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Satan's ActivitiesJust the variety of names that Satan has should alert us to the fact he attacks his opponents in a vast number of ways. As a "great red dragon" found in Revelation 12:3, and "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" in II Corinthians 11:14. Meaning that he can adapt his tactics to fit exactly the person and the situation so that he can attack with all his might in order to defeat whom he might meet. Satan is not all-knowing, but he can predict with a high degree of accuracy because of his experience out of other situations that we may find ourselves in, and try to defeat us.
There was animosity between Christ and Satan that was first mentioned in Genesis 3:15. This enmity was between spiritual descendants of Satan and from the family of God. An individual (Christ) from the women's seed would one day deal a fatal blow to the head of Satan while Christ's heel would be bruised. This exchange of blows took place at the cross. One blow fatal, and the other blow caused great suffering. Look at the fact that when Christ did appear on the face of the earth, there were concerted attempts to thwart the mission of Christ to die for the sins of this world. No doubt that King Herod's killing of the children under two years of age was inspired from Satan (Matthew 2:16). Christ also pointed out to Peter that he had aligned himself with Satan after Peter tried to talk Christ out of the idea that he would die in Jerusalem and rise from the dead (Matthew 16:21-23). The rebuke from Christ was sharp and underscored the very idea and plan that Christ' central purpose was to do just that. And we read in John 13:27 that Satan had entered into Judas and caused him to betray the Lord. But please notice this, the most direct and principle attacks from Satan at our Lord was during the time of Christ's "test" or "temptation". Lets look at the words "test" or "tempt" with two ideas: proving and soliciting to evil. In the soliciting of Christ to commit evil, God proved through the tests that Christ was sinless, notice that God and Satan both were involved in His test. The Spirit did lead Jesus into the wilderness so that He might be tempted by the devil. Forty days Satan tempted Him with many temptations (Luke 4:2), during this entire time Christ fasted. Christ being sensitized for the tests, and mostly for the last three. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life are the three epitomes of areas in one life a person can be tested. These tests were very well suited to the God-man. Because only He could turn stone into bread. Only He could jump from the pinnacle of the temple and not be harmed on the ground below. And only He could expect to receive all the kingdoms of this world. Christ's whole purpose was to prove His competence to be the sinless Savior. Our Lord being "tested" for His independence (Matthew 4:3-4), to indulgence (Matthew 4:5-7), and to idolatry (Matthew 4:8-10). Satan's entire plan was to get Christ to deviate for the path He setout to follow here upon the earth. Satan trying to get Christ to be Himself independent from His Father and His plan by offering Christ glory without suffering. That would have made the substitutionary death unnecessary. There was no doubt in Satan's mind that Christ was the promised Deliverer. But he tried to get the Lord to assert His independence for His Father by turning stones into bread. As the manna that Israel in the wildness got from God, so our Lord's food in due time would be given Him. If Christ had turned the stones to bread, Christ would have been saying I have no need of You, and therefore asserted His independence of God's will for Him. But was He not "hungry", and was it not His right to eat? Yet He did not eat independently of His Father's will. He was tempted not away from spiritual bread but away from His Father with the real thing. Satan still tempts God's children to take things into our own hands and become independent of His will for us, and then we are not yielding to the will of our Father. Would it not have been a spectacular sign of the Messiah to have cast Himself off the pinnacle of the temple 450 to 600 feet below into the valley, and then to have landed unharmed? If Christ had done so He would have taken a shortcut and show a lack of faith. Presumptions, signs, and rashness will never substitute for the real constancy of faith, but Satan still tempts us to indulge in these. One day Christ ultimately will rule over this world, but Satan has been given that authority for now. hat was hoe Satan had the right to offer our Lord the kingdoms of this world, but had Christ taken them He would have taken a shortcut and bypassed the atoning work of His death. Remember, Satan tempts us still with the immediate and visible. Satan was unsuccessful in preventing the Cross, so he attacks the Gospel, God's Word and the children of God through Christ Jesus, and what remains of the plan of God for his world. So watch out!
Satan, using counterfeit kingdoms and programs, is the principle tactic used to attack God and His program. We have evidence in that he first sinned in wanting to be like God. Then Satan offered Eve the chance to be like God in knowing good and evil, his first offered counterfeit (Genesis 3:5). Another counterfeit was offered Christ during His temptation. The counterfeit being so very close in sounding and looking genuine, but just missing some vital feature. Christ was offered glory , which is due Him, but He was offered a glory that was counterfeit, in that it removed the essential feature, Christ' death. Today we have a form of godliness which is promoted by Satan while denying its power (II Timothy 3:5). He does this in which he disguises his servants as servants of righteousness (II Corinthians 11:15). He promotes a doctrinal system through the demons who in turn use people who advocate a false asceticism or unbridled license (I Timothy 4:1-3). Satan's ultimate counterfeit will be the Antichrist when he comes, and his activities will be according to the will of Satan, as he pawns "the lie" (II Thessalonians 2:9-11) to mankind.
