Consider the splendor of Lucifer in these verses, but also view
him as the source of power behind an ancient king, the King of Tyre: Ezek
28:12, 13, 17; also see 2 Cor 11:14 (a liar with a glow)! The city of Tyre,
like most of the ancient Phoenician cities along the Mediterranean coastline,
was a place steeped in idolatry and sexual immorality. Ezekiel (ca 593-559
B.C., contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel) prophesied against the king of Tyre
who had an unchecked passion for pride and greed and took all the credit for
his wisdom, wealth, and power.
This guy could have been the poster child for “It's
all about me.” He was so stuck on himself that I am amazed his own subjects
didn't “tyre” of his self-embellishments. Even the prophet Ezekiel
saw an analogy between Satan and the king of Tyre, as two peas in a
pod, and prophesied against Tyre. Apparently, the king of Tyre didn’t
heed the warning (Isn't that just the nature of pride? Prov 16:18); the city
was partially destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek 29:17-21) and ultimately by a
Grecian (Macedonian?) who went by the name of Alexander the Great (ca 356-323
B.C.); we know of his no small endeavors.
If we learn anything from Lucifer it is that beauty can be
deadly, right?! Ugly can’t take all the blame for personifying evil! So, why is
the devil being portrayed in movies and books with beast-like features,
sporting a wicked pair of horns, flapping dragon-looking wings, swishing a
spiked tail, lugging a hefty pitchfork, and projecting an overall demeanor
of bad to the bone when it is clear from the Biblical record that Satan doesn’t
look anything like the above, except for being “bad to the bone?”
Could there be something more to this intentional
misrepresentation than increased sales of the need to be scared to death at
certain times? Since an image is everything to the world, there probably is some
sort of spiritual strategy by Satan behind the distortions of his image as a
beast or something altogether different, from a repelling toothy grotesque
monster to an engaging smile of a human wearing a rare fabric, handcrafted
suit. The secular world can mock and deny his existence while the religious world embraces this subterfuge of light, but one thing is common, unknown to
both worlds of the spiritually blind; whether he looks pretty or not, inwardly,
Lucifer is a very dark, deranged, defiant, devious, and a powerfully dangerous angel who is
sinful, powerful, brutal, and beast-like in nature and expressions (cf. Gn 3:1;
1 Pet 5:8; Rev 12:9). There is a sigh of relief among the unbelievers that such
a creature as the devil doesn’t exist, and are thankful that he doesn’t….
Oh, but he’s real, alright. With the genesis of the coming
tribulation period, the world is going to see the dragon in human form
unleashing the war of all wars that will leave a path of death, misery, and
destruction unparalleled in human history (Jer 30:7; Mt 24:21-22). Courting
with unredeemed humanity, the antichrist brings global solutions to the table and offers
world peace. People will be sick and tired of undulating economies and
bloodshed, looking for anyone who can fix this mess! Then midway through a time of
solutions and peace, things will turn ugly and deadly with an acute realization
that it is a little too late; they had made a pact with the devil, and he is on a ravenous rampage with
unusually cruel hatred.
Returning to now, Satan is far more successful in going after the
ungodly because in their mind they are refusing to believe, and Satan is given
the power to blind or veil the thinking of willful disbelievers (2 Cor 4:4; cf. 2 Cor
3:15), leaving an open door for him to create a barrier in the mind that blocks
the light of the Gospel. What about the godly who are already saved? This
happens only to those who are perishing (2 Cor 4:3; Jn 3:19-20); we are no
longer perishing who have the Holy Spirit living within us (cf. Rom 8:9; 8:1;
Jn 3:16, 18)!
Like Job, I think we all, as spiritually regenerated believers have some kind
of protective hedge about us that shields us from spiritual and physical
attacks. With that said, our defense system has a built-in Achilles heel to
test the faithful; it can be vulnerable to attack by the weakness of the flesh
through the willful impulses of the sinful nature allowing the hedge to be hinged
and giving access to the evil one (Jas 1:14-16). The LORD decides not some
spiritual mechanism in place.
