It’s striking that the Old Testament (OT) speaks very little of the devil and his minions, but once we turn the page and enter into the world of the New Testament (NT) they seem to crawl out of the (worm)woodwork. Why?
Genesis introduces us to Satan but it isn’t until the NT that his mask is torn off. It’s not as if he wasn’t active in the OT, it’s just that they didn’t seem to know who was pulling the evil strings. Jesus came to dethrone the Satan. He came to reveal the evil one who was muddying the living water. St. Paul discussed this unmasking when he made the case that we are not fighting against flesh and blood but rather the dark cosmic forces.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)
Humans are a unique combination of matter and spirit. Dust and breath.
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7)
Humans were formed from the dirt and will eventually return to the dirt at which time our eternal destiny will be fixed.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis3:19)
Interestingly, the very dirt that we will return to is the very dirt that God told the Serpent he would crawl upon and eat.
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
The battle for our souls therefore occurs on a dusty battlefield where sin crouches at the door to eternal life. Satan attempts to knock the air out of us as we approach our dusty demise so that we won’t have enough divine breath to complete our heavenly journey.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)
Death, however, only stings if we have been suffocated by sin
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:53-56)
Since we are God breathed our battle with physical sin puts our immaterial souls at risk.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36)
Sin doesn’t get the last word at death because Jesus took away its poison pen.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The evil powers always knew that their time was coming but could never have guessed that they would be disarmed by a God whose power was found in weakness. The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness should have clued them in that God didn’t play by their devilish rules.
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’” (Luke 4:5-8)
The devil and his minions then got very angry because they had been caught off guard. In fact, they were so annoyed that became a bit pig-headed. Thinking they had more time to give humans spiritual indigestion they ended up as sea-salted pork. Instead of casting pearls before swine Jesus made it clear it is was better to toss swine to the oysters.
And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. (Matthew 8:28-34)
Satan had power over the world.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19)
However, when Jesus appeared He turned up the temperature and the demons had to get out of the kitchen because they couldn’t take the heat.
And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. (Luke 4:41)
God flipped on the Light of the world and the demons scrambled like cockroaches into the shadows. In like manner, we are called to be like Jesus and offer light therapy to a world of darkness. The true Light came into this world and passed the torch on to us so let’s make every effort to leave the light on for the sake of the world.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5)
Photo by Jarrod Reed on Unsplash