46 - We think we can handle dealing with Satan.

The devil made me do it?

How long has Satan been deceiving others?

How good is Satan at deception?

How good are we at seeing through his deception?

How good can you be alone?

How long has Satan been deceiving others?

We don’t know how long Satan has been practicing deceit, but to make a sensible guess we can take a look through the bible for cues. We know that he was the serpent, who deceived Eve, in the garden of Eden.

Speaking of Satan, Ezekiel 28:14 says “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you...”

Revelation 12:9 says “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 20:2 says “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years”.

Genesis 3:13 says “And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””

Adam and Eve lived some 6,200 years ago; 2,020 years from now back to Jesus, 1,500 years from Jesus back to Moses, Israel in the desert and in Egypt for 40 years and 400 years respectively, from the promise to Abraham until Jacob went into Egypt 220 years, Abraham lived 70 years before God spoke with him.

There were 292 years from the flood to Abraham,

Adding all of those together, we have 2020 + 1500 + 440 + 220 + 70 + 292 + 1656 = 6,198 years. (These are not exact calendar dates etc., but they are fairly accurate from the bible. The bible doesn’t say that Adam was made on Nisan 13th, and Methuselah was born on Shevat 22nd, but we can read how long specific events lasted and when they occurred and figure a pretty close timeline.). The point is that mankind has existed for over 6,000 years; Satan tempted Eve at least 6,000 years ago so we know that he has been tempting people for at least that long.

Eden was not the beginning of his deception. Ezekiel 28:16 says ““By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.”. “By the abundance of your trading” means the results of his actions amongst other beings. The Hebrew word translated into English as “trading” in the NIV (“merchandise” in the KJV and NKJV) is reḵullâ, רְכֻלָּה, (Strong’s H7404) and it means “merchandise, trade as peddled, traffic, trade”. Satan trafficked in lies, his trade amongst the other angels was deceit. We know from Job 38:4-7 that the angels existed before the earth – they sang for joy when God laid the foundation of earth. When Satan, along with fallen angels, was thrown to earth in Revelation 12:9 (above) there were only other angels for him to deceive at the time. (this activity occurred before he was thrown out of heaven).

Satan’s deceiving began in Heaven. His trading deceived other angels before he deceived Eve. He was already an evil being when he approached Eve in the garden, in Genesis 3. He had already been sentenced to an everlasting torment in Hell and the lake of fire; if he hadn’t, why would he have been tempting Eve? He tricked her by discussing a death he knew was everlasting, but maybe she only considered the physical death part and was talked into believing that death was a consequence that was too harsh and exaggerated. Satan had been thrown out of heaven and 1/3 of the angels, whom he had also misled, along with him. (Keep in mind, that was Eve’s first encounter with evil, with the individual who had already conned 1/3 of angels into betraying God – angels who lived in God’s presence and knew Him to be their creator as well as knowing that Lucifer/Satan had been created like them, by the same creator. The creature had deceived other creatures into betraying the creator. Eve was probably not too hard for Satan to deceive after honing his skills on millions of angels)

Before he misled Eve, Satan had misled 1/3 of the angels in Heaven. We have no idea of how to calculate when that occurred, so our best guess is simply eons. Satan has been deceiving others for somewhere between 6,200 years and eons.

How good is Satan at deception?

In Ezekiel 28:16, his trading (exchange, transactions, swapping, dealing, actions) among other beings (angels only) yielded an abundance. An abundance of what?

Followers.

Revelation 12:3, 4, 9 “3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.  4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth... 9 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.” In Revelation, “stars” refers to angels (according to Revelation 1:20). So when the dragon, Satan, drew a third of the stars (the angels) out heaven with him, one third of angels followed him. To validate that, in verse 9, God said the dragon’s, that is Satan’s, angels were cast out with him. The word “cast” comes from the Greek word ballō, βάλλω (Strong’s G906) which means “to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls, to scatter, to throw, to give over to one’s care uncertain about the result”.

