The Deceptive Devil
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“Woe
to the inhabitants of the earth and
the sea! For the devil has come down
to you, having great wrath, because
he knows that he has a short
time.” –Revelation
12:12
Knowing Your Enemy
Someone has estimated that between
3600 B.C. and the present human
beings have fought 14,531 wars.
During that same period, we have had
more than 5,300 years of war,
compared to about 290 years of peace.
A ferocious war is raging between the
forces of good and evil. It is a
cosmic conflict between Christ and
Satan, light and darkness, love and
selfishness. And as was true of the
demoniac, this war takes place in the
heart and mind of every human soul. I
have no doubt that you have felt this
combat being waged in your own heart.
These daily skirmishes with
temptation have life or-death
consequences. To fight this spiritual
war you and I need spiritual weapons.
“For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the
flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down stronghold” (2
Corinthians 10: 3, 4). And we must
know our enemy the devil.
Christians must avoid two extremes
when considering satanic activity. As
C.S., Lewis aptly put it:
There are two equal and opposite
errors into which our race can fall
about the devils. One is to
disbelieve in their existence. The
other is to believe, and to feel an
excessive and unhealthy interest in
them. They themselves are equally by
both errors, and a materialist or
magician with the same delight.
With this concept of balance in
mind, let us remember that one of the
key components of winning a war is
understanding the modus operandi
of our enemy. The coaches and scouts
of professional football tams study
videotapes of opposing teams to
understand their strategies better
and discover ways to counteract their
various plays. Similarly, before a
championship fight, professional
boxers analyze and evaluate every
maneuver of their opponent.
I do not intend to give undue
attention to the devil here; the
principle message in the Bible is
Jesus Christ and how we can live for
the glory of God. However, Scripture
does record a great deal about our
archenemy. Satan, the serpent,
appears frequently from Genesis to
Revelation. So, as Mark Twain said,
“We may not pay [Satan]
reverence, for that would be
indiscreet; but we can at least
respect his talents.”
So, to understand better how the
demoniac cam to be possessed by these
armies of darkness, it is both
prudent and profitable for us to
dedicate substantial time to
understanding the deadly devices of
the devil. While you may not enjoy
this ominous section as well as other
parts of this study, you can be sure
it is the one Satan fears most and
would prefer that you neglect.
The legions of devils that possessed
the nameless man in our story were
not without a leader. You can be sure
that Satan was not vacationing on the
French Riviera when Jesus had this
showdown with the army of demons on
the beach of Gadara. And even though
they are not specifically mentioned,
you can be sure that the angels of
God were also stationed around Jesus.
In other words, the war that began in
heaven was continuing right here on
earth with the same principal forces.
And if we pull aside the spiritual
veil on the shore of Gadara, we can
see it: Christ and His angels arrayed
against Satan and his demons-each
striving for the heart and life of a
miserable madman. “For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
When we catch this glimpse of what
happening in the spiritual realm, we
can clearly see that this battle is
just a microcosm of the greater
battle between good and evil that
begun in heaven.
The Origin of Sin
If you ever fond yourself lost in
the woods, you would do well to try
to retrace your steps to the point
where you became lost. Likewise,
before we can actually understand how
the demoniac came to be the host for
a legion of unwelcome devils, we need
to ask, “Where did the devil
come from?”
Did our perfect and holy God create a
flawed and wicked devil? Of course
not! Rather, God made a splendid,
perfect angel named Lucifer, who was
the most powerful and beautiful of
God’s creatures, the highest and
brightest of all the angels of
heaven. “You were the seal of
perfection, full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel
28:12). However, because Lucifer made
a series of selfish evil choices, he
became a devil. Driven by pride, he
chose to become an enemy of God.
Notice how Scripture describes
Lucifer, who is now called Satan:
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer son of the morning! How you
are cut down to the ground, you who
weakened the nations! For you have
said in your heart: ‘I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God; I will
also sit on the mount of the
congregation on the farthest sides of
the north; I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will be like
the Most High’ (Isaiah 14:
12-15).
Lucifer allowed his beauty,
intellectual brilliance, and high
position to fill him with arrogance.
You might even say that the
devil’s vanity led to his
insanity!
Ezekiel 28: 12-17 gives some
additional insight into his fall:
You were the seal of perfection, full
of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You
were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your
covering…. The workmanship of
your trimbrels and pipes was prepared
for you on the day you were created.
You were anointed cherub who covers;
I established you, you were on the
holy mountain of God; you walked back
and forth in the midst of fiery
stones. You were perfect in your ways
from the day you were created, till
iniquity was found in you…. Your
heart was lifted up because of your
beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for
the sake of your splendor. *
___________
*The
Bible records many other details
about Lucifer (see Luke 4: 5, 6;
10:18; John 8:44; 2 Peter 2:4; 1 John
3:8; Jude 6; Revelation 12: 7-9), but
the two passages quoted above are the
most complete.
