored after our defeats to a faith that will not fail through the intercession of Christ (Luke 22:31). We are here, like Paul, to turn the thorns of our flesh into roses of spiritual beauty by proving the sufficiency of Christ and his strength, no matter what Satan sends our way (2 Cor. 12:7–10; Phil. 4:12–13).
And we are here in the battle, called to conquer, so that on the final Day we may stand with the One who is the Highest Grandmaster of all—the living one who died, and behold is made alive forevermore (Rev. 1:18). On that Day, having conquered through him, we will eat of the Tree of Life, having a new name from God written indelibly in the Book of Life, given authority over the nations, given spotless garments to wear, and given a seat on his throne as pillars in his house forever, where we will never be touched by death or mourning or pain again (Rev. 2:7, 11, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 21:4).
So is my cancer, and are your varying trials, all part of invisible cosmic warfare? They most certainly are.
But herein lies God’s purpose in our pain. Herein, we have reason to stand and fight for God’s eternal glory. And herein, we can be grateful to be alive, for however long we are given, being valiant for Christ and for the sake of his name.
This is the faith for which I am fighting today.
Let’s fight side by side,
Tim
Tim Shorey is married to Gayline, his wife of 44 years, and has six grown children and 13 grandchildren. In his 41st year of pastoral ministry, he helps lead Risen Hope Church, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Among his books are Respect the Image: Reflecting Human Worth in How We Listen and Talk; 30/30 Hindsight: 30 Reflections on a 30-Year Headache; and his recently released, award-winning An ABC Prayer to Jesus: Praise for Hearts Both Young and Old. To find out more, visit timothyshorey.com.