To deceive the nations is his principle activity here in this area (Revelation 20:3). Deceive them, how? By apparently letting them think they can rule righteously and bring peace in the world, but without the presence and rule of Christ. Counterfeit again! He seems to employ demons to carry out his deception (Daniel 10:13, 20), and to hinder the Gospel uses governments (I Thessalonians 2:18). During the coming days of Great Tribulation Satan will deceive the nations into receiving the Antichrist as their savior. Satan, the dragon, will give Antichrist his power, and the world will give allegiance to him (Revelation 13:2-4). At the conclusion fo the Tribulation Satan and his demons will influence the armies of the nations to march to their doom at the war of Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-16). During the millennial kingdom Satan will be bound, but at the close of that period he will be releasede and will attempt to lead the world in this final revolt against God's kingdom. After this unsuccessful attempt, Satan will be cast forever into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-10).
In relation to unbelievers Satan blinds their minds so that they will not accept the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). He often does this by making them think that any way to heaven is as acceptable as the only way. Again, a counterfeit. This blindness attacks the mind of people, and while unbelievers may think and reason, a power greater than Satan must remove that blindness. Human reasoning and convincing argumentshave a ministry, but only the power of God can remove satanic blindness. Sometimes the devil comes and takes away the Word that people have heard in order to prevent their believing (Luck 8:12). In promoting blindness Satan uses counterfeit religion as detailedin the preceding section. This may include everything from asceticism to license, from theism (for being a theist does not necessarily mean being saved) to occultism. In other words, Satan will use any aspect of the world system that he heads in order to keep people from thinking about or doing that which will bring them into the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13; 1 John 2:15-17).
Just as Satan tried the Lord, he also tries believers. His aim is to get us to commit evil. God may sometimes use Satan in testing us to prove us in resisting his tests. Tests can have three beneficial purposes in the life of the believer: (1) to prove us (1 Peter 1:6-7); (2) to teach us (1 Peter:12-13); see also Hebrews 5:8); and (3) to increase our love for God (James 1:12). But Satan's only prupose is to tempt the believer to commit evil. There are at least three areas in which Satan tempts believers. The first is in tzhe area of conforming to pressures and structures of society (1 Thessalonians 3:5). Paul, you remember, had been forced to leave Thessalonica after probably only one month's ministry in that city (Acts 17:5-10). Futher, Satan had used some governmental ban to keep him from returning (1 Thessalonians 2:18). So he sent Timothy, who was not under the ban, back to Thessalonica to see if they had succumbed to Satan's temptations. What temptations? It was too early in the first century for Paul to be referring to official persecution from the Roman Empire. These temptations must have been more of an unofficial, societal, personal nature. Perhaps Satan tempted them to continue to conform to the lifestyles experienced before they were saved. Also many of the converts were Gentiles, and Satan may have tempted them with the pride of intellect. Second, Satan tempts believers to cover up selfishness. The story of Ananias and Sapphira serves as the classic illustration. This couple wanted to retain some of the money they received from the sale of their property, while at the same time receiving praise for their contribution. Peter discerned that it was Satan who had filled their hearts to lie (Acts 5:1-11). They had the right to own and sell property. They had no necessary obligation to give all the proceeds to the church. But they were obliged not to feign generosity and at the same time cater to their selfishness by keeping part of the money received. Third, Satan tempts believers to immorality (1 Corinthians 7:5). God provided marriage for proper expression of physical needs and relationships, and He excepts husbands and wives to assume their respective and mutual responsibilites. When this is not done, Satan has opportunity to tempt believers to illicit or perverted sexual sins.
As adversary, Satan accuses and opposes believers in various areas of their lives. First, he opposes our witness to the Gospel. He does this by confusing us when he plants tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:38-39), by anatching away the Word that has been sown (Mark 4:15), by aligning governmental authorities against believers (1 Thessalonians 2:18), or by imprisoning believers, believing this will keep their testimony from spreading or make them fearful of witnessing (Revelation 2:10). Second, Satan spotlights our sins (Revelation 12:10). He accuses us before God when we sin, thinking he can cause us to lose our salvation. But Christ, our Advocate, takes our case and reminds the Father again and again that He paid for all our sins when He died on the cross (1 John 2:1-2). Third, Satan opposes the believer by bringing pressure on him that he may not be able to bear. There are two examples of this in the New Testament. One concerned the man disciplined in 1 Corinthians 5. Apparently the discipline had had its desired effect, and he had confessed his sin of incest. Now the church should have received him back into fellowship. Seemingly, some wanted to do this and smoe did not. So Paul urged them to do so, not only to heal and dibision that might develop but also lest the brother involved be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. He needed to know the forgiveness of his brothers and sisters (2 Corinthians 2:5-11). Not to restore him would give Satan an advantage. The second example concerns women who are widowed at a young age (1 Timothy 5:14-15). Paul urged them to marry again and bear children and lead useful lives. Some, idle and gossiping, were following Satan. In general we may say that Satan the adversary wants passionately to squelch the believer's testimony. to accomplish this he prowls the earth like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). The word "devour" is the same word used to describe the way the Red Sea swallowed up the Egyptians when they were pursuing the Nation of Israel (Hebrews 11:29). It paints a vivid picture of Satan's ultimate goal---to completelty drown the believer's testimony and usefulness. As mentioned earlier, Satan may prefer to do some things over others. But he will do whatever he has to in order to promote his plans and programs successfully. Remember too that he is powerful, he is experienced, and he has a host of demons to help him. Therefore, the believer can successfully fight him only in the strength and power of Jesus. |
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