Summary:
Who are the enemies God made His footstool?

1. Satan: Overcome the temptation of the evil one. Since Jesus was triumphant, so will we!
2. Lust of the flesh: Overcome our desires so we don’t become overcome by it.
3. Death: The final enemy. Do not fear death; we’ll sit on the throne with Him.

In the previous sermon, what God’s footstool is according to the Bible was covered:

1. Heaven is God’s throne and earth His footstool. This reminds us to trust in God’s power and have firm faith no matter what our circumstances.
2. Although the heavens are far away from us, God tells us Mount Zion is His footstool too. He’s Immanuel - God with us. Let us therefore come before Him and worship Him.
3. The ark of the covenant is also God’s footstool. It’s a place of meeting between God and men. It teaches us we should receive and practise His words. We should not only come before Him to worship Him in His temple, we should also carve His words in our hearts. This is so we can receive blessing and not punishment at the end of the day.

The word ‘footstool’ was mentioned 16 times in the Bible. Only once was it used literally; for the remaining 15 times, it was used figuratively.

2 Chron 9:18
“The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.”

When Solomon was building the throne, a footstool of gold was built too. Whoever was king could rest his feet on the footstool. God is king and the throne of the king is built on high. When the king sits on the high throne, he looks at the people. Being on the high throne, he needs a footstool to rest his feet and be firm and unshakable. The Bible tries to describe this to help us understand and receive the accepted word of God. We know that our God transcends time and space; He’s not restricted to one place and time. So when Solomon built the temple of the Lord, he said, “The heavens/skies cannot contain God because God is spirit.” He’s omnipresent and fills all things. But the throne and footstool was there symbolically to describe the majesty of God. Our God is great not only because He’s powerful, but also in how He expresses His sacrificial love for us. He allows us who believe in Him to emulate Him and overcome our enemies. He makes His enemies His footstool. How did God make His enemies His footstool? Who are these enemies?

1st enemy: Satan

The first enemy God made His footstool is Satan.

Heb 10:12-13
“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Jesus Christ offered Himself once for all as a sacrifice. He then sat down at the right hand of God and made His enemies His footstool. God would step on His enemies. When you step on your enemies, it’s a proclamation of victory over them. The Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Through Jesus, God powered over Satan. It was through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross that salvation was accomplished and the enemy was made His footstool. He’s to kneel before the Messiah. The end of the devil must come. Although he may act with wiles now, it will come to an end. Although he tempts us today, we can overcome him with God’s help. We need to be prepared and await the second coming of Jesus. Then we will be truly victorious and attain the reward from heaven. At that time, the new heavens and earth will come. Jesus sitting at the right hand of God means He has completed salvation. He’s now interceding for us believers. Jesus is our Mediator and High Priest. Jesus made this proclamation while He was on earth.

John 17:9-11
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”

Before Jesus leaves His disciples, He said He would pray for them. Why? That they may be protected from the evil one (v15). That the evil one wouldn’t be able to destroy, tempt or cause them to fall. Our God will preserve us but we need to be watchful and pray. There was once Jesus taught His disciples how to pray: lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Jesus prayed for us while He was on earth and also while He is in heaven. We need to be watchful of this enemy while on earth.

Rom 8:34
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of God interceding for us. Why? To help us to be victorious. Can we see the love of God? We need to understand that we won’t immediately inherit the Kingdom of God. While we’re still alive and on earth, we’d be laden with temptation and the attacks of the devil. But we shouldn’t fear all these. Instead, battle for our Lord Jesus Christ. Emulate the victory of Christ to overcome the evil one. Paul hence tells us our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood, rather our battle is against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). If we’re willingly to constantly learn the word of God and practise it, we can be just like Jesus Christ to make our enemies our footstool. But reflect on our faith: is it unshakable? If a person slips and falls in a war, he would be in grave danger. The enemy would trample on those who have fallen. They would become powerless captives. Spiritually speaking, Jesus Christ has liberated us from sin. But will we be defeated/overpowered by other enemies?

2nd enemy: Lust of the flesh

The second enemy God made His footstool is the lust of the flesh.

Col 2:15
“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Jesus Christ is like a warrior coming back from a victorious return. He lines His captives up behind Him and walks as if in a parade to show everyone else. This makes a declaration that those who rebel against God will end up like this. Will we be warriors who walk beside Jesus Christ or be one of the captives lined up behind Him?

Since we have enemies, we have a battle in fight. No one in a battlefield would refuse to fight because refusing would mean sure captivity. The devil will capitalise on our weaknesses to cause us to fall.

Gal 5:17
“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

The flesh and the spirit are in constant battle. The second enemy we need to overcome is our old self. If we don’t make our old self our footstool, this enemy will take us captive and make us its footstool. As a Christian we need to understand that we need to overcome our desires. If a person acts in accordance to the will of His flesh instead of the will of God; if we’re taken captive in this battle, we’d be a failure.

