Tag Archives: Satan

Where Did the Devil Come From Anyway?

I was reading in Ezekiel 28 today, and God is talking to Ezekiel and giving him messages to tell the kings of the other countries who have ignored Him.  One of the them is the King of Tyre, a neighbor to Israel.  In the message for the king of Tyre is a double message.  It is commonly seen as both a description of the human king of Tyre, and of Satan.  It says:

12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 
“ ‘You were the seal of perfection, 
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 

 13 You were in Eden, 

the garden of God; 
every precious stone adorned you: 
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, 
topaz, onyx and jasper, 
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. 
Your settings and mountings were made of gold; 
on the day you were created they were prepared. 

 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, 

for so I ordained you. 
You were on the holy mount of God; 
you walked among the fiery stones. 

15 You were blameless in your ways 

from the day you were created 
till wickedness was found in you. 

 16 Through your widespread trade 

you were filled with violence, 
and you sinned. 
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, 
and I expelled you, guardian cherub, 
from among the fiery stones. 

17 Your heart became proud 

on account of your beauty, 
and you corrupted your wisdom 
because of your splendor. 
So I threw you to the earth; 
I made a spectacle of you before kings. 

 18 By your many sins and dishonest trade 

you have desecrated your sanctuaries. 
So I made a fire come out from you, 
and it consumed you, 
and I reduced you to ashes on the ground 
in the sight of all who were watching. 

 19 All the nations who knew you 

are appalled at you; 
you have come to a horrible end 
and will be no more.’ ” 

This is one of those passages that seems to hold a double meaning, much like the passage in Isaiah that describes how the virgin will have a child, and He will be called Emmanuel.  This one in Ezekiel points to the fact that, if we see it as Satan, he was an angel, with a lot of power.  He became prideful, wanted to take on God, and lost.  He was thrown to earth, and is destined to be destroyed.

I just know with so many people’s questions about Satan, this passage isn’t discussed much, but is one of the core passages used by theologians to understand Satan.  Obviously, it is first describing a human king.  But it seems to have the second meaning as well.  Just thought I’d throw it out here since I was reading it today.

He Is Simply Not Afraid. That’s Pretty Cool.

It’s a new year, and I’ve been challenged through the actions of a friend of mine in my small group to read through the Bible in a year.  I haven’t done it in a while, and I feel like it’s about time.  So, I went to YouVersion and poked around.  I love their stuff.  They have chronological schedule that you read through the Bible in the order that we think it happened.  (The Bible is not in chronological order, if you didn’t know).  So, I’ve been cruising through Genesis the first couple of days, and went Adam through Noah to the Tower of Babel.  Now I’ve hit Job.  Again, it’s been awhile since I’ve spent time in Job.  It’s good stuff (like any part of the Bible isn’t, but anyway).

I’ve been reading the first few chapters of Job the last couple of days, and am fascinated by a couple of things.  It’s God who points Job out to Satan.  Why?  I mean, He knows it will tick Satan off.  Is that they point?  “Hey Lucifer, you used to be a big time angel for me, but you blew it.  While you are out cruising around the earth aimlessly, have you noticed Job?  He’s faithful and he loves me.  He’s pretty impressive.”  It’s cool that God loves Job and is proud of him, but He pokes at Satan with Job.  Of course Satan’s gonna get ticked.  God is setting Job up for failure and pain.  What do we expect the Prince of Darkness to do after getting his face shoved in it?

Then a very simple thing settled in with me.  God isn’t afraid of Satan.  At all.  Not the least little bit.  I KNOW this in my knowledge, but the experience of it hadn’t really settled in before.  He can poke Satan all He wants, because Satan is a 0% threat to Him.  None.  Nada.

I respect Satan’s power to make life tough.  I know on my own, Satan is way more powerful than I am.  But he is a nothing in God’s arena.  God can take Him down with just the word, or the thought.  And judging from how Satan responds, he knows that too.  God is not afraid of Satan.

And God promises to live in me.  Protect me.  Be my strength and hope.  And He is not afraid. 

So neither am I.

Dodgeball is Life. No, really, check it out….

Yesterday I got to spend some time talking with an amazing young lady from our middle school youth group.  I love whenever we get to spend time talking, because she is so incredibly smart, and asks super intelligent questions.

So, we were talking about Jesus, faith, demons, life, and a bunch of other stuff, and I needed an illustration.  We walked in the gym and began talking about dodgeball.  It always comes back to dodgeball, doesn’t it?

