Where the Battle Began
Do you know who your enemy is?
Listen now: Where the Battle Began – Series 8, Ep 2
In the second episode of our new series, Fighting Your Spiritual Battles, we are going to help you know God, know your enemy, and know yourself. Lynn and Shay will look back in history to the very beginning where the battle began. If we are going to effectively fight this battle, we need to know who our enemy is.
The Bible references Satan by many different names: Enemy, Adversary, Accuser, the Devil (from the Greek word Diablos which means to hurl something or slander someone), the Deceiver (“Father of Lies”), an Angel of Light, and the Evil One. Based on this list, he certainly seems like someone we want to know and understand in order to be aware of his schemes.
We need to start by recognizing that Satan is not independent of God and he is not free to do as he pleases. God uses him for his glory. Our future is in God’s hands, not Satan’s, and God uses our conflict with Satan to develop our character. Our spiritual battle is a classroom where we learn about his schemes and the deceitfulness of sin, along with God's grace, truth, and forgiveness. God chose to give the devil a role to play in this divine drama of creation, fall, redemption and restoration.
In today’s episode we are going to look at 3 main arenas where this spiritual battle initiated by Satan is fought:
The Battle for Glory
The Battle for Humanity
The Battle for Authority
The Battle for Glory
In the beginning, God created the world, and He saw everything he had created was good, including the angelic world. Yet by the time we get to Genesis 3, we find that Satan, in the form of a serpent, is tempting Eve to sin. So sometime in between that time, there must have been a rebellion in the angelic world with many angels (probably a third) turning against God and becoming evil. The devil was the head of the demons who led this rebellion against God.
Two passages in the Old Testament give us a glimpse of who Lucifer is: Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. Lucifer was the shining one; he was to reflect the light of God’s glory. But he rebelled. What was his sin? These passages tell us that it was pride. He wanted the glory that only belonged to God.
He was so consumed with jealousy for recognition, he set out to do what he wanted to do instead of what God wanted him to do. He was cast down to the Earth as a result, and only 1/3 of the angels followed him. But 2/3 stayed in heaven and continue to serve and worship God. The New Testament calls them the elect angels and we will be with them in heaven.
The Battle for Humanity
The battle that started in the heavenly realm is brought to earth when Satan enters the Garden of Eden. Satan’s target is now the apex of God’s creation: human beings. Made in his image to reflect his glory, we have the capacity for fellowship with God in a way that even the angels did not possess. Satan sees how God has set Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden where they are given dominion to subdue the earth, and they are only given one boundary: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Satan saw a chance to cause Adam and Eve to doubt God and his promises. He accomplished this through deception. God provided everything that Adam and Eve could possibly need, but when Satan took the form of a crafty serpent, he did so with the intention of causing them to believe something that isn’t true.
Satan asks Eve, “Has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’”? This subtle, seemingly innocent question is enough to sow doubt in Eve’s mind as to what God had commanded and whether or not that command was fair and just.
Now that he has Eve where he wants her, Satan follows up the question with three lies:
You surely shall not die: freedom from death and negative consequences
Your eyes will be opened: you will have secret knowledge and enlightenment
You will be like God: you will have power to create your own reality
They had been introduced to the lie that now rules the world: the lie that the creature can be like the Creator. All other lies, even all other sins are an extension of this. As Martin Luther succinctly stated, “all sin is contempt of God”, meaning that thinking wrongly about God, doubting his goodness, doubting his love, is ultimately at the root of our sin.
The Battle for Authority
This is the world in which you live, where you are always in a state of having to choose: Who will you worship? To whom will you entrust yourself? To whom will you give glory? To the one true God or to other false gods? Will you believe in Scripture as your ultimate authority, or will you stand above Scripture as your own authority?
That requires taking a discerning look at false religions and idol worship. As the deceiver, Satan has done a good job of luring many people away from God’s love by promising the same 3 things he did to Eve in the Garden:
Freedom from death: the idea of reincarnation and karma
Secret knowledge/enlightenment: meditation, astrology, tarot cards, palm readings, mediums and other means to access the dark spirit world
The ability to be your own God: everyone is encouraged to create their own individual reality, where you are the “god” of your own universe
The enemy is constantly asking “Did God really say?” or “Did God really mean?” in order to sow seeds of doubt. The more you reflect on this, the more you will be able to see through this deception because it’s all around you.
But there are 3 principles from scripture that you can take away from this conversation that will provide you with hope and strength:
Principle #1: Satan is God’s devil and serves his purposes. His power is limited. His influence is limited. God is in control. He is not Satan’s equal; he is the ultimate authority above Satan. God is in charge.
Principle #2: All sin is rooted in rebellion against God and not seeing Him as your ultimate good. After sin entered the world in the Garden, the very first murder took place between brothers, and the ravenous beast of sin remains crouching at the door, seeking you and hunting you. So it must be pushed back with earnest effort, lest it devour you.
Principle #3: The end of the battle has already been decided (Satan defeated at the cross), but you live in this epic battle until Christ returns again.
John 10:10 “The thief came to kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, abundant life an eternal joy”. Satan is defeated through the power of the cross, and the message of the gospel.
As believers, we have assurance that Jesus is with us, we are not alone in this battle, we can know truth, and ultimately Satan’s reign over this world is going to come to an end and justice and peace will be restored on this earth. That is a day we long for.