While Joshua warred against the Canaanites, he stepped on the heads of the Canaanite kings - a show of victory. The local mythology of the Canaanites has this story. They used to worship the god of rain called Baal. In the mythology, Baal was overpowered by the Canaanite god of death. Baal died. The gods were anxious because no one could take his place. They managed to find a substitute to replace him. When the replacement god came to Baal’s throne, he was too short. His feet couldn’t even reach the footstool; he couldn’t even sit to the back of the throne’s seat. The gods hence deemed him unworthy as a replacement. What this myth wants to tell people is that in order to be king, you need to be victorious and overpower your enemies. Canaanite mythology doesn’t have to do with our faith and to be victorious as Christians. Rather we learn we have to be worthy to sit on the throne. If we as Christians don’t put to death the evil misdeeds of our body and don’t persistently battle in our faith and give in to the lust of our desires, we won’t be worthy of God’s salvation. When the author of the book of Hebrews mentions the heroes of faith, it said their faith was so great the world wasn’t worthy of them (Heb 11:38). What about our faith? Are we worthy of it? Have we been overcome by our own desires? If we don’t put to death the desires of the flesh, when Jesus Christ comes again, we won’t be able to be victorious because of our fleshly weaknesses. We need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the corruption and powers of the flesh and make it our footstool.

3rd enemy: Death

The third enemy we need to make our footstool is death.

1 Cor 15:25-26
“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”

Paul tells us death is the last enemy we need to overcome. But Christ will make death His footstool and triumph over death, because Christ will be king. When God comes again and makes all His enemies His footstool, the last enemy to be destroyed is death. In the last judgement of God, God will make death the footstool of Jesus seated at the right hand of God. Why is death the enemy of God? Because death destroys life. It rebels against the will of the Creator. Evil, sicknesses and death isn’t part of God’s plan. God created human beings to live forever; to enjoy and inherit what God created.

The wages of sin is death. Man need not be old to die. Even children die. Young men die. That’s why there are widows and orphans. If the enemy death is not destroyed, men wouldn’t be able to depart from its threat. Humans will struggle and fight against death. No one wants to die. Maybe we don’t understand the concept of death when we’re young. But when we come to a certain age, we realise death is the end of men. As we approach it, we fear. But because we can’t resolve it, we try not to think of it. But this enemy won’t leave us just because we don’t think of it. Death will still come into our perfect plan of life. It’ll change our life and surroundings. How many people have died today because of COVID-19? People start to fear. We are thankful the mortality rate of COVID-19 in Singapore is low. But that’s comparing to those who are alive now. If we were to look at death from the perspective of every generation, the mortality rate is 100%! It’s a shocking number. Everyone is destined to die. For every human being, there’ll be one death. So far the only two exceptions are Enoch and Elijah. No one else would be able to escape the enemy of death. But Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. Through death He overcame death and made this last enemy His footstool. As Christians we need not fear death. Yes, our flesh may one day die. Death is real and an experience all of us will definitely go through. But heaven is also real. We have been washed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. The second death will have no power over us at all.

Rev 20:14
“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Revelation tells us of the coming judgement. Jesus will come again. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. That is the second death. When we’re baptised, we’re made alive spiritually and won’t need to go through the second death. We need to persevere in our faith. If we don’t hold fast we’ll be overcome by the enemy. The lake of fire is an eternal judgement; a terrifying thing. While we were still sinners, we were actually the enemy of God. But this great God was willing to die on the cross for us. This God is able to make all things His footstool. Yet in footwashing He’s willing to wash our feet. The one able to subjugate all things under His feet is the one who washes our feet. What’s all this for? So we have a part with Him. He’s there to help us overcome our enemies so that one day we can sit and reign with Him as kings, and to inherit the eternal kingdom He’s prepared for us. How can we not respond to such great love and grace?

Rom 16:20
“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”

God will crush Satan under our feet and make him our footstool. While this was written to the Roman believers, it is also reflective of the love God has for us. God wants us to sit with Him!

Rev 3:21
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

To him who overcomes, God will give the right to sit with Him on the throne. Our Lord has overcome. We need to emulate Him and be triumphant. The time is near. Are we ready?

Conclusion

There are 3 enemies God has made His footstool. By relying on God we need to firstly overcome the temptation of the evil one. Since our Lord has been triumphant, so will we. The second enemy we need to overcome is the evil desires of our flesh. Overcome it instead of being overcome by it. The third enemy we need to have a faith not to be fearful of is death. We won’t experience the second death. The final enemy won’t be able to overcome us. Have faith in God so we don’t fear death because when we’re seated at the throne of God, death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire. This is a figure of speech: if we’re on the throne of God, death won’t have anything to do with us. We will instead taste victory.