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Your Place in the Spiritual Battle Day 5 – Know Your Enemy

On a May evening sometime in the late 1990’s, my college roommate and I got wind of a movie showing at a local church (rumored to be the church Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett wed in, for your celeb junkies out there). This was one of those literal “scare the Hell out of you” movies from the 1970’s. How could we possibly resist? We knew this night was going to be memorable, but it turned out to be more of a creepy adventure than we expected. The important aspect of the night was the devil found in this movie. He was fairly jolly for an evil being. I remember him prancing through the flames of Hell in a white jumpsuit covered in a large, colored, diamond pattern. If you pulled this guy out of the film and put him in front of an elephant under a red and white tent, he would not look out of place.

One of the major aspects of Satan we will discuss is his ability to deceive. And man, has he deceived all of us. Yes, we Christians, if asked directly will admit Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, whatever name we use at that time, does not run around in a red jumpsuit with horns, a pointy tail, and a pitchfork. But we often still treat him that way. If we think of him at all, we usually think about lies he has established in our culture – instead of who he truly is.

In today’s reading, I want to take a closer look at our enemy, who he is AND who he isn’t. It is important we know our enemy. A good military leader does not send his troops into battle knowing nothing of who he is going up against. A boxer does not go into the ring not knowing the strengths, weaknesses, and habits of his opponent. A quarterback does not go under center without having watched hours of film of the team on the opposite side of the ball. Neither should we enter battle knowing nothing of our enemy.

A quick aside. Today is all about knowing our enemy, however, we must be careful to not focus on him too much. As we discussed before and will touch on again in this discussion, Satan has already lost. Our current fight is not defeating the Devil, it is minimizing our casualties. One of Satan’s lies is to make us think he is bigger and more powerful than he is. So, while we must be more aware, we should not focus on him in fear or dread.

One misconception we hold is where the Devil is; the Devil is not in Hell. He is on the earth right now. In Revelation 20, Satan is thrown into Hell at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. He is then defeated permanently at the end of that thousand-year reign. There are passages in the bible which suggest Satan maintains his access to heaven even now. The book of Job starts with God and Satan carrying out a conversation in Heaven. Zechariah 3 shows Satan in front of God accusing Joshua the high priest. Now, whether Satan still has access to Heaven is an interesting but ultimately unimportant detail for theologians to ponder. What is important is that Satan and his followers are among us, present, close. He is leading his armies from the front; not from a bunker hidden away somewhere.

Why is this important to us? Knowing Satan and his minions are around reminds us they are real. The idea of Satan already being trapped in Hell leads us into a false sense of security. Remember, he is still trying to take out as many people as he can before the end. He may not be able to take our salvation, but he can take the lives we are meant to have. He can mute our voice, negate our calling, bury our joy under mounds of sorrow. And he intends to do all those things if we allow him.

Satan is not omnipresent. God is everywhere all the time. He IS omnipresent. Satan is not. Satan was created an angel and so has the same attributes as angels. Nowhere are we told or is it suggested angels are omnipresent. So, while Satan may be here on earth, he is in one spot on earth. But he has an innumerable number of demons at his command. Often when we are dealing with spiritual warfare, we are not going up against the Devil directly. If nothing else, this should give us a sense of ease. Somehow it is less frightening knowing we are going up against an underling.

Satan is a jerk. I’m sure I could have phrased that in a more intelligent, analytical way but I think that description works well. Satan will use any means he can to get to us. Not having luck with us directly? What do we care about? There is an excellent chance he will attack there. We see this with Job as well. Satan tells God if Job wasn’t so blessed, he would lash out at God. When taking Job’s wealth and children didn’t do it, Satan stepped up to Job’s health and his wife. He was going to push the issue as far as he could. When Jesus was in the desert after his baptism, Satan waited until Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights before suggesting Jesus turn stones to bread (Matthew 4). Sounds like a jerk move to me. Satan has no compassion, no mercy, no forgiveness. Let us not forget this and think we can somehow plead with any of these traits. They do not exist in him.

Satan is patient and persistent. If we look back at Matthew 4, we see Satan waited forty days and nights before beginning to tempt Jesus. He also didn’t come after him once. Satan came after Him at least three times. Satan did not give up after one shot. Nor should we expect Satan to come after us just once. We should not be surprised when we get hit multiple times. And when we fend those off and reach a quiet time of life, we should not let our guard down. Satan is waiting patiently for another opportune time. We must be just as patient and just as persistent. We must be patient with our calling, with developing our gifts, with experiencing what God has shown us. We must be persistent in fending off Satan’s attacks, in watching for his next attack, in standing for our faith, in believing God above all.

Satan is not that small. We throw his name and likeness around easily enough. We have deviled ham, deviled eggs, the Duke Blue Devils, cute mascots on cans depicting that little imp Satan looking cute and fun. He has convinced us he is nothing to worry about. “Who me? I’m no one. Just standing back here doing nothing. Pay no attention to me.” John 10:10 tells us Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Doesn’t sound like a nobody to me. Satan infiltrated Jesus’ inner circle twice in the same night! Jesus told Peter “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23). And later in John 13:27 we are told Satan entered Judas. That would be like a German soldier in WWII walking into an Ally command tent and slapping a post-it on the back of the general, twice! A nobody doesn’t do that. He is trying to get us to not pay attention to him with this little guy routine. Don’t let him do that to you. Be aware of who he is.

Finally, Satan is not that big. Yes, I just said he wasn’t that small. Remember, Satan is all about deception to get his way. If he can’t convince us he is a nobody, he will convince us he is on the same level as God. Many cultural aspects focus on balance. Ying and Yang or harmony or "The one who will bring balance to the force.” This has naturally led itself to having equal good and evil. But this isn’t the case. There is no Ying and Yang, there isn’t meant to be balance in the force. God and Satan are not Vishnu and Shiva, a creator and destroyer. This is not Superman and Doomsday. Satan is not the opposite of God.

Satan was created by God. Satan is in submission to God. No, this isn’t Superman and Doomsday. This is Superman and a black widow spider. The spider can still kill you. But if you look closely you can identify exactly what it is. Then you can appropriately deal with it. But you think that spider gets a second thought from Superman? Nah. Superman has any number of ways to deal with that spider if he wants. Make no mistake. The “battle” between God and Satan is beyond lopsided. We’re talking the 1972 Miami Dolphins against a room full of three legged puppies. God’s got this. We don’t need to worry. We need to be aware, not worried. Tomorrow I will discuss just how God’s got this, and more on our marching orders.