Let’s say we’re playing dodgeball.  One team has a leader who is clearly in charge.  He gives encouragement to his team, shows them the best places to throw, and helps them come back in the game when they get knocked out.  He really wants his team to play as well as they can, and does whatever it takes to make that happen.

The other team has a leader, but they handle it completely differently.  They convince everyone that there isn’t really a “leader” on the team, and that everyone can do whatever they want.  They scare everyone on their team about losing, about not being in control, about what will happen if they screw up.  They manipulate people into playing the game in ways that aren’t fair, and don’t really help them win.  But everyone on the team is convinced there really isn’t a team captain, that everyone is just in charge of their own little game.  It’s not true, but that’s what they all believe.

Who’s going to win?  Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that the team with the clear cut leader is going to play better, enjoy the game, and win at the end.

This is how life works.  The Bible tells us that in life, we are either for God or against Him. (Matthew 12:30).  So often we think if someone is “against God” they must be this horrible, evil psycho killer.  Not really.  To be against God just means you are not with Him.  That’s all.  You are on one team or the other.  To be on God’s team means you’ve decided that He is in charge, He’s the team captain, and He gets to call the shots.  He tells us the best places to throw, when to do it, when to run, and when to charge.  The better we get at following His lead, the better our team does, and the more fun the game is.  God’s team, we are told, is powered by love.  Not that wimpy “I love you” stuff from movies.  Legit love.  Love that will sacrifice for the team.  Love that will encourage someone when they mess up, not yell at them for a bad throw.  Love that knows it’s better to win as a team than to win alone.  Love that wants the Team Captain to win, and will do whatever it can to see that happen.  Love that is patient, kind, forgiving, hopeful, and more (1 Corinthians 13).

To be against God means we have decided we don’t want His leadership, we want to be on a team where we call the shots ourselves, and no one tells us what to do.  The Bible usually will call this “the world” when it talks about it.  We want to do things our way, not His.  So we play on the other team.  Just like in dodgeball, there are only two teams.  There is no third team in this game (Team Love, and Team Fear). 

But there’s a catch isn’t there?  The Bible is pretty clear that this team full of people doing their own thing really does have a leader, he’s just crafty enough to make everyone think he’s not really running the show.  Satan is the one in charge, pulling the strings, manipulating the game.  He just wants everyone to THINK he’s not in charge, but he is.  The Bible is clear about it.  He uses fear to run his team.  He scares everyone into doing what he wants.  Why do you want to be in charge of your own life, your own game?  So that you can make sure no one can hurt you or leave you.  That’s fear. So that you can make sure you get everything in life you want.  That’s fear.  So that you can be important or liked by others.  That’s fear.  Every move this team makes is based on fear.  It always is.

In dodgeball, the only thing separating the two teams is a line on the ground.  No walls or towers, just a line.  Anyone is free to cross from Team Fear to Team Love at any time.  Team Fear’s captain will try to scare you into staying (You can’t go over there, you’re not good enough.  What if they don’t want you?  What if you fail?).  But it’s just a line.  You can move across at any point, Team Love’s Captain actually encourages it.  He wants you to come be a part of the team.  Everyone. (John 3:16).

So, what keeps you from crossing the line?

Even Jesus Could Stumble


After Jesus feeds the four thousand in Matthew 16, He is talking to the disciples and begins to explain to them the plan to go to Jerusalem, suffer, and raise from the dead after three days. Peter comes in what looks like love and tells Jesus that they can’t let that happen. But Jesus says that it’s Satan and its a stumbling block to Him because its worried about human concerns, not God’s concerns.

What a blow to Peter this must have been! But what is going on with this? Obviously Peter isn’t possessed by Satan. But He is listening to Satan and speaking His words, which are disguised as love. Peter was fooled by it, and became a temptation to Jesus to take the easier way out.

Two things I see here. One, Satan will convince us that his way is the way of love, and God’s way is a crazy punishment to be avoided. We have to walk carefully and not just trust our emotions and first impulses to show what we think is “love” to others. It might be an evil plan. God doesn’t fear pain. He embraces it and uses it to heal. Don’t try to pull people from pain all the time. Peter’s reply should have been more along the lines of “I will follow you, even if you leave me”. Instead it was “You can’t go”.

Second, Jesus didn’t want to die. It was tempting to tell Peter “Ok, I’ll stay”. But He is so focused on God’s plan verses His fears, it scares Him and angers Him. What am I afraid of obeying in today? Jesus understands. He has stood in the shoes of someone struggling to obey.