Satan the Deceiver
Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not surely die,” the
serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and will be like God, knowing good and evil. (NIV)
Satan had successfully deceived a third of the angels into following him.
There was war in Heaven and they were all expelled down to the earth, for they
were no match against Michael and his angels. Revelation 12:4 Its tail swept a
third of the stars out of the sky and flung then to the earth. The dragon stood
in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour the
child the moment he was born. (NIV) The dragon, also known as Satan,
was not about to wave the white flag of surrender just yet. He was going to get
even with God at all cost. Therefore, he devised a plan to get revenge for
losing his place in Heaven. If he could destroy all of God’s creation, there
would be no one who would love and honor Him, or so he thought. There was only
one way to find out if his plan would work and that was to give it a definite
try by using various tools of deception.
Satan,
in his desperate attempt to hurt God, used a snake in the Garden of Eden to
deceive Eve. He knew that God loved His wonderful creation and that obedience
was all that God wanted from man. Therefore, if he was to have any success in
destroying that creation, disobedience was the way to do it. He just had to
figure out who to experiment with first…Adam or Eve. Satan analyzed the couple
to devise his wicked scheme.
Satan knew that God had
created man first and had given him the responsibility to name all the animals
in the garden as well as Eve by calling her, “woman.” Genesis 2:23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman’
for she was taken out of man.” (NIV) Satan also knew that Eve was taken
from Adam’s side and was most likely the one to be easily seduced first by his
deception. To take a chance on Adam first would have been risky because if he
had failed, Adam would have surely warned Eve and his chances would have been greatly
diminished going that route. Therefore, he made the play for Eve first knowing
that God had made it clear that no one was to touch and eat of the tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God
commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you
must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
from it you will certainly die.” (NIV) Despite God’s warning, Eve
listened to the serpent, which was her first mistake, then touched and ate the
fruit. Afterwards, she gave some to Adam and he too partook in her sin as well.
Satan must have been overjoyed
that he had successfully caused God’s creation to fall into sin just as he had
a third of the angels. From there on, their world went into further enslavement
due to the results of sin. Nevertheless, God had the ultimate plan and Jesus
was His name.
When
Jesus came to earth and went on a 40-day fast prior to ministry, the devil
thought that he could tempt Jesus into sinning, due to him being at his weakest
in the flesh. Matthew 4:3-4 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the
Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written:
‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth
of God.” (NIV) Jesus did not allow the devil to gain victory by trying
to prove something to him that he already knew the answer to. He defeated Satan
with the Word of God instead. Satan hated Jesus and tried to have him killed upon His birth
because He knew that Jesus’ ultimate mission was to save man from sin by dying
on the cross, but Satan was unsuccessful. Therefore, he wanted to destroy Jesus
in a different way by having Him to yield to temptation. Despite two more attempts, he failed once again and
Jesus finally commanded him to go because He was not about to fall into a web
of Satan’s lies. Matthew 4:10-11 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it
is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Then the devil
left him, and angels came and attended to him. (NIV)
Satan has continued his deceptive
ploy to cause the rest of the world to fall into sin. As the centuries have
gone by, people became increasingly wicked. The devil has deceived many into
thinking that wrong was right and right was wrong. We’re seeing the same tricks
played out today more than ever before. The devil’s motto is to “Do as thou
wilt.” In other words, he deceives people into thinking that there will never
be consequence for their actions and personal satisfaction is the main goal in
life. Yet, he is still lying, for in the end, whoever doesn’t change and turn
from their wicked ways will not go to heaven. They will spend an eternity with Satan
and his fallen hosts. Matthew
13:41-42 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of
his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw
them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. (NIV)
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