589. Know Your Enemy, with Julie Harwick

Women World Leaders' Podcast

The world sees the devil as a red cartoon character with horns and a pitchfork encouraging people to do the wrong, but very appealing thing. The Bible describes a being far more sinister and destructive. We must know the enemy of our souls if we are to resist his plan to steal, kill, and destroy.

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Welcome to Women World Leaders podcast. I’m your host, Julie Harwick. Thank you for joining me today as we celebrate God’s grace in our lives, in this ministry and around the world.

Last month, in the flurry of new Christmas movies, one in particular caught my attention. “Dear Santa,” starring Jack Black, featured a clever premise of a dyslexic middle schooler intending to send a letter to Santa, but mixing up the letters and instead sending his Christmas wish list to Satan. While I can see the humor in mixing up the letters in the names of two polar opposite characters, that’s where the humor ends for me. Leave it to the Prince of Darkness to use the celebration of Jesus’ birth as an occasion to sell the deception that he’s a harmless, fun-loving prankster who can ensure you have a great life here and now…if not in the hereafter.

I didn’t watch the movie, but I read about it enough to learn that Jack Black’s character is only masquerading as Satan, and is instead a failed demon, trying to regain Lucifer’s favor by getting the 6th grader to sell his soul in exchange for three granted wishes. According to plot descriptions, the movie portrays Satan himself in an unfavorable light, but apparently Jack Black’s demon is compassionate, funny, and a good guy at heart. It’s not hard to see where the inspiration for this movie came from – the father of lies himself.

A Gallup poll from 2023 revealed that of five spiritual entities: God, angels, heaven, hell, and the devil, the fewest believed in Satan. Only 58% of those polled said they believe he actually exists. It’s likely that when they were questioned, their minds conjured up the red, pitchfork-wielding, horned character usually seen at Halloween parties and on cans of deviled ham. I can understand why people don’t believe in that, and Satan has worked hard to associate that image with his name. Who’s afraid, or even concerned about a fantastical being who’s half human and half goat with a spear-like tail and villainous facial hair? In that old trope of an angel sitting on one shoulder and a devil on the other, the devil is always the most appealing of the two. Using shame or fear, the angel reminds us of what we should do, while the cute little devil on the other shoulder encourages us to indulge and have a good time.

The Bible has a lot to say about Satan and paints a far different picture from the images most people are familiar with. So, who is Satan and where did he come from? From passages in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 we learn that he was a being created by God to be a perfect reflection of His glory. His original name was Lucifer, meaning one who brings light. Ezekiel refers to him as a guardian cherub and says he was blameless from the day he was created until unrighteousness was found in him. Verse 17 of Ezekiel 28 explains, “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.” Isaiah gives even more insight in chapter 14, saying, “ How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth. You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will make myself like the Most High.” Here is where sin began. And as it has always been and always will be, it is rooted in pride…the desire to be God. I think this occasion was also the root of the saying, “misery loves company.” Once Satan realized his plan to be equal with God had failed and consequences would follow, he sought to bring others down with him. Revelation makes reference to this event adding that Satan managed to take a third of the angels in heaven with him, condemned to become fallen angels or demons who would share his mission to deceive as many souls as possible into believing that they too could be God. Not satisfied with only demonic companions, he disguised himself as a serpent and persuaded Eve to become the first human victim of his diabolical plot.

So, now that we know Lucifer became Satan because he wanted to be God, how does he compare to God? While God is self-existent, that’s what the name Jehovah means, with no beginning and no end, Satan clearly had a beginning and will also have an end. Another of God’s characteristics is that He is omniscient, or all-knowing. Many people have mistakenly believed that Satan also has that ability, but he does not. He is, however, an excellent student of human behavior and he’s had thousands of years to perfect his ability to recognize and capitalize on their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. He’s so skilled at it, he can seem as if he’s reading our minds, but he can’t. God also has the power to be everywhere all at once, or omnipresent. That’s a hard concept to wrap our human minds around, but I’m very glad He has that ability. Satan, on the other hand, does not. Because of his well-organized demonic forces, it can seem like he’s active everywhere all at once, but he himself, does not have that ability.

God has given Satan tremendous latitude to operate with his demons on planet earth. Jesus Himself referred to Satan as the ruler of this world and Paul called him “the god of this age and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” He is a supernatural being with supernatural powers, but he is still subject to God’s authority. The first chapter of Job makes this clear. God has taken the opportunity to point out what a great guy Job is while Satan is within earshot. Also known as the accuser, Satan loses no time in suggesting that Job only lives to please God because he’s been given everything a man could want. He insists that some suffering and loss would take him down and make him as unconcerned with the things of God as any other man. God demonstrates His confidence in Job by allowing Satan to do whatever he likes to Job apart from taking his life. The devil could only do what God allowed and had to remain within the limits He set. The rest of the book details all of the horrible ways Satan tried to get Job to curse God, but instead, his faith remained firm, and he came to a much deeper knowledge of his creator. Satan’s plan backfired and in the end, Job was rewarded with even more than he had in the first place.