Satan didn’t create any angels, so they were not his by creation fiat; they were his in the sense that they followed him; like a general having his army. God threw Satan and his followers out of heaven. In Luke 10:18, Jesus said “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (The word “fall” comes from the Greek word piptō, πίπτω, and means to be cast down or out – so Jesus saw Satan cast out of heaven like lightning – or in a flash - at the speed of light?)

Why were they followers of Satan? Somehow he had convinced them to follow him. I cannot understand it beyond this – they were created by God and they knew their creator, they lived in His presence; by way of trading (some kind of activities) Satan persuaded them to pledge an allegiance to him, and those angels became his abundance mentioned in Ezekiel 28:16 (above). I cannot fathom how an angel, living in the presence of his creator, could be hornswoggled into believing that another angel, who may be stronger, wiser and more beautiful – but still just another creature – could convince an angel that he could offer more than the creator. But that’s apparently what occurred.

Satan convinced other angels that he was the one they should be aligned with, and they agreed; angels don’t have wives, (Matthew 22:30 says “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”), so it’s not like Satan could have said “Psst, hey buddy, I have naked pictures of your wife, come over here and join me”. It boggles the mind and at this time I have no guess as to what he promised or connived with.

How good are we at seeing through his deception?

We are not good at recognizing the master of deception’s cunning. We can be easily fooled by other people; a few years back, when it first began, people would send emails to unsuspecting folks telling them that they would receive a check and when the check came in, all the recipients had to do was deposit, say $1,250, and send the originator back $1,000. The recipient would get $250 just for helping someone cash a larger check. But the check was fake and the recipient would be sending their own $1,000 to the originator for free.

Or “the bank has made an error in your account and we need to confirm your information to be sure we can replenish your account; if you will confirm your bank account number, as well as your personal identifying information such as social security number and password, we can be sure this is you and repair any damage done to your account”.

Or something like, “Hello, I am the son of the prince of Nigeria; I am being risked of deportioned for becoming a Cristian. Can you help me pay for ekspenses to get out of my country before they have arested me? I just need $180 from 30 persons like yorselfs to gane my freedom. Please to help me by replying to this email.”

People were sending money to these scammers so often that warnings were sent by the hundreds of thousands, to make sure people were aware that these were not legitimate issues. And that’s just a surface look at a few boneheaded scams. Do the names ENRON and Bernie Madoff scratch your memory?

These scams were constructed by people who have only been around for some 25-60 years. Satan, and his demons, have been scamming people, by the billions, for over 6,000 years. Before that, he scammed other angels, who saw and knew God personally, out of their everlasting residence in heaven with their creator. We don’t see God, Satan or angels, so we don’t have clear, tangible, evidence of eternity. I would posit that almost 100% of what we see doesn’t matter for eternity – cars, houses, boats, beautiful stuff, riches, etc., while about the same percentage of what we don’t see – God, angels, Jesus’ sacrifice for our salvation, etc. is exactly what counts for eternity.

If the things we see don’t count and we don’t see the things that do count, how simple is it to trick someone who isn’t paying attention and doesn’t know the rules? Card tricks might be a good analogy at this point. Penn and Teller are great “magicians”; they have a TV show called “Fool Us”. They have been doing tricks for decades and have learned what to watch for and how deceit is camouflaged in “magic”.  The object of the show is for “magicians” to perform a trick that Penn and Teller can’t figure out. If a person tricks them, (s)he wins; if P & T figure out how the trick was done, then they win. After a trick is performed, they briefly discuss what they think happened and then present their thoughts to the performer via carefully phrased statements that reveal their ideas to the performer(s). They usually figure out, to a large degree, what the performer did, but sometimes they are fooled.

These guys have decades studying and learning these disciplines and still sometimes get fooled, sometimes by younger people, even when their singular effort is to devote all of their intellect to figuring what was occurring for a few moments in time. Imagine the odds for us to escape deception by an invisible foe, who has been practicing his deceit amongst billions of people for thousands of years, as well as deceiving his own kind while in person in God's presence.

