1.who is satan?

The Bible has quite a bit to say about Satan, telling us who he is, what he is like, and what will happen to him. We will look at what we can learn from the Bible about Satan, but to begin, let’s look at this passage from Ezekiel chapter 28.

ezekiel 28:11-19

The word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“You were the model of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13 You were in Eden,

the garden of God;

every precious stone adorned you:

ruby, topaz and emerald,

chrysolite, onyx and jasper,

sapphire, turquoise and beryl.

Your settings and mountings were made of gold;

on the day you were created they were prepared.

14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,

for so I ordained you.

You were on the holy mount of God;

you walked among the fiery stones.

15 You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created

till wickedness was found in you.

16 Through your widespread trade

you were filled with violence,

and you sinned.

So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,

and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,

from among the fiery stones.

17 Your heart became proud

on account of your beauty,

and you corrupted your wisdom

because of your splendor.

So I threw you to the earth;

I made a spectacle of you before kings.

18 By your many sins and dishonest trade

you have desecrated your sanctuaries.

So I made a fire come out from you,

and it consumed you,

and I reduced you to ashes on the ground

in the sight of all who were watching.

19 All the nations who knew you

are appalled at you;

you have come to a horrible end

and will be no more.’ ”

This passage is described as being a prophecy about the king of Tyre, but it is clearly more than that. While this passage is referring to the king of Tyre, which was once a proud and beautiful city, it is also referring to Satan, describing him as being a guardian cherub (v 14) and being in the Garden of Eden (v 13) and being blameless (v 15).

The king of Tyre is being compared to Satan for being proud and wicked and for being destroyed. So, we can assume that this passage, though directed at the king of Tyre, is also about Satan.

a.created as an angel

Satan is not an eternal being like God is. Instead, Satan was an angel created by God, along with all of the other angels. This is important, because it establishes that Satan is not equal to God. Let’s take a look at the verses that show Satan to be an angel who was once named Lucifer.

ezekiel 28:14-15

You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV)

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

b.fallen

As you can see, Satan is a fallen angel. He is not in Heaven with God, but has been cast down to the earth, out of God’s presence. Why did that happen? Because Satan grew proud because of his great beauty. Let’s take a look:

ezekiel 28:17

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

Additionally, Satan led a rebellion in Heaven against God, believing that he could make himself equal to or greater than God, which is a wicked and evil thought.

Isaiah 14:12-15

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

Satan was not alone in his wicked rebellion. His evil intentions led to war in Heaven, with armies of angels fighting against each other. Here, Satan is referred to as the dragon.

Revelation 12:7-11

7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

So Satan was created by God as a beautiful angel. But when Satan’s heart grew proud and wicked, he rallied other angels to fight with him against God. They lost. Badly. And now, Satan and his angels, who are now called demons, are on the earth.

c.the deceiver and murderer

Satan’s first recorded act on earth was to deceive Eve. He first did this my twisting what God had said:

genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?

“Did God really say?” Satan’s first words to Eve were meant to cause doubt. Then Satan misquoted what God had said. God did not say that Eve couldn’t eat from any tree, but only that she couldn’t eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But the lies continued.

genesis 3:4-5

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan knew that Adam and Eve would die, but lied to them because he wanted to destroy them. That’s why Satan is called a murderer and the father of lies.

john 8:44

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Satan didn’t just deceive Adam and Eve, he deceives the whole world. It’s the reason why so many people today don’t believe in God and are willing to believe things that aren’t true. The verse below call Satan the deceiver of the whole world. But happily, it also shows his defeat.

revelation 12:9 (ESV)

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

d.the accuser

Satan is also called our accuser, meaning that he is the one who accuses us of wrongdoing. He does this because he knows that we cannot enter Heaven if we are guilty of sin, so he accuses us of sin in the hopes that we will be kept out of Heaven like he is.

revelation 12:10-12

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

The beauty of God’s plan, however, is that if we are saved by Jesus, then our sin is gone and Satan has nothing he can accuse us of. God triumphed over Satan by dying for our sins. That’s why it says that “they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb.”

e.always on the prowl

Satan is always looking for ways to harm us. He is even described as a prowling lion.

1 peter 5:8

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

So as you can see, we need to pay close attention and make sure we’re living in obedience to God, so that we do not give Satan a chance to lead us astray.

ephesians 4:26-27

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

2.how powerful is satan?