As we consider all the things Satan can and cannot do, we would be wise to examine how Jesus dealt with him. It’s interesting to note that once Jesus had publicly been acknowledged as the Son of God and was about to begin His earthly ministry, He went into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by Satan. Scripture tells us that there is no temptation we face that Jesus has not already faced and overcome. The account of His temptation in the wilderness serves as a template we can use in dealing with our greatest enemy. Satan has a limited bag of tricks to work with, but he’s quite adept at recognizing and taking advantage of our individual weaknesses. Since Jesus was fasting during His forty days in the desert, Satan first thought to appeal to His hunger and entice Him to meet His own physical needs by using His divine power to turn stones into bread. When that failed to move Him, the devil appealed to His emotional needs to know that God loved Him and have His divinity confirmed in a visible way. He suggested that Jesus throw Himself from a great height to the ground and test the scriptural promise that God would send angels to prevent Him from being hurt. In a last-ditch effort, Satan offered to give up his authority over all earthly realms and make Jesus ruler of the world if only He would bow down and worship him. In every temptation, Jesus didn’t debate or negotiate with Satan, He simply quoted the scripture that addressed the root of the temptation. Ironically, Satan used scripture as well. Naturally, it was out of context and somewhat twisted to serve his purpose. Because Jesus knew the scriptures thoroughly, He was able to see through Satan’s deception and have the perfect response to every temptation.

The devil’s entire identity is rooted in deception. In John 8, Jesus described him as “a murderer from the beginning who does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” In modern-day vernacular, you might say, “you’ll know he’s lying if his lips are moving.” If deception is Satan’s primary weapon, then truth is our best defense and the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness shows us that the truth that will defend us comes only from the Word of God.

Ephesians 6 describes the spiritual armor God has provided for us as believers. We have a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness, a belt of truth, feet shod with the gospel of peace and a shield of faith. These are all meant to protect us from Satan’s attacks, but we have only one offensive weapon to drive him away because it’s all we need: the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And like any good soldier, we must have our swords ready at all times so we’re always prepared for a fight. We can’t wait until we’re under attack to go looking for our sword. That means we need to be constantly in God’s word, studying and memorizing so that the truths we need to defeat the devil will be at our disposal when we need them most. If you don’t feel you know God’s word very well, a good place to start would be to look up verses that are relevant to your particular areas of struggle. Do you find yourself questioning your salvation and whether or not God could really love you? Meditate on and memorize John 10:28 which says, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hands.” Are you plagued by anxiety and negative thinking? Philippians 4: 4-8 will remind you of the steps to overcome anxiety and thoughts you should be dwelling on. When fear threatens to overwhelm you or you’re being asked to do something you feel is beyond your capability remember how God enabled David to face a giant no professional soldier was willing to fight, with just a sling and a stone. Everything you need to resist temptation and send Satan packing is in God’s word.

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Peter chose the lion metaphor for multiple reasons. There are many big cats that prey on other wildlife, but no other is known for its’ terrifying roar. Lions rely on their roar to intimidate and panic their prey, making them more vulnerable. Satan also finds a way of making his voice loud and forceful in our minds, making us question every truth. Sometimes a lion’s roar is only that. Experts say running from a lion is the worst thing you can do. Your chances are better to stand firm, face it and roar or shout back. Lions also use the tactic of going after the weak, the young, those who are injured or have been separated from the safety of the herd. Similarly, Satan delights in attacking immature believers, those who are going through painful trials and any who have separated themselves from the support and accountability of fellow believers.

A wounded lion is even more dangerous because his pain drives him to lash out and inflict as much or more pain on his victim. Satan is a wounded lion who received a mortal injury when the stone was rolled away from the tomb that first Easter morning. Jesus’ triumph over death and sin sealed Satan’s fate and marked the beginning of his end. Colossians 2: 13-15 says, “When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled our legal indebtedness which condemned us. He has taken it away and nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Imagine…the debt of sin that served as our death warrant has been pardoned and nailed to the cross for all to see. Satan is a powerful adversary who should be taken seriously. But the only real power he ever had over us was the power of sin which has been nullified by Christ’s triumph over sin and death. When we walk in that truth and brandish the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word, that roaring lion becomes nothing more than a frightened alley cat.

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