However, we cannot say that every time a hedge of protection is
hinged (An opening appears, and Satan is allowed access into our lives.) it is
directly due to sin or that someone else is in rebellion. We automatically
default to that kind of erroneous thinking like Job’s three compadres, “There
has to be sin behind such personal calamity!” We shouldn’t be too hasty to
judge. The only kind of judging we are allowed is righteous in nature (Jn
7:24 which is totally in accord with the context of Mt 7:1). Sometimes we are
subjected to an attack by the enemy (in various forms) that has nothing to do with some personal sin of
knowledge or failure to be “perfect” (cf. Job1:1 and the hedge: Job 1:10a; the
hinge: Job 1:12).
In Job’s case there is another reason known only to God for the
severe attack (cf. Rom 15:4) – “Have you considered my servant Job” (Job 1:8)?
His friends were certain that such a calamity had to be the result of personal
sin (Eliphaz: Job 4:7-8; Bildad: Job 8:20; Zophar: Job 11:14-17); they were
wrong about Job and God (cf. Job 42:7)! The right heart
overtures toward God (Mk 12:30) lead to the right treatment of man (Mk 12:31).
Recall the song, “We Three Kings?” Have you ever heard of, “We
Three Friends?” Allow me to introduce you to a slightly different version with
just one stanza and refrain, portraying Job’s friends who came to mourn and to
help (Job 2:11)…,
We three friends of Middle East are;
Bearing gifts of burdens afar,
Eyes and mouths sought off to wander,
Following some strange star.
Refrain
O stars of blunder, stars of night,
Stars without God’s love in sight,
Wayward leading, still proceeding,
They are thinking they are right!
Okay, I’m not a songwriter by any stretch, but I am availing
myself of poetic license to show the way I see Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, so-called friends of Job, carrying their empty spiritual medical bags, dispensing
their faulty syllogisms all over the place, like “well-meaning” people do
today. Their deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two
premises goes something like this. Those who suffer are living in sin. Job is
suffering. Therefore, Job is living in sin.
Goodness, this is almost laughable
if it wasn’t tragically typical! People like these three are some of the
coldest and cruelest of so-called “friends” (cf. 1 Jn 3:10; 4:7-11). With
spiritual doctors like these who need friends, yes?
Moving on, the ungodly are clueless that they are spiritually
blinded “to the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” from unbelief by
“the god of this age,” (2 Cor 4:4). This spiritual blindness originates from
personal choice (cf. Jn 3:19; 1 Cor 1:18; 2:14). No one can explain how that
happens nor does the Bible give an explanation on how the mind is blinded by
unbelief other than Satan is allowed to do such a thing to disbelievers. But
blindness is a spiritual condition of the unsaved. We can’t make a physically
blind man see anything in the physical realm, and we certainly can’t make a
spiritually blind person see spiritual truth without the Holy Spirit; He is the
one who convicts of sin, not us (Jn 16:8). The spiritual solution is of God; we
are simply to be faithful witnesses to the world as one who puts an oil lamp on
the hill for everyone to see.
No one who dies without Christ will be able to say as Eve, “the
serpent deceived me” (Gn 3:13; cf. Jn 8:44) and expect to avoid culpability
(cf. Gn 3:15). No, there will be a judgment alright but beyond what is known.
It will be a punishment of an unimaginable magnitude, “Depart from Me, you
cursed, into the everlasting
fire (emphasis mine) prepared
for the devil [their father, Jn 8:44, added] and his angels” (Mt 25:41, 46; cf.
Rev 20:10); the family that sins together stays together. Eventually, one
family will be in heaven, the redeemed and the good angels; the other family
will be in hell, the lost and demons.
There is a hierarchy in the angelic world (for instance, the
word “archangel” (Jude 1:9) or chief angel suggests this). Since Lucifer lead a
third of the host of angels to follow after him, a similar hierarchy remained
intact among the fallen angels (cf. Jude 1:9 of Michael’s cautious rebuke of
Satan, a former guardian cherub, Ezek 28:14). It is doubtful Satan will
personally pay me a visit since I am a small fish for God, but that is not to
say he wouldn’t knock on my door either with God’s permission. Thankfully, Yahweh is on the throne and allowing nothing to touch me without His permission
or orchestration!