We can only guess as to how long
Lucifer served God willingly and with
joy before he began to cherish the
poisonous seeds of pride in his
heart. Perhaps it was millenniums of
time. It might be hard to imagine,
but if we had known Lucifer before
his fall, we would have loved him. Of
course, some seem to love him the way
he is now!
This naturally raises another
question: Did God make a mistake? Was
there a glitch in His angel-making
factory so that when Lucifer came off
the assembly line, he was destined
for a breakdown?
Not at all! God is perfect, and God
is love. I suppose that if He had
wanted to, the Lord could have all of
His creature’s mere robots.
However, cannot love. Indeed, true
love must be freely and willingly
given.
So, God took a risk when He bestowed
this ability to receive and give love
freely. His subjects might end up
rejecting His love and rebelling
against Him. However, God gave the
ability anyway. He did so for the
same reason that most couples decide
to have children even though they
know that doing so is a risky
business. They bring children into
the world despite realizing that they
will choose to resist their love.
They do so because, like God, they
want to share their love.
Here’s another question that
often arises unnecessary doubts about
God: If He is all-powerful, why
didn’t He just vaporize the
wayward angel when he began to
revolt?
God allowed Lucifer to carry out his
rebellion for several reasons. First,
it helped to settle any potential
questions about the freedom of choice
God gave His intelligent creatures.
Now, no one say that God forces
sentient beings to do anything
against their will. They are free to
choose their own paths.
Second, God’s immediate
destruction of Lucifer might have
given the other angels serious doubts
about His love and
government-particularly, those who
might have wondered if Satan was
actually on to something. God, in
wisdom and in love, is allowing the
devil to make his point, thereby
letting the whole universe see the
terrible results.
Third, it would pain a loving God to
know that His children obeyed Him out
of a horrifying fear of being
exterminated. Like any good parent,
He wants His sons and daughters to
obey Him because of willing love and
good reasons rather than from
coercion and fear.
Remarkably, in spite of God’s
patience and goodness, Lucifer
refused to repent. Instead, he
devised such a cunning rebellion that
he managed to recruit one-third of
all the angels to join his unholy war
against the Creator. Eventually, God
cast Lucifer and his followers, now
called “devils” and
“demons,” out of heaven.
War broke out in heaven: Michael and
his angels fought with the dragon;
and the dragon and his angels fought,
but they did not prevail, nor was a
place found for them in heaven any
longer. So the great dragon was cast
out, that serpent of old, called the
Devil, and Satan, who deceives the
whole world: he was cast to the
earth, and his angels were cast out
with him (Revelation 12: 7-9).
Fallen but Brilliant
Famous Hollywood women, especially
the high profile movie stars, seem to
be instantly recognizable in public.
We wonder how they can do simple
things, like go to the supermarket,
without being swamped by overzealous
fans. Most of them manage just fine.
How? They have a simple trick: When
they do not wear makeup and trendy
hairdos, most people do not recognize
them. The public has become so
familiar with the glamorous but
imaginary illusion of whom these
people are that the real-life stars
can circulate among the crowds
undetected.
Lucifer has a similar strategy.
“Satan… transforms himself
into an angel of light” (2
Corinthians 11:14). Satan is
delighted when people portray him
with his stage image. You know the
one: the ugly red, bat-winged
creature that is part man and part
beast. He loves being pictured as
having split hooves, pointed ears,
and a long, pointed tail-and
don’t forget the goatee or that
pitchfork he supposedly uses for
stoking the fires of hell.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Indeed such foolish concepts
come from a mixture of Greek
mythology and medieval art, and
absolutely no such nonsense can be
found in Scripture. As the quotations
above from Isaiah and Ezekiel show,
the Bible describes Satan as a
brilliant, highly attractive angel
with an uncanny ability to
communicate. When we realize these
characteristics are combined with his
devilish designs, we know that we
must be very wary.
Satan is a self-proclaimed enemy of
God whose aim is to defame His
character and capture His kingdom. He
also despises you and your loved
ones, and he has plans to destroy you
because he knows how much God
treasures you.
This is why the story of the demoniac
demonstrates so well that our only
hope is to place our lives in the
protective care of our mighty Savior,
praying earnestly for His guidance.
Without Christ, we are easy prey to
Satan unending attacks, but, as
Scripture says, “He who is in
you is greater than he who is in the
world” (1 John 4:4).