Satan is a powerful being, but he is not nearly as powerful as God is. Since Satan was created as an angel, he has special power similar to the way that angels have special power. But as we will see, although Satan is powerful, he is no match for God.

a.not all-knowing

The Bible clearly tells us that God knows all things. This is not the case with Satan. In the verses below, Jesus states that nobody but God the Father knows about the day and the hour that the end of this world will come.

matthew 24:35-36

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

If the angels in Heaven don’t know this, then certainly the fallen angels (demons) and Satan do not know it. Therefore neither Satan or his demons know everything. You might ask, “why didn’t Jesus know?” Jesus is God, after all, part of the Father-Son-Spirit Trinity. But within that Trinity, Jesus has placed Himself in a role where He willingly set aside, at least while He lived on earth, some of His abilities. By now, as Jesus sits at the right hand of His Father in Heaven, he probably knows when the end will come. But Satan does not know, and is not all-knowing.

b.not ever-present

Unlike God, who is omnipresent (everywhere at once), Satan can only be in one place at a time. Here are some passages to prove it:

job 1:6-7

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

As you can see, Satan could only be in one place at a time, unlike God, who is everywhere at once (Psalm 139).

c.not all-powerful

It is important to realize that Satan and God are not equals, like two sides to a coin or a yin and a yang. The truth is that Satan is not nearly as powerful as God. This is demonstrated by the fact that he was so completely defeated when he rebelled against God.

If you want another great example of how much less powerful Satan is when compared to God, take a look at this great, final, “epic” battle that will take place in the book of Revelation:

revelation 20:7-10

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

That’s not much of a battle. Satan will make his greatest effort and gather a huge army to try to fight against God’s people, and the entire battle will be over in seconds, when God devours them all with fire.

After that, Satan himself will be thrown into hell, where he will not be in charge as cartoons show. Instead, Satan himself will be tormented day and night for all eternity. Clearly, Satan’s power is practically nothing when compared to God.

d.can assume different forms

We know that Satan has been able to assume different forms. He appeared to Jesus to tempt Him in Matthew chapter four, apparently in the form of a man:

matthew 4:1-3

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

It shouldn’t be surprising that Satan takes different forms. He appeared as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, and apparently as a man or an angel when he came to Jesus. But since Satan is a liar and a deceiver, it should be no surprise that he appears in different forms.

2 corinthians 11:14-15

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

e.unable to do anything apart from God’s allowing

You may be wondering, if Satan is so much less powerful than God, why Satan seems to be so successful at leading people astray and causing trouble. The answer is that God actually uses Satan, like a helpless pawn in a game of chess, to draw people closer to God. There are examples of this in the Bible, as when God hardened Pharaoh;s heart in the book of Exodus, or when God sent an evil spirit to torment King Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). Satan is powerless to do anything, just as any of us are, unless God allows it.

job 2:3-7

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” 4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” 6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

In this example, Satan could not afflict Job until God gave His permission and allowed him to do it. And while Job’s suffering was terrible, God had a plan for it all. Job came into a closer relationship with God through the suffering that Satan put on him by God’s permission. What’s more, millions of people have been encouraged by Job’s story since then.

Satan thought he was doing evil to harm Job, but God was simply using Satan to accomplish God’s own purposes.

f.simple to resist

james 4:7

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

See? If we submit ourselves to God and obey Him, we will be resisting the devil, and Satan will flee, or run away from us! That’s pretty simple! It’s not our job to fight Satan. If we walk closely with God, Satan will flee from us!

3.is there any good left in satan?

No. Satan is beyond redemption. His end has already been written, and his fate is sealed. As a fallen angel, it is apparent that Satan and all the other angels had an opportunity to choose whether to serve God or whether to rebel. Satan, and apparently a third of the angels, chose to rebel and were cast out of Heaven to the earth. Now, the time for the angels to choose or change their minds has passed, just as it will for all humans someday. There is no longer any chance for Satan or his demons to be redeemed.

a.what should our attitude be toward satan?

Satan is evil and is the enemy of God. Although Jesus told us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), He was referring to human beings who still have a chance to be brought to Christ. By loving our human enemies, we have a chance to lead them to Jesus.

Since Satan cannot be redeemed, then loving him cannot help him and in fact will hurt us. Therefore, we are not to love Satan. In fact, since he is evil and the enemy of God, we are to hate him.

romans 12:9

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

b.beware of satan, but don’t focus on him

It is true that we should be alert and watchful so that Satan cannot lead us into sin...

1 peter 5:8

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

But we should not really give too much thought to Satan. He cannot “make” us do anything. When we sin, it is not because Satan made us do it or even because Satan tempted us. When we sin, it’s really because of our own sinful desires.

james 1:14-15

...but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

4.conclusion

While Satan may be powerful, he is powerless against God. If you are a believer in Christ, then you are possessed by the Holy Spirit, who lives in you, and neither Satan nor any demons can possess you. And while Satan and his demons can fight against you, they are no match for the Holy Spirit living in you. And so, there is no need to worry about or fear Satan.

If we will live our lives for Jesus Christ, with His Holy Spirit living in us, Satan will flee from us. That doesn’t sound so scary!