Should Satan and his dominion be allowed to touch us for
whatever reason, it will not be left up to the devil to decide; he must follow
strict Divine guidelines. There is no wiggle room for freelancing; nor will he
discover any loophole. Recall Job’s ordeal. There is one thing to remember in
all of this. Whatever permissions Satan is given; he will pursue it to the
letter. If God says to Satan, “You can go 50 miles and no more;” Satan will not
go 49.8 miles and stop, but will go 50.0 miles before breaking off. He will
take his permissions to the very hilt at such and such a time, every time…. We
see this clearly in the book of Job.
Image is everything; Lucifer is the
consummate master of perception and deception. He integrates metaphors and
mirrors to obscure making his existence known or his presence in the deception
of false doctrine in the physical realm as an angel of light. Only the Word of
God helps us to expose his disguises and schemes, but this demands knowing and
obeying the Word. We cannot afford to be outwitted by Satan (cf. 2 Cor 2:11).
J. Sidlow Baxter is quoted as saying about Paul's word to the Corinthians,
“Satan uses all manner of stratagems to turn souls from the
truth: a sieve to ‘sift’ them (Lk 22:31), ‘devices’ to trick (as in our text),
‘weeds’ to ‘choke’ (Mt 13:22), ‘wiles’ to intrigue (Eph 6:11), the roaring of a
lion to terrify (1Pet 5:8), the disguise of an angel to deceive (2 Cor 11:14)
and ‘snares’ to entangle them (2 Tim 2:26).” BBC
We do not have time to explore 2 Cor 2:11, but there is a danger of not forgiving when true repentance has taken place. Satan jumps all over that situation. Any time we avoid doing the right thing by people in accordance with biblical instructions, Satan uses that against believers to diminish or undermine the Gospel message.
We do not have time to explore 2 Cor 2:11, but there is a danger of not forgiving when true repentance has taken place. Satan jumps all over that situation. Any time we avoid doing the right thing by people in accordance with biblical instructions, Satan uses that against believers to diminish or undermine the Gospel message.
I have never seen Satan, but Jesus thought he was real (Mt
4:3-10). Of course, Jesus knew Lucifer was real for He created him (Ezek 28:15;
Jn 1:3) and eventually became His and our enemy! Though Satan can outwardly
appear as an angel of light, inwardly he is exactly the monster he is portrayed
to be: cold, callous, and cruel (cf. Heb 11:35a-36, 37-38); Lucifer the
adversary is alive, and one very bad angel who hates God, hates God’s Word,
hates God’s people, hates the lost man, and hates Israel!
Praise God that Lucifer has been defeated on the cross (Heb
2:14, 15), but it would be foolish to underestimate him. Lucifer, though he is a
defeated foe, is still very powerful (1 Jn 5:19), on the prowl (Job 1:7; 1
Pet 5:8), and would like nothing better than to destroy the saints (Lk 22:31;
cf. Job 2:6). We should respect his power (cf. Jude 1:9), but no longer should
we have any fear of him because greater is He who is in you than he who is in
the world (1 Jn 4:4; Rom 8:37; Eph 6:10; 1 Jn 5:4; Rev 12:11 with 2 Cor 5:8-9).
There is one caveat. Victory over resisting the enemy (Eph 4:25-27; 1 Pet 5:8-9) in the daily routines of life depends on availing ourselves of God’s provisions of grace (2 Cor 12:9), prayer (Heb 4:15), power (Gal 5:16), and weaponry for spiritual warfare (Eph 6:12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18).
There is one caveat. Victory over resisting the enemy (Eph 4:25-27; 1 Pet 5:8-9) in the daily routines of life depends on availing ourselves of God’s provisions of grace (2 Cor 12:9), prayer (Heb 4:15), power (Gal 5:16), and weaponry for spiritual warfare (Eph 6:12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18).
Imagine going to the front lines of the battle without any
protection or weapons; you would fall in moments. What is the value of obeying
the command to put on the whole armor of God? Because of the battle lines that are
drawn for every believer who follows Christ; the front lines are every step we take in this world; every moment we breathe terrestrial air.
Spiritual warfare is 24/7 and 365.25 days of the year. Ask Job (Job 1:1). What
made Job a winner?
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15a).
Being heaven-bent is not a romantic notion but a survival tactic for spiritual combat! <><
Being heaven-bent is not a romantic notion but a survival tactic for spiritual combat! <><
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