The Bottomless Pit
The first time I toured the famous
Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, our
guide led us by a gaping hole that
seems to drop away in endless
darkness. It’s affectionately
called, “the bottomless
pit.” Of course, it isn’t
really bottomless. In fact, the
bottom is only 140 feet down.
Apparently, it gets so littered with
trash from passerby that rangers have
to rappel down into it once a year to
pick up the debris.
The Bible speaks of a bottomless pit
where Satan will be imprisoned for a
millennium. The apostle John wrote:
I saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand. And he
laid hold of the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the Devil, and
Satan, and bound him a thousand
years. And he cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and
set a seal upon him, till the
thousand years should be fulfilled:
and after that he must be loosed a
little season (Revelation 20: 1-3,
KJV).
This prophecy will find its
fulfillment immediately following the
second coming of Jesus. It speaks of
a fate that causes the devil to
tremble.
The biblical expression
“bottomless pit” is a
translation of the Greek word abussos,
from which we get the word
“abyss.” This word appears
also in the story of the demoniac.
There the demons beg Jesus “not
[to] command them to go out into the
abyss” (Luke 8:31).
So, what is the bottomless pit, this
abyss that the devils dread? It is a
symbol. No one can escape from the
bottomless pit. The pit, then,
represents the condition Lucifer and
his angels will find themselves in
when they are bound on earth during
the millennium, the thousand years
about which Revelation 20 tells us.
During that time, there will be no
one alive on earth for the devils to
tempt. Those who have accepted
God’s salvation will be taken to
heaven, and unrepentant sinners will
have died at Jesus’ second
coming (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17;
Revelation 19: 18,21).
During this protracted period, Satan
and his minions will be “chained
in darkness,” bound by the
circumstances of having nobody to
tempt or manipulate. Scripture says
God will not spare the angels who
sinned, but will deliver them
“into chains of darkness to be
reserved for judgment” (2 Peter
2:4; cp. Jude 6). It is perfect
torment for workaholic devils to have
nothing to do, which is why the
demoniac devils were so upset.
“They cried out, saying,
‘what have we to do with You,
Jesus, You Son of God? Have you come
here to torment us before our
time?’” (Matthew 8:29).
They were concerned that Jesus would
chain them before God’s
timetable as revealed in the Bible
actually calls for it.
Note this, too: People often treat
others the way they feel they should
be treated. Jesus said, “When an
unclean spirit goes out of a man, he
goes through dry places, seeking
rest” (Luke 11:24). This
“dryness” is a symbol of
the absence of God’s spirit,
which is why David said, “The
rebellious dwell in a dry land”
(Psalm 68:6). Perhaps Satan and his
devils had this man in chains because
they know they are fated to end up in
a dry, desolate place devoid of God.
“His own iniquities entrap the
wicked man, and he is caught in the
cords of his sin” (Proverbs
5:22).
Serpent Phobia
Four times in just one
year, John Fretwell’s
air-conditioning equipment company in
Dallas was robbed. So, Fretwell went
on a snake hunt in Oklahoma and
brought back what might be the
ultimate in burglar protection: seven
diamondback rattlesnakes.
Now, he displays the snakes in the
window of his business office, with a
sign that says: DANGER SNAKES BITE.
Before going home at night, he frees
the five-foot rattlers to glide
around the premises. In the morning,
armed with a hooked stick and a
burlap bag, he rounds them up. The
seven rattlers seem to be warding off
the burglars. Most people find them
stealthy reptiles revolting and
terrifying.
Few people relish the idea of
studying snakes. The subject might
not sound very appealing; however,
Scripture makes these cold-blooded,
legless reptiles a symbol of Satan,
so it is profitable for us to
consider what they reveal about him.
Of course, we know that the first
time the devil communicated with the
human race was through a medium of a
serpent (see Genesis 3:1). This
naturally forged a permanent
association of Satan with the
serpent. Hence, the symbol stuck all
the way through Revelation 20:2, KJV,
where he is identified as “the
dragon, that old serpent, which is
the Devil, and Satan.”
Snakes have mastered virtually every
environment on earth. You will find
them in the sea, on land, under the
ground, and in trees. There are even
a few varieties that can sail through
the air. Satan has adapted his
enticements to tempt every person in
almost any environment.
The benefits to understanding snakes
are great. When I lived in the desert
mountains as a young man,
rattlesnakes were abundant. A basic
knowledge about their habits and
behavior helped me avoid ever being
bitten, despite several close
encounters.
Perhaps this is the reason Jesus
commands us to be ‘wise as
serpents,” and harmless as
doves” (Matthew 10:16). To be as
‘wise as serpents” and
avoid being bitten, we must
understand at least a few basics
about our clever enemy.
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