King of kings and Lord of lords: Who is Satan? (Part 3)

Satan the Deceiver

“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” (Genesis 3:4-5). 

          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.  The Bible says, “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” (Revelation 12:4). 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.” The Bible says, “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” (Genesis 2:23). 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. The Bible says,  “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” (Genesis 2:16-17). 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. The Bible says, “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” (Matthew 4:3-4). 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. The Bible says, “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” (Matthew 4:10-11). 

            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. The Bible says, “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” (Matthew 13:41-42).