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The theme for my discussion
is “Never Let Satan Intimidate You.”
To intimidate means to try to get someone
to do or not do something by bullying,
terrorizing, threatening them.
And of course,
Satan is a god of intimidation.
That’s one way he tries
to get people to do what he wants.
On the other hand,
Jehovah always motivates by love.
The word “intimidate”
is found twice in the Study Bible notes.
And the word “intimidated”
is found once in the main text of our Bible,
Deuteronomy 1:17,
where the judges
who were to assist Moses were told:
‘Do not be intimidated by men;
render impartial judgment.’
But now, even though these words
are not used so much in the Bible,
the idea is found many times.
As a few examples, think of Goliath
—who was nine and a half feet (2.9 m) tall—
trying to intimidate young David.
Remember what he said to him?
First Samuel chapter 17, he said:
“Just come to me,
and I will give your flesh
to the birds of the heavens
and to the beasts of the field.”
‘Just come to me, little boy,
and I’ll feed your corpse
to the buzzards and hyenas’
—big-time intimidation.
Or what about the Rabshakeh
in loud, fluent Hebrew
trying to intimidate the Jews
in the time of Hezekiah
or Sanballat and Tobiah
trying to ridicule Nehemiah and the Jews
for building the wall?
Or another example
found in today’s Watchtower comments
was that Nebuchadnezzar
really tried to intimidate the three Hebrews
into worshiping an idol.
How did he do it?
Well, Daniel 3:1 says
he erected an immense image
almost 90 feet (27.4 m) tall
and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide,
and that was intimidating in itself.
But then he assembled, according to verse 2,
a huge throng of people:
“satraps, prefects, governors, advisers,”
etcetera, etcetera
—an intimidating throng.
And then in verses 4-6,
he had it loudly proclaimed:
‘You are commanded, . . .
‘when you hear the horn,
the pipe, the zither, . . .
‘you must fall down and worship this image.
‘And anyone who does not do so immediately
will be thrown
into the burning, fiery furnace.’
Very intimidating
—but those three Hebrews
remained unintimidated.
But of course, Satan, as we said,
still tries to use intimidation today.
‘If you don’t take this blood transfusion,
you will surely die.’
‘If you don’t accept this job
‘(talking about a job
that’ll damage you spiritually),
your family will starve.’
‘Why won’t you smoke this cigarette?
Are you afraid?
Are you chicken?’
‘Why won’t you date
this girl in your class who likes you?
Are you a homosexual?’
Today, Satan uses intimidation.
First Peter 5:8 says
that the Devil
“walks about like a roaring lion.”
And often those roars
take the form of intimidation
—kind of like the roars of a literal lion,
according to the Insight book,
are calculated to cause domestic animals
to stampede and break out
of their protective enclosure.
But, now, here’s a question:
What lessons can we learn
from those three Hebrews
that will help us
to never let Satan intimidate us?
Well, here are a few lessons.
One: Never quit trusting Jehovah
with all your heart
despite the roars of the Devil.
If you go to Daniel chapter 3,
notice how they put implicit trust in Jehovah
despite this intimidating situation
—chapter 3, verse 16:
“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
“answered the king: ‘O Nebuchadnezzar,
“‘we have no need
to answer you in this matter.
“‘If it must be, our God whom we serve
“‘is able to rescue us
from the burning fiery furnace, O king,
“‘and to rescue us from your hand.
“‘But even if he does not,
let it be known to you, O king,
“‘that we will not serve your gods
or worship the image of gold
that you have set up.’”
See, they trusted Jehovah.
Now, here’s another lesson:
Holy spirit will help us remain calm
—not panic—
and give a good answer to our persecutors.
When you think about what we just read,
the answer they gave
—amazing composure—
amazing answer they gave.
Obviously, holy spirit
was working powerfully upon them.
And we’re promised
the same will be true for us.
At Luke 12:11, 12, Jesus said:
“When they bring you in
before public assemblies,
“government officials, and authorities,
“do not become anxious
about . . . what you will say,
“for the holy spirit will teach you
in that very hour” what to say.
Now, here’s another lesson:
Jehovah can use his powerful angels
to rescue us from an intimidating situation.
In the case of the three Hebrews,
they were rescued miraculously.
When the king looked into that furnace,
instead of seeing
three men bound being cremated,
he saw four walking about freely,
the fourth obviously an angel.
Now, when they were
brought out of that furnace,
Daniel 3:27 says
they didn’t even have “the smell of fire.”
No hair of their body was singed.
Now, we’ve been in homes
where people are smokers
and you pick up
that smell of smoke very easily.
Talking about singeing your hair,
hair singes very easily.
Some time back
I tried to light a gas stove using a match.
I didn’t get the timing exactly right.
It blew back
—burned about half the hairs off my arm.
But here, they didn’t have a hair singed,
not even the smell of smoke.
Now, today, we don’t expect Jehovah’s angels
to deliver us miraculously.
But Jehovah can use them
to maneuver circumstances.
So we find a job to provide for our family.
So we find a cooperative doctor
who respects our stand on blood,
as just a couple of examples.
Or he may use the angels to strengthen us
to be faithful
in the face of that fiery test.
Now, here’s another lesson we can learn:
Firm belief in the resurrection
can powerfully fortify us,
even if we’re threatened with death.
Undoubtedly, those three Hebrews
knew Job’s words
of Job 14:13,
where Job asked Jehovah
to conceal him in the grave,
set a time limit,
and then remember him—resurrect him.
Likely, they were familiar
with the resurrections of Elijah and Elisha.
Now, they didn’t know
if they’d be miraculously delivered,
but they did know they would be resurrected
if they kept their integrity.
The same is true with us today.
And that firm belief in the resurrection,
if you think about it,
strips Satan of his power
to intimidate us even in the face of death.
You could say that hope
is like our secret weapon.
Now, here’s one more lesson we can learn:
Remaining staunchly unintimidated
will give a powerful witness to onlookers.
Do you remember what the king said
when they came out unharmed
from that furnace?
He said: “Praised be the God of Shadrach,
“Meshach, and Abednego, . . .
“for there is no other god
who is able to rescue like this one.”
And think about this,
if Nebuchadnezzar
and other Babylonian onlookers
are resurrected as part of “the unrighteous”
mentioned at Acts 24:15,
this experience will give them
a head start in the new world
on taking a stand with Jehovah.
And think about even the men
who threw them
into the furnace who died doing so.
Now, if they’re resurrected,
they’ll be told about what happened
subsequent to their untimely death.
And undoubtedly, that will be an impetus
toward spiritual progress in the new world.
Well, the same is true today.
When we stand firm, unintimidated,
we give a powerful witness.
And there are many that are now in the truth
as a result of such a witness.
Well, there we have five
anti-intimidation lessons
we can learn from those three Hebrews.
In review: Never quit trusting Jehovah
despite the roars of the Devil.
Two: Holy spirit will help us remain calm,
not panic, and give a good answer.
Three: Jehovah can use
his angels in various ways
to rescue us
from intimidating circumstances.
And number four:
The resurrection hope
will powerfully fortify us
not to be intimidated
even in the face of death.
And number five:
Remaining staunchly unintimidated
will give a profound witness to onlookers.
So may all of us,
like those three Hebrews, be determined
to never let Satan intimidate us.

M. Stephen Lett: Never Let Satan Intimidate You (Deut. 1:17)