Sunday, March 7th, 2004 - Loose Fur

God has shown me through His Word and John R. Cross' book, "The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus," some truths about Satan, his nature, and how we works. This revealed many of his lies that I had been listening to and helped me out of a long struggle, so I am impressed to share them. I still encourage all to read the sections of Scripture and prayerfully see what God shows you through them.

Read Ezekiel 28:11-19. At first glance, it appears to be describing the king of Tyre at the time; a further investigation (though debated by theologians) leads to evidence of a portrayal of Lucifer (who became known as Satan). I offer the possibility that Tyre's king was either likened to Satan because of a similar nature or was maybe even demon-possessed. Whatever the case, this Scripture can be interpreted to reveal Lucifer's qualities.

Lucifer means "shining one" or "morning star;" he was anointed as the highest cherubim (angelic being), a guardian allowed on the holy mount of God (Ezk 28:14). "You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty" (Ezk 28:12). "You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you" (Ezk 28:15). "You were in Eden, the garden of God" (Ezk 28:13).

Lucifer started out as the highest archangel (verse 14 says "ordained and anointed"), so he was clearly set apart from the rest. This doesn't necessarily imply that he had rule of other angels, only that his wisdom and beauty surpassed the rest. Also, verse 13 states that he was in Eden, equating him with the serpent who tricked Adam and Eve into falling into sin by eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-7). So something happened after Lucifer was created and before the serpent/garden/man/fruit thing. We can't be sure exactly when, but the Bible does give insight as to what happened.

Read Isaiah 14:12-22, especially verses 12-15. "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn.... You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" (Isaiah 14:12-14 NIV; read NKJV translation of 14:12).

Lucifer became filled with pride (Ezk 28:17) and sinful ambition to place himself in God's position as the Most High. He was blameless until that "evil was found in [him]" (Ezk 28:15). "... you sinned. So I banished you from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian..." (Ezk 28:16). This didn't happen without a battle, since Lucifer was the most wise and cunning - read Revelation 12:3-9; "Michael and the angels under his command fought the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle and was forced out of heaven. This great dragon - the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan..." (Rev 3:7-9).

Also, in Rev 12:4, "[The dragon's] tail dragged down one-third of the stars." Stars, like hosts or multitudes, is sometimes used figuratively as a word for angels; I believe this is one of those cases. Tying all of these contexts together, Lucifer, through ambitious pride, formed a rebellion against God Most High; one third of the angels joined Lucifer, so two thirds (including Michael) fought for God's glory (assuming all angels fought). Lucifer lost and was thrown to earth along with the one third who joined him. This is when he became known as Satan (or Devil), and his minions became known as demons. Having read about several people in the Old Testament whose names were changed by God based on certain events, I think this change is very appropriate and characteristic of God.

Most of the above I had a fairly good grasp of before, but I didn't understand some important dynamics of the aftermath of those events. I used to ask, if Satan was condemned to hell, how does he work so much in our world? To what extent does his power reach? Matthew 25:41 shows that the "eternal fire [is] prepared for the Devil and his demons." Hell, the Lake of Fire, the eternal fire has been created and prepared, but only some of the fallen angels were thrown there, while Satan and other demons were thrown to earth (see 2 Peter 2:4 and Job 1:7). Revelation 20:1-10 explains that the rest of these demons won't be cast into hell until Christ's second coming, where they will remain for the Millennium (1,000 years) before being let back out again to deceive the earth before being thrown back into hell again, this time for eternity.

Also, Satan is not omnipresent like God; the presence of demons to do his work all over the earth gives that impression, but Satan is a single being, existing in only one place at a time. I arrive at this conclusion because God only attributes omnipresence to Himself in the Bible, in Jeremiah 23:24; no Scripture implies that this quality was given to anyone else, angelic or otherwise. Satan is also not currently allowed to do whatever he wants - he is still under the permittance of God; a clear portrayal of this dynamic exists in Job 1:9-12 where Satan has to ask God's permission to test Job. Even the Temptation of Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit, and Satan stopped and left as soon as Jesus commanded him to do so (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13).

Satan has power over two realms; the dark spiritual one which consists of demons, and also the realm of the hearts of those who refuse God (Ephesians 2:2, 6:12). He is ultimately limited by God in both, but God took a step back in the second one by creating us with the will to choose Him or refuse Him. He does have the power to overcome Satan in anyone's heart, but He chose to give us the will to decide whether or not we will let Him do so in our own hearts. Thus, He will not exert His power over Satan in our hearts unless we request to and then let Him - He doesn't force us or force Himself upon us; He responds to those who ask (Matthew 7:7-8).

Satan works in many ways; the primary one is deception through lies - that is his very nature (John 8:44) ever since he chose to rebel against God. One way he does this is to disguise his words as those of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). In the hearts of the unbelieving, he snatches the Gospel which God wrote on their hearts (Matthew 13:19), preventing them from curiosity and seeking God further. This is one reason Jesus clarified His commission (Matthew 28:19) - He sends His followers to declare the Gospel to the lost since it has been snatched from their hearts by Satan.

In a practical sense, I propose that Satan delivers his lies in many senses, but two of them seem to be more prevalent than the rest. The first one deploys from Satan's great sin: pride. I define pride as giving ourselves credit that is due to God; Ezekiel 28:17 defines it as "corrupting our wisdom for the sake of our splendor." This happens all over the Bible; Genesis 11:4, 2 Chronicles 26:16 and 32:25, and the Pharisees all over Matt/Mark/Luke/John, to name a few. I recall a quote from the movie "Devil's Advocate" which I saw many years ago - it closes with a line from Al Pacino (who played Satan) - "Vanity. It's my favorite sin." In the context used, vanity is equated with pride.

The second main tactic of Satan is to completely destroy a person (1 Peter 5:8), from emotions and thoughts to the heart and soul. "He was a murderer from the beginning..." (John 8:44). "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10). Paul mentions the "thorn in [his] flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment [him]" (2 Cor 12:7). Acts 10:38 implies that those who are oppressed by the Devil are in need of healing; it makes sense that Jesus would have only healed people if they were in need of healing.

So two of Satan's main deceiving tacts are to either warp our minds that we are great by our own power (pride and self-righteousness), or to make us think that we are worth nothing at all (depression and self-uselessness). He wants us to think that we are great beyond imagination or worthless beyond imagination. This shows evidence to the fact that Satan delights in certain extremes; he's not a fan of moderation or balance. This hit me quite hard; I am naturally somewhat of an extremist and have struggled to find a good balance in many things.

I think many balances are important in walking with Christ - between truth and love in evangelism, between sharing our hearts with God and taking time to just listen, between worshiping God through fellowship and through spending time with Him alone, and many more. The Christian life is littered with balances, even down to things like time management, work and family, food and drink intake. The list goes on - I think you get my point. We are to find moderation and balance in all of these, so it makes sense why Satan would be an advocate of certain extremes, although there are still some obvious extremes he opposes, like extreme reliance on Christ, for one.

God revealed these many things to me about Satan to help me more clearly distinguish the truths of God from the lies of Satan. I pray that He does the same for anyone who hears His voice. In a nutshell, God is always completely devoted to truth, and Satan is always completely devoted to falsehood. Satan's favorite lies are pride and depression (and anything destructive).

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