Please do not think that Satan tricked anyone in God’s presence and God was caught off guard. God always knew and always knows exactly what is going on at all times, everywhere, with everyone. He allows things that we may think are outside the limits of His tolerance to occur, but there is a reason for everything He allows. Recall that He couldn’t demonstrate two of His attributes, grace and mercy, without allowing sin to occur in the first place.

How good can you be alone?

Imagine signing up for a single fight against Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Chuck Norris and a real-life ninja. They have access to any weapons they choose and you get to either ignore them or believe they don’t exist; you can even fight back when you realize they are beating you up. Oh yeah, and you’re blindfolded. Don’t forget, we can’t see Satan and demons. That’s a weak analogy of the fight we’re in; four trained fighters vs one blindfolded person. The real fight is millions of demons rotating through their lineup, and there can be multiple demons at any given time. Mark 5:1-12 “Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. 7 And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” 8 For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” 9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country. 11 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. 12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.””

The possessed man probably didn’t see the demons when they entered his body; he probably didn’t put up much of a fight; most likely they just took him over. There were many of them, so we can probably assume that when demons attack someone it’s probably not a fair one-on-one fight, much less visible. They are invisible and out number the poor soul they attack. The ONLY hope we have for winning this battle of deception is to take sides with the creator.

Our natural state is to be at odds with God; Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”. As Adam sinned and became a fallen man, he and Eve could only reproduce what they were. Read the Genesis 1 account of creation; Moses mentioned “after their kind” or “after its kind” ten times in that chapter when referring to life forms reproducing. In Genesis 1, no earthly life forms reproduction were mentioned without reference to “after its kind”. Man was told to reproduce in Genesis 1, but didn’t reproduce until Genesis 4 and had sinned by that time, so their offspring was in Adam’s image. (Genesis 5:3 “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth”)

As we are reproduced in Adam’s image and our minds are at enmity (hatred) against God, we are in position to be persuaded and deceived by God’s enemy. The only way we can see through Satan’s deception is by aligning our desires with our creator and asking for His help/guidance in our thinking; otherwise we are at an incredible disadvantage in life.

Now for the difficult part. It is up to us to behave and reject sin. The bible tells us to rely on God for help, but in most cases does He jump into your life and remove temptation or deception? Nope, not very often, if at all. He requires that we take the steps to behave. That is a difficult thing to do to say the least, especially in light of the scriptures that say we can’t do it on our own. We are decidedly against God if left to our own devices and decisions.

Romans 1:20-25 “20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Romans 8:7, 8 “7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

There are many more verses that tell how man has fallen away from his proper relationship with God and that we are without the ability to love God on our own. We simply lack that ability because of Adam’s sin and what he lost; we are born in his image.

We do have a way to approach God and to do it properly and be accepted. This doesn’t mean that there is any good in us, even at that point. Romans 3:12 “They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.””

God has not left us without any help, but the help that He has left for us is quite upon us and not Him. He has done ALL the work necessary to save us from ourselves by paying His own required ransom for our sin debt. However, when it comes to behaving and recognizing deception and lies we are required to do some work for ourselves. Salvation is free, but behavior requires effort on our part.

Psalm 119, 9-11 says “9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

2 Corinthians 10:4, 5 says “4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”. Wow! This one is quite difficult. We’re supposed to monitor every thought and bring them into captivity to serve God?? Have you ever been praying while driving and had someone pull out in front of you and your first reaction is something like this “You stupid jerk!! Watch where you’re going, you almost caused an accident. If everyone was a stupid as you, we’d all be in the hospital!...uh oh, Sorry God. Please forgive me for allowing my thoughts to run with a quick emotional burst that was completely unnecessary, but once again shows me how easy it is to fail to maintain a single line of thought.” The work required here is for us to control our thoughts. The work required here is to keep God’s commandments and directives in our hearts and minds all the time. This is a fairly direct way of saying that we should actually memorize bible verses; how can we keep God’s word in our mind if we don’t know it? Bringing every thought into captivity requires effort 24 hours. How often do our thoughts wonder onto something that is not righteous? A simpler question might be how often are our thoughts righteous? If that answer isn’t 24 hours a day, 7 days a week then we are mentally failing God’s precept and we are likely to be deceived at any moment.

