The Story Between God And Satan

THE STORY BETWEEN GOD AND SATAN

If you haven't been able to piece it all together, there's a history between God and Satan that's rather sad, because Satan wasn't supposed to be such a bad egg like he is. Ezekiel wrote about all the love God put into the creation of Lucifer; "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, 'Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created...'" (Ezek. 28:12-15).

The devil sounds like he has every reason to be an obedient creation to God, but something went wrong; terribly wrong. Iniquity was found in him (Ezek. 28:15). What was that sin? Pride. His beauty was so bright, it corrupted his mind (Ezek. 28:17). As we who read the bible know from Prov. 16:18, pride goeth before a fall, and how great was Satan's fall! According to Luke 10:18, Jesus spoke as an eyewitness that he fell like lightning, and that's faster than I would ever want to fall down! As Isaiah said of Satan after his fall, "Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?" (Isa. 14:16-17).

So you might next want to know how this sin manifested itself in Satan, that God came to notice it, and that answer is in Isaiah's book; "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." (Isa. 14:12-14). Satan didn't even have to speak his sin, it was read in his heart by our omniscient God, and immediately God dealt with the devil and his sin!

Now many, if not all who read this, have heard of the fires of hell, but remember that part of the gospel where Jesus talks about hell, and where "...their worm never dies"? Look in Mark 9:43 - 44; "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." If you want to see another reference to those worms, look now into Isa. 14:11; "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee." Are there any volunteers to be in hell where the fire is never quenched and there are worms? Believe it or not, all who disbelieve in Jesus till their final breath.

So now the story becomes ugly for you and me. We didn't want a part of what happened between God and Satan, but the devil brings it to us. He started with some of the other angels, and you can find them in 2 Pet. 2:4; "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;". Satan goes after people, too, such as novices at Christianity who get into positions of leadership too quickly and then become proud, as is written in 1 Tim. 3:6; "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." So while we're trying to follow Christ, we have to be careful Lucifer doesn't drag us into the mess he's in. And then there's false teachers; they teach everything and anything unScriptural, even up to denying Christ who bought us, and them, too. They exploit who they will, walk after the flesh...how many have been exposed for molestation, homosexuality, and adultery and fornication?  There are also the covetous who do religious work for personal gain. These are all spoken of in 2 Pet. 2:1 - 22. The devil has many devices; he wants us to think we can thrive independent of God; but in the end, it will prove to eternal damnation.

Other ways the devil tries to steal souls is the idea of worshipping demons and false idols, and this has been since the Old Testament, as when the people were warned in Exod. 20:3 - 6; "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." From one end of the bible to the other, man is warned about false god and demon worship. Even to Rev. 9:20 - 21; "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

Oh, who can count the devices of the devil? Idolatry, suicide, fortune telling, astrology, witchcraft - all these works of the devil are told of in the bible, and from the time God warned up to even now, people do these things. Exod. 20:13 has it that "thou shalt not kill", and yet people will believe the thoughts demons put in their heads that suicide will release them from some great guilt, or from serious problems they have.

Yes, Satan and his evil angels are determined to drag as many human souls to hell with them as they can. Here is a passage from 1 Tim 4:1-3; "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."

So understand that Satan is our enemy, just as he has made himself God's adversary. Actually, his very name means adversary, and the name "devil" means slanderer. We never went to him to pick a fight with him, he came to us to take our souls. See in 1 Pet. 5:8; "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"

Satan uses his workers, besides himself, to try to fool you. They will imitate God's disciples as if they were His, too, so they have to be observed in order to discern if they be of God or of Satan. As it is written in 2 Cor 11:12-15; "But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

And so Satan and his demons try to trick us and use us, because he knows it is the will of the Father that all of us would be saved, but as he is God's adversary, his will would be that none of us get saved. He wants us to worship him (Matt. 4:8 - 9), he wants us to worship false gods and idols (Rev. 9:20), he wants you to believe perversions of the gospel and bible (Gal. 1:6 - 7), and really wants you not to believe in the bible at all so that he can lie to you in all ways, because he is the father of lying (John 8:44). He seeks to eat us up as a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8), knowing that sating his appetite on each soul is against the will of our loving Father.

So long as we believe, however, Satan cannot have us. John 3:16 guarantees it to the true believer, and Jesus Himself said nobody can take us from His hand in John 10:28. Jesus, in His death, defeated Satan by nailing our sins to the cross (Col. 2:13 - 15). And God has given us armor, that we may stand against the Devil and his demons (Eph. 6:11 - 19), who are not mere flesh as we are. We can resist the devil (James 4:7) because God is in us (1 John 4:4)! Let me emphasize Eph. 6:18 in relation to putting on this armor properly, "... Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit...".

Now the devil is by no means done and giving up. He will test the world with his antiChrist (2 Thess. 2:8 - 9). Rev. 13:11 - 17 has more trouble for men in the Tribulation, that mankind must worship or die and submit or starve! But for those who resist this terrible trial, and don't take the mark of the beast, nor worship his image, they will never hunger or thirst, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes! (Rev. 7:14b - 17) Satan will lose his war with God in heaven (Rev. 12:7 - 10), and Jesus will rule both in Jerusalem according to Rev. 20:2 - 4, "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." and in the new Jerusalem over all His believers (Rev. 21:1 - 7).

And so this is the story, from beginning to end, of God and Satan, and how we got caught up in it all. Though we suffer trials and tribulation, believing in Jesus through it all, we will enjoy eternal bliss with Christ Jesus!