Satan, Father of Lies

Hello Friends,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog, and I’m glad to be back. 🙂 My note for today is a simple, but significant one. These past few weeks at church we have been learning about Satan and his lies. A quick who’s who on Satan is that he is a personal being in direct opposition to God and His purposes. Although Satan is clever (as we will see a bit later) he is not equal to God, nor does he threaten God’s power. Please see below.

Isaiah 43: 10-13 (NASB) states:

“ ‘Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD , and there is no savior besides Me.  It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange god among you; so you are my witnesses,’ ” declares the LORD, ‘and I am God. Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?’ ”

Isaiah 44:6-8(NASB) states:

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no god besides Me. Who is like me? Let him proclaim and declare it; yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.

Do not tremble and do not be afraid; have I not long since announced it and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’ ”

Woooo! I love our Lord! 🙂 Hold on, I’m going to marinate on His Almightiness for a moment…

Alright, one must carry on :)…We were discussing who Satan is. The Holman Illustrated Bible dictionary notes: “Satan is chief of the fallen angels. From mankind’s creation Satan and the fallen angels were active rebels against God. It appears that pride was the source of Satan’s downfall (1 Timothy 3:6).” It goes on to say: “The origin of evil was placed in Satan, recognizing the reality of evil beyond the scope of human will… Although the New Testament teaches that this world is under the power of Satan, it must be remembered that neither he nor the demons are coequal with God. Satan and the demonic beings are subject to God’s sovereign will. The evil host may tempt but not coerce a person to sin. (We shall review an account of this very tactic shortly) The New Testament is clear that Satan and his demonic following have already been judged and decisively defeated by death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13, 2:15). Believers have the armor of Christ as spiritual security (Eph. 6:11-19).”

Satan is the transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning, “adversary”. (Transliteration changes the letters from one alphabet or language into the corresponding, similar-sounding characters of another alphabet. This helps us pronounce the Hebrew word in English. When translated this Hebrew word means “adversary”.) So, Satan is our enemy. He is the thief that “comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) He is in direct opposition to God and God’s purposes. He wants to steal the joy and peace God gives us. He wants to destroy our lives with sin.

Jesus, on the other hand, “came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:10) [To read more about what Jesus did for us, please see my post, “What Does Salvation Mean Anyway?”]

This clear contrast between our Savior and Satan leads me into exactly why I set out to write this post. One of the lies that Satan will use in attempt to thwart God’s purposes for our lives is to try to convince us that God’s word can’t be trusted. Keep in mind, the enemy himself knows what God’s word says, and he wants us to believe the opposite. But that isn’t very surprising since he is the “Father of Lies” (John 8:44).

Let’s take a look at just how Satan operates. Our pastor referenced an excellent example of Satan’s tactics from the book of Genesis, i.e. the very beginning. Satan doesn’t waste any time, does he? Here is what happened:

Adam and Eve were frolicking happily in the Garden of Eden, enjoying the wonderful life God planned for them.

 Genesis 1:27-30 (ESV)

 “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them. And God     blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

Not too shabby, right? Adam and Eve had it made. Literally. 🙂

  Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV) continues on to say:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ ”

So, everything is going well for man. Nice home, beautiful landscape, great job as CEO of Dominion Over All Things, Inc., and don’t forget the big one—direct communion with God.

Enter Satan.

            Genesis 3:1 (ESV)

            “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.”

Two points on this serpent:

(1)   While Genesis does not identify this figure [serpent] as “Satan” by name, scripture indicates him as such in Revelation 12:9.(Also see Luke 10:17-20).

(2)   Please note that we immediately learn an attribute of Satan. He is crafty, and he isn’t just ok at it—he is the craftiest of them all. Remember, this is the same enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. So let’s see what he is up to.

 

Genesis 3:1-2 (ESV)

“He [serpent] said to the woman, “Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

First of all, let’s clear this up right now. The enemy knows the scripture. He knows exactly what God said, and he wants to get us to believe the opposite. For example, in Matthew 4, Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness:

Matthew 4 (ESV)

“The Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’

But He answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him 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 command His angels concerning you’, and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these I will give You, if You will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’ ”

 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Him.

Jesus never fell for Satan’s traps because Jesus also knew God’s word, trusted God’s word, and used God’s word to set the enemy straight. If this isn’t a reminder of why we need to not only stay in God’s word, but to also remember and apply what God’s word says, then I don’t know what is!

James 4:7-8 (NLT) says:

“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”

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So let’s see what else this crafty serpent had to say to Eve.

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Genesis 3:4-5 (ESV)

“But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ ”

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God already clearly stated what He had to say regarding this particular tree in Genesis 2:16-17. Please recall, God said: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Therefore, Eve was not ignorant to God’s word. As is the case many times in our lives, we are presented with a choice. We could choose to trust and follow what God’s tells us or choose to trust and follow the enemy’s lies.

Often times we are presented with a decision to make, as to whether we should believe God’s word over another’s or believe God over the thoughts that come to our mind that are not in agreement with God’s word. The lie sounds enticing or believable in the moment, but then again we have limited knowledge and understanding about what the future holds, or the impact our decisions may make on not only our future, but also for those we love, or even how amazing God created us to be. Rest assured, however, both God and Satan know more than we do, and only one is working for our good, while the other is out to steal, kill, and destroy.  We have a choice, and it would behoove us to choose and trust God—every time.

But let’s see who Eve chose to believe.

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Genesis 3:6 (ESV)

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”

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Even though Adam and Eve didn’t know what was at stake, Satan did. He offered Eve a lie, and she took it, then she offered it to Adam, and he took it. Satan knew what was to be gained if Eve chose to trust his lie over God’s word, and with that choice came the fall of mankind.

Satan isn’t called crafty and the Father of Lies for nothing. But it’s ok, because all though we have fallen, God knows the broken heart of man, and He still loves us anyway, and He shows His love by having sent us a way back to Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. [Please see my post: “What Does Salvation Mean, Anyway?” for more on this].

The point is, Satan will lie, trying to convince us that God’s word isn’t true.

Satan will tell us, “God doesn’t love you. How could He love someone like you?” Yet God’s word tells us that “not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:28).

Satan wants us to fill our hearts with guilt, shame, and condemnation even though God desires to forgive us of our sins if we only ask it of Him in earnest. Satan wants us to believe that God wouldn’t forgive or love sinners like us.  Yet His word tells us that, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:8-12).

Satan wants us to believe that we aren’t really forgiven. How could God forgive a sinner like you? Look how many times you messed up. Over and over again! Yet God Himself said, “It is I who sweep away your transgressions (sins) for My own sake and remember your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25) Priscilla Shirer wrote, “God will never bring guilt and condemnation by reminding us about the sins of our past. Rather, He brings healing and restoration by forgiving our sin and lovingly leading us into His grace.” [From: Shirer’s “Discerning the Voice of God”]

Satan will tell us not to trust God, to panic and fear our circumstances because we cannot see what is beyond that bend in the road. We only feel the weight of the worry, and the uncertainty and doubts closing in. Yet God calls us to live by faith. “Now faith is being sure of that is hoped for [God’s character], and certain of what we do not see [God’s promises].” (Hebrews 11:1). God is who He says He is. God’s promises are that He will do what He says He is going to do. You want to know who GOD is? God tells us Himself in Exodus 3:14. “I AM WHO I AM.”