Man's Adversary

The Story of Man’s Adversary

Something I have learned over the years is that not many people have a clear understanding of the character and attitude of God. You will see the men of old in the Bible attributing bad occurrences to being acts of God. Job for example after losing his family and belongings said, God took his possessions away (Job 1:21b). Another scenario is in the cases of barren women where the word used is that God shut their wombs (Gen. 16:2a; 30:2; 1Sam.1:5b). But does God really do such things that hurt man? The people of old did not have a full revelation of God (Heb.11:40) they had a very scanty knowledge of what God did and what He did not do. They mostly acknowledged every single event to God – whether it was good or bad. However, it is in Christ that we see the full revelation and explanation of God. You see, every character, personality and attribute of God is expressed in Christ (Col.2:9). In Christ, the mystery of God is solved (Col.2:2)! God is good! He cannot and has never done bad!!! He is Light! He cannot generate darkness! He is Love! He can never hate! This is who our God is (John10:10b; James1:17b; 1John1:5 and 4:8).

Jesus stirs up our minds in Matt. 7:16-18 and Luke 6:43 towards thinking in the right way by asking the rhetoric: ‘can a good tree bear bad fruits?’ You see God cannot do both good and evil, He has to be just one (James 3:12), and we know that God is good. God is never the source of bad things. So where do the evil things that we experience in our time come from; the famine, war, hunger, floods, drought, lack of basic amenities – food, clothes & shelter – and death? We have established they aren’t from God, so are they all random occurrences? Scriptures enlightens us by showing us the two culprits for the present status of the world and of humans. The second culprit is man (fallen man), for we see in Romans that it was man that allowed sin into the world (Rom.5:12) & with sin came the absence of life (death, decay & expiry to all created things Rom.8:20). However, the prime & first culprit is Satan, as Jesus says: ‘he was a man-slayer from the beginning’ John8:44b. So who exactly is this number one enemy of man?

Lucifer _ Devil: You see the devil is the main opponent of man, but where did he come from, how did he become our opponent and why is he our opponent?

We know all things were created by God and they were created good; but things changed based on choices. The creature known as the devil wasn’t made by God to be the devil. In fact, the creature God made was called the morning star-Lucifer (Is.14:12). This creature was an angel – in particular he was a cherub (Eze.28:14b). He was made to the highest perfection and beauty and was well adorned (Eze.28:12, 13 and 15). The creature God made was beautiful and made to walk in perfection and wisdom. Being an angel, we know God made him as a spirit – a ministering spirit (Heb. 1:7&14 and Psalm 104:4). He was made to minister to man as angels were created by God for this purpose. Truthfully, Eze.28:13a suggests the man whom Lucifer was made to minister to; Lucifer was placed in Eden – God’s own planted garden!!! The only other creature we know that was in Eden to whom angels were created to minister was Adam and with him Eve (the first man Gen.2:8).

Something however happened to the creature Lucifer; he was alright and good just as God had created him until the day when sin entered him (Eze.28:15b). As soon as sin entered him, he was corrupted (Eze.28:16) and no longer was he the beautiful minister to man – Lucifer, rather he became a father of lies – Satan (John8:44). So what exactly happened to him, since Jesus said he did not abide in the truth (meaning that he once was in the truth)?

The answer again lies in the Scriptures. Eze.28:17a expatiates Lucifer’s heart became proud because of his beauty! The source of the corruption of the good creature which God made was pride. How / why did he become proud? Well, the devil was so beautiful that in the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures, he was the only angel described with that much adornment! The issue however was that there was another creature in the ‘picture’ – Man, and God had made man to be the Apogee of all creation; as David says: ‘The only creature higher than man is Elohyim’ Psalm8:4-5. So here was beautiful, wise and well adorned Lucifer created to minister to another creature, an authoritative spirit – man! Lucifer’s self-opinion of his own beauty became his downfall.

How did Lucifer fall? Isaiah14 explains what the pride in Lucifer’s heart caused him to think certain thoughts. Vs.13-14 details what he planned to do. He desired in his heart (vs.13a) to: ascend to heaven (meaning he was not in heaven before he had this thought), he wanted authority (a throne), he wanted to be higher than all other creation, he wanted to be like God (vs.14b). Now did he accomplish all his desires? (Permit me to smile here!) Actually, the answer is: yes. The devil got all that He desired! How? Not by carrying out a coup d'état to overthrow God. Because that is hilarious and impossible! [All it would have taken for God to deal with the devil – if it was a coup d'état – will have been to think a thought in which Lucifer was never created]. God is Omnipresent – God is everywhere, to think of overthrowing God, must mean that you have at least the same omnipresent character. So how did the devil achieve his desire? He turned to the only creature that had the authority he desired and which also looked like God!!! Lucifer turned to man (Gen.3). For God made man in God’s image and God also made man to be a spirit with authority to rule (Gen.1:26-30).

Lucifer corrupted his God-given wisdom by applying the wisdom to deceive the woman-Eve (Gen.3:1-6; 2Cor.11:3 & 1Tim.2:14). He lied by telling the woman (already made in God’s image) that she needed to do an extra work to become made in God’s image vs. 4-6 of Gen.3. The serpent in Gen.3 was the devil as corroborated in Rev.12:9. Satan deceived Eve; however for Adam, he did not deceive Adam rather Adam chose to forsake God’s word (Gen.2:17; Rom.5:19). Eve’s eyes we not opened to see into the physical world until Adam disobeyed (Gen.3:6-7a; 1Tim.2:14). As soon as Adam disobeyed God’s word, and instead obeyed fallen Lucifer, Satan achieved his goal & desire. Man – the authoritative spirit had handed over his liberty and allegiance to the devil (Rom.6:16a). By this the devil became man’s master and no longer was God man’s master. Man had become cut off from direct access to God; instead the devil had taken over man’s position.

The devil, a fallen angel who ought never to have had an authority to rule now became the ruler over all the domain God had commanded man to rule over. This is confirmed in Jude1:9, when Michael (an angel & therefore a ministering spirit) wanted to take Moses’ body, he could not just take Moses’ body from his old mate –fallen Lucifer. He needed the only authority higher than the stolen one which Lucifer now had. Michael used the Lord’s authority. After man fell, only God’s authority could deal with Satan as seen in Zech.3:1-3 and Job2:1-7. Things have changed now though, since Christ has died and risen (Philip.2:9-10). This is why Matt.28:18 is a most important declaration; authority was returned to man, via the man – Christ Jesus (1Tim2:5). & not just the old earthly authority which Adam had before he fell, rather man in Christ now has GOD’S OWN AUTHORITY!!! Whao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucifer wasn’t the only angel who fell, for Peter and Jude enlighten us (2Pet.2:4; Jude1:6). The devil was a sinner from the first day of his change into being Satan; He steals, kills, destroys, lies, accuses and opposes men and he walks about looking for any man who will be his victim; but God has cut out our work for us. You see God is not just our Judge He is also our Defender!!! God also has armed us good and proper (Eph.6:13-16), so we are not ignorant of the way the devil thinks and schemes (2Cor.2:11b). We are the enforcers of the victory which Christ has wrought for us (1John4:4; Rom.8:37 and 1John5:4)! GLORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!