Origins 05: The Great Serpent
Origins 05: The Great Serpent
Satan
So far, we read of the origins of the heavens and earth, humanity, marriage and we will now read of the origins of sin, death and salvation. However, in Genesis, there is no story of the creation of Satan. He simply appears. In Genesis chapter 3, in the garden, there is was, filling the body of a serpent, speaking, deceiving, getting the man and the woman to doubt God’s words.
I am going to take a little tour of the Bible to pull together the Serpent’s origins, his sin, his power, his destruction and his future demise. I have listed many Bible verses for you to read. So, please make your way through the verses and glean what you can.
Watch on Facebook.
5:30PM | Friday November 13, 2020.
They’re falling by the score. You know it’s getting very simple now, since no one believes in me anymore.“
Keith Green,
No One Believes In Me Anymore.
Satan – The Deceiver
Before we look at other passages in the Bible, let’s make a couple of observations from the text. Notice Satan’s strategy. This is how the Bible introduces him. From his first entrance onto the stage of the Bible’s narrative, he reveals his plan – deception, strategic deception.
He only speaks two sentences. But, that is enough to put a spell on the woman and the man. It is cunning. It undermines God’s pure intentions and loving heart. Satan makes God appear to be withholding something good from the man and the woman. Read these two sentences.
Satan’s first words …
Genesis 3:1
He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 3:4,5
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan is part of the fall. It is not simply that Adam and Eve disobeyed. They were also deceived. Satan was part of the fall. He is part of the perpetual, destructive, warfare in the world against God. He drives the deception. He moves the rebellion.
Satan IS NOT
Before we see who Satan is, we need to understand what he is not.
- He is not make believe. The Bible presents him as a real character, a real being, an angelic being, a Cherub. He is alive and active in the world.
- He is not the counterpart of God. The Bible does not present a fight between good and evil, light and darkness in which Satan is darkness and Jesus is light. The Lord Jesus is Satan’s creator and Satan’s power and authority is not to be compared to Jesus’.
- Satan is not omni-present, omniscient, omnipotent. He is limited in power, intelligence, wisdom and location. He can only be in one place at one time. He is a creature of time and unlike God who stands outside of time, he is limited by the moment.
- He is not afraid of God. Demons in the Bible, are those creatures that we assume are also fallen angels, those creatures that are lesser in authority in the rankings of evil powers. They tremble in the presence of the Lord. Satan does not. He boldly enters God’s presence to challenge God to his face. His aims are forthright. We need to be a little careful about our bold claims of binding Satan. His demons may submit to this power. But, I am no so convinced that Satan cowers in our presence at the name of Jesus. We simply need the Lord to make him go away. Jesus can and does.
Satan Means | Devil Means
So much can be learned from Satan’s names. While there are others mentioned in the Bible there are two that stand out, Satan and The Devil.
Satan – means adversary. This name describes his purpose, his disposition, his standing with us. He is not for us. He is against is. He is our opponent, our enemy, our rival, our foe.
Devil – means slanderer. This reveals his primary methodology. Slander means someone spreading truth or lies about you with the intent to destroy your reputation, to assassinate your character, malign the truth about you, to accuse you of things that are not really true. Ad hominem attacks, or name calling, also fall into this same category.
Satan’s Origins
Isaiah 14:12-15 (NIV)
Isaiah speaks a prophecy to the King of Babylon and then addresses the power of evil behind the King of Babylon, Satan. Here, we have an opportunity to see the reason for his fall from glory, his pride. He wanted to be like God.
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens.
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God.
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds.
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
Ezekiel 28:12-19
Many observations can be made from this text, in which, a similar manner is used to address Satan, the power that lies behind the King of Tyre.
We see Satan is a Cherub. He was created. He was a guardian in heaven. He is beautiful. He wanted to be like God. He was thrown from heaven and disgraced.
“‘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.’”
Satan’s Fall
Yes, we do see Satan’s sin in Isaiah and Ezekiel, but here we see the battle in heaven and how many angels left their heavenly abode and lost their righteous standing. We see Satan’s awareness that judgment is closer everyday and that he works hard, with all his energy to fight and against God.
Revelation 12:3,4
Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
Revelation 12:7-17
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.
In second Peter we are told that those “fallen angels” were placed in chains in darkness. The question that remains, if the fallen angels are in chains in darkness, then what are the unclean spirits or demons? Were only some placed in chains of darkness? Were their bodies held in darkness, but their spirit is roaming around seeking a body to live in? I am not sure what to make of this. Think about it. Why do Satan and his demons need a body to live in while the Holy Angels do not? This is a little food for thought.
2 Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment…
In the Book of Jude we read a very similar text to 2 Peter 2:4.
Jude 5,6
but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
Satan’s Power
Here are a few verses that demonstrate the scope of his power.
The god of this world – 2 Corinthians 4:4
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.
Prince of the power of the air – Ephesians 2:2
when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Bold in the presence of God. Job 1:6-11 –
[Satan said] But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.
In the Garden of Eden he is in the presence of the Lord. At the temptation of Jesus he boldly says, “Worship me” (Matthew 4:9). During the Passion Week, he filled the heart of Judas Iscariot. No where in the Bible does he show the slightest fear of God. He is God’s bold challenger.
Satan’s Destiny
Satan will be bound for 100 years during the millennium. What a beautiful season of life this will be. No deceiver. No Slanderer. No opponent.
Revelation 20:1-3 reads,
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
After this, comes the great white throne judgment and this is where we read about Satan’s final end. He will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. Two texts point this out. His destruction in an eternal fire is part of the burning of everything that is of this world as the new heavens and earth are prepared and revealed. No more Satan ever again.
Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ “
Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Praise The Lord
How wonderful to know that we are on the winning side. Jesus has defeated our adversary. Not one of his accusations against us will stand. God is for us. From the beginning until the end of the millennium, Satan is set against God, deceives people and is part of the redemption story. Yes, redemption is not only our salvation from sin, hell and death. It is the defeat and final destruction of our adversary. We should be aware of our enemy, his tactics and methods. If we forget that he is part of the world we live in, then we will be confused about what is taking place in life. I hope this article has blessed you. Look to Jesus. He is our Defender and Savior.
Blessings,
Rich
