Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....November 8, 2021
We continue our teaching series on Spiritual Warfare in the world with....A look at how the war began in heaven.
Spiritual Warfare...How it Started
Have you ever played the game, KING OF THE HILL? Someone’s on top of the hill and you do your best to push them off and then you’re the top dawg. You’re the king of the hill. It’s great when you’re battling to get the king off the hill, because you have a lot of allies. But once you’re the king, you lose those allies. Suddenly, they’ve all turned on you.
Well, we’re starting week 2 of our look at spiritual warfare. Last week was kind of an introduction and today we’re looking at how it all started. Where did evil come from, how did satan get his start? Was he really an angel? Is he a myth? And hopefully more will get answered this morning.
I’m going to give you my thoughts. Now, I’d like to say my thoughts are always 100% correct.
But there is a lot out there that we just don’t know when it comes to satan and the start. There are some scriptures I’ll mention where I disagree with theologians about their meaning.
In the end, I’m not sure it matters. Because we need to know that satan and evil are real; yet, God has given us the resources to combat evil and be victorious. That’s really the most important point I may make. Today may be more of a Bible Study with lots of scripture flowing all over the place than a typical teaching class.
When I think about the beginning of evil, I think about a king of the hill battle. We have God and all of His angels together. Then satan decides he’s not happy with his position and we begin a king of the hill war. satan and his followers, fighting for the top position on the hill or what we might call heaven. We saw that in a passage from last week. If you recall, we looked at Revelation 12, and in that passage we read this . . .
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
9 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.
So, we can see that there was a war in heaven. Not on earth, in heaven. It was a revolt by satan and his gang battling against the archangel Michael and God’s angels. Obviously, we know the story . . . satan lost and was kicked out of heaven.
That’s what scripture tells us in a number of different places. But, we wonder why, how, and when. The where has already been answered. This was a cosmic battle in heaven. It’s a battle we can’t see, and frankly, I don’t believe we can even start to fathom what that looks like.
Let me give you one quick statement, which should be a given, but I’ll say it anyways . . . the Bible is our authority. All I’m trying to do is read the scripture, understand it and help us grow in who Christ is calling us to be. We start and we end with scripture. It’s what they say in Latin sola scriptura . . . which means scripture alone - - scripture is our only authority for faith and practice.
We really don’t know when the angels were created. Were they created before the world was created or after? Yet, I think the book of Job gives us some answers. As God responds to Job and his friends, God said - - -
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? - Job 38:4-7
Most theologians, myself included, believes this passage symbolizes the fact that all angels were created before God laid the foundation of the world. We see that in verse 7 when God tells Job, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy when the foundation was laid.
When satan appeared in Job 1, he appeared before God with the sons of God as well. It’s believed the sons of God are heavenly beings, often referred to as angels. So, with that in mind, I believe the angels, which includes satan were created before the foundation of the world.
Remember, angels are created by God. The good angels are what the evil angels once were. They were all together and there was no fighting in heaven when the world was created. They all got along!
But sometime between the creation of the world, between Genesis 1 and Genesis 3, which we’ll look at in 2 weeks, satan and his angels fell from grace. They didn’t fall, they were pushed out of heaven.
In Hebrew, the word satan in Hebrew is pronounced in a way which means there is always an article before the word, and it means “the adversary or the accuser.” That’s Hebrew. In the Greek, we see 3 words used. Revelation 12:9 reads -
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. - Revelation 12:9
When you hear the word dragon in Revelation, it’s the word drákon = dragon.
When the word devil is used, it’s diábolos = slanderer / false accuser. When satan is used, it’s satanâs (Sata'a) - which means adversary, one who opposes another.
That’s a little background. Now, what happened? There’s a lot of differing opinions regarding the what and how! I’m not going to get into all the details and examine it all during this teaching, but I’ll give you the 2 main schools of thought. I’ll tell you what I think and we’ll keep moving along.
One theory comes from the OT. It comes primarily from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. A little background - Isaiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom during the time the northern kingdom was taken captive by the Assyrians. He was a prophet from around 740 - 680 BC.
In Isaiah 14, Isaiah speaks about the fall of Babylon and Assyria and other regions. In this passage, Isaiah states - -
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.
That sounds like satan’s revolt against God. As if he was trying to be bigger and better and more powerful than God. Then we look at Ezekiel 28, and Ezekiel is a prophet during the southern kingdom’s exile, covering around 590-570 BC.
In Ezekiel 28, we read - - -
12 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering ... On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. - Ezekiel 28
Now, that sounds like a perfect picture of satan. He was created by God, he was in the garden, he had power and authority in heaven, he was blameless . . . until - unrighteousness was found in him.
Many theologians and commentators believe Isaiah and Ezekiel are not only talking about their present times, but also about satan. So, for many people that becomes the how and what of the fall of satan.
It’s believed he wanted power, as he sought to ascend higher than God, higher than the stars. Some believe as the scripture says, he became vain, prideful about his beauty and position.
Apparently, he was able to gain a great number of angels to follow him, which led to their expulsion from heaven, as well. Since that day, satan devotes himself to opposing the work of God in every way possible and seeks to destroy all of the good that God has created.
So, it would seem like a no-brainer to see all of the imagery, but many say “I’m a no brainer.”
That’s a joke. Because I don’t agree with the interpretations of these passages. There’s lots of reasons which I really won’t get into, but the jury is kind of split on this. It’s almost easier to take these passage as is and move on from there. But I don’t see it.
I believe Isaiah and Ezekiel were speaking about current issues and their falls using wonderful poetry and imagery.
We can see the fall of satan and his angels in other NT passages.
As the disciples return from healing people, Luke tells us --
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”
18 And Jesus said to them, “I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven. - Luke 10
As Peter talks about those who are unrepentant of their sin, he stated ---
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; - 2 Peter 2:4
In Jude 6, we read ---
6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day. - Jude 6
John also wrