What about The Satan?
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As I go into my weight-loss/health journey, it feels like everything is out to get me. Now we know that food doesn’t actually have the power to destroy you, or ruin my diet, unless I let it. But this week, going grocery shopping....wow. Everything that was “normal” was now concerning.
Awareness. We have to understand the danger - not to live in fear, not to never go grocery shopping again - but to walk with wisdom. Once I started watching what went into my mouth, it really helped, it was doable. But I need to be aware.
Food is not an enemy. But there is a real enemy, and one that can destroy body and soul, that we need to be aware of.
Before we think more about who we are after sin entered, we need to think about this enemy. How did Satan get here? Where is he from? There’s so much here, and I won’t begin to cover everything we can learn from Scripture. But I’d like you to share your questions with me, at the end of this message, so we can find answers to the real concerns we have.
One of the problems with talking about Satan is that everyone feels like they have to be certain about everything. But there’s just so much we don’t know! I’m going to walk through what I do understand, and then share the picture - my interpretation of what happened. Then we’ll make some application.
The context:
The context:
A garden, the place where God is, a symbol of leisure and peace and power. And note the mountains (Genesis 2.10-11, high places are the source of rivers) - the place where heaven and earth meet. And this is the picture we get: God and his creation.
This is the place where Heaven and Earth meet - I mean, I’ve even heard Eden today used like that. It’s a heavenly place. Remember, God Himself is walking in the Garden. This is Adam’s garden, yes, but it’s God’s garden too. And if God is walking in the garden, maybe his Divine Council is kicking around too? This brings us to...
The players:
The players:
The Divine Council
The Divine Council
There’s so much we don’t know about how God works. But we know - from clues throughout Scripture - that God is not alone. Yes, our Triune God has fellowship within the Godhead, as we talked about a few weeks ago. But there’s more: There’s a group of beings that serve God. Let’s look at a few passages:
For who in the skies can compare with the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord? God is greatly feared in the council of the holy ones, more awe-inspiring than all who surround him.
This psalm is confusing, and there’s lots I don’t understand - but I think there are things we can understand as well:
A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the divine assembly; he pronounces judgment among the gods: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and needy; save them from the power of the wicked.” They do not know or understand; they wander in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. However, you will die like humans and fall like any other ruler.” Rise up, God, judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.
There are a couple strange stories that give us a glimpse into this council: First,
One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” “From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
Then from
Then Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and the whole heavenly army was standing by him at his right hand and at his left hand. And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ So one was saying this and another was saying that. “Then a spirit came forward, stood in the Lord’s presence, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ “The Lord asked him, ‘How?’ “He said, ‘I will go and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ “Then he said, ‘You will certainly entice him and prevail. Go and do that.’ “You see, the Lord has put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”
The book of Daniel has several references to beings with God, giving counsel, serving him:
Daniel 7.9-10 talks about the Ancient of Days taking his seat - his throne of judgment - with tens of thousands serving him. Then “court” is convened, and the books are opened.
Daniel 4.13, 23 mentions a “watcher, a holy one.”
God doesn’t HAVE to share council, but he chooses to. And we see this is before creation happens. Does that make you nervous? It does me a little bit - I’m talking about things I don’t fully understand, and it’s okay to get a bit skittish. But there is something there, this divine council that shares in executing God’s wisdom. We usually all them “angels”, but that term can miss the scope of their responsibility - to worship, to execute, to hear, even to argue with God.
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
So there’s God’s Council. But God, as he creates this new project - this earth - he doesn’t give it to the Council to exercise authority over. Instead, he gives it to one of his creation - to the Man and the Woman. They have authority, and they are to take the bounty, as the King and Queen if you will, and to subdue the whole earth. Just like the river of Eden becomes four rivers, flowing beyond the Garden, blessing Havilah, Cush, Assyria, and beyond, so too, Adam and Eve are to fill the earth, care for the earth, and exercise control.
So we have the God, the divine council (angels!), we have Adam and Eve, and of course, all the animals. Get this: God made everything. Everything comes from God. But he gives humans freedom to make decisions. He gives his divine council freedom.
The Serpent
The Serpent
And then.....we have The Serpent.
Who is he? What is he? Does this mean snakes are sinful? So many questions.....but again, there is more that we don’t know. It’d be fun to throw theories back and forth, but I want to focus on what we can be confident of.
God made the serpent
It was more than just a snake
It represents and/or was The Satan. We can make that connection with several verse that tie this event to Satan’s work.
His first action was to deceive.
His goal was to get humans to not listen to God, but to listen to him.
So this is our enemy: He’s fighting against God, he somehow possesses or becomes a snake - or something! - and he’s all about deception.
And it works. Adam and Eve accept what he offers - lies and deception - and thus fall under his control. But because they are the head of creation, when they submit to Satan, they submit their authority to him. Ephesians 2 explains that Satan is now the “ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.” He’s in charge now, on this earth. The passages we looked at earlier make it clear that Satan is still under the ultimate control of God, but we - people - are under Satan’s power.
Here’s the picture I get: One of God’s divine council wants to take God’s authority. It’s almost like he was upset or jealous of people. He wanted that gig! He wanted to be in charge. He wanted control. And in his arrogance, he rebels against God, thinking that he can actually take on the most high. Here in the Garden, he overthrows Adam and Eve, but he also gets cast down. And so man comes under Satan, and Satan is the ruler.
Jesus called him the father of lies.
Jesus vs Satan
Jesus vs Satan
Actually, the rest of the Bible tells us a lot about this creature - about our enemy.
You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
We see in Luke 13.11, 16 - Satan binds people. He possesses people through demons - which seem to be his own “satanic council” - his servants under his control. Satan enters Judas as Judas chooses to betray. (Note the order of events) The Evil One snatches away God’s Word out of hearts that are hard (the path). His work is to cause people to neglect the Good News of God’s Kingdom.
1 John makes it simple:
The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.
Let’s think for just a moment at Jesus’ first fight with Satan - at least that we have recorded in the NT.
Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
Satan asks “if....” Not “one of the Council”, not “a son of God”, but THE Son of God. He’s questioning truth. He’s questioning who Jesus is. And then, in the final temptation, Satan simply asks Jesus to worship him.
Note well - In the first temptation, Adam and Eve obeyed Satan, and now Satan wants Jesus - the second Adam - to obey him.
But here’s the thing: Jesus didn’t give in. And now, Satan is worried. A new Kingdom is coming in and Satan has to stop it. But that’s another sermon. :-)
We see - like John tells us - that Satan wants to undermine what Jesus is doing, because Jesus is destroying Satan’s works! And he’s still here. He’s still fighting the work of the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is so important to recognize: Satan has an agenda. It’s to defeat God, and to preserve his kingdom. And our hearts are the battleground.
He wanted to sift Peter, he loves to tempt and test; he seeks for people to devour; he plucks away truth. He shoots arrows at us! He accuses the church.
Satan isn’t God. We need to look at what the Satan can’t do:
He doesn’t know the future
He doesn’t know our hearts like God does
He’s not all-powerful
He’s not all-present
He is under God’s power, ultimately.
Satan has an expiration date.
I’ve saved the clearest picture of Satan for last. And by “clear”, I don’t mean I understand it all. But, well, let’s read:
Revelation 12; 20
Satan loses. He has power, but it’s under the authority of God.
How does Satan fit into your life? That’s a bad way of putting it.