1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (NIV) Here, we are supposed to release all of our anxieties to God. Come on; how many aggravations do you harbor? I live in Aggravation City. I harbor so many grudges and anxieties that I need to build more docking space.

 Hebrews 2:18 “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”. This says that because Jesus suffered when He was tempted by Satan in (at least) in Matthew 4, He is able to help us during times when we are tempted. You may wonder how He helps us when we are tempted, so let’s consider what happened in Matthew 4. Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights; He was hungry and weak.

• Satan came and tempted Him with food by saying– “cause these stones to become bread”, and Jesus replied by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

• Then Satan tempted Jesus to prove His power, he quoted scripture and said “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’(Psalm 91:11) and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”” (Psalm 91:12), and Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16 back at him "It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

• Then he tempted Jesus with riches – “worship me and I’ll give you all these kingdoms”, and Jesus replied from Exodus 34:14 "for you shall worship no other god..."

Each time, Jesus rebuked Satan with scriptures from the bible. (Although I wonder why He didn’t just laugh and say shut up when told to throw Himself down.) During this time, Jesus was in a severely malnourished state and as a human He could have easily succumbed to any of the temptations. The first temptation was physical – “dude, you’re hungry, have a sandwich”. The second temptation was a challenge to His position as the Son of God – “God won’t let anything bad happen to you? Prove it”. The third temptation was about greed and power – “come on, worship me and you can have everything on earth”.

How did Jesus handle these temptations? By referring to scripture first. So how does He help us with temptations? By providing scriptures for us to default with as a way of life. If you’re tempted to steal – Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal”, that’s pretty cut and dried from the Ten Commandments. What if you’re tempted to participate in a secular activity that brings your reputation into question? Romans 12:2 says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” 1 John 2:15-16 says “5Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” There's a pretty girl or good looking guy the catches your eye; Matthew 5:28 "I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." These are a little tougher if you don’t know they’re here or don’t know where to find them. But the bottom line is that we do have a default method for behaving, and that is to know scripture and go to it as Jesus did while He was here.

How often does God allow us to use Him and His abilities for our pleasure and ease?

• “Dear God, if you let me win the lottery, I’ll spend most of it in the church” He’s probably heard that one a few billion times. Have a few billion people won the lottery?

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• “Lord, I love her, make her marry me.”

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• “Dear God, I could ___________ if you would only _________”.

God doesn’t make life easier for us; in fact He says the opposite. John 16:1-4 ““These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” People will be out to harm Christians. Luke 9:23 “Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Taking up our crosses/burdens is not a simple thing to do; we need to recognize the things that are wrong with us, our personal failings and hassles, pick up our load and keep on moving through life. But we need to move on focusing on Jesus and not ourselves and our baggage. Satan will keep us focused on our problems if we allow it. Life is about getting to heaven, not reminiscing our troubles and struggles.

On our own we are weak and without hope. If we try on our own to get through life, we can surely be successful, but we will be successful in the way that 1 John 2:15, 16 (above) warns us about; we can be successful in boasting, lusting, and pride. There is no everlasting future in that for anyone. I’d rather live in a mobile home for 70 years and go to heaven, than have four mansions on three continents and go to Hell.

How good can we be alone? Zero, nada, zilch. God provides us ways to see through Satan’s deceit, but it is incumbent upon us to find and exercise those ways.

God provides salvation at no cost to us, but the cost of proper behavior is completely ours to bear. Recognizing and defeating deception is a part of proper behavior. If you’ve been warned about something bad, and continue into it, that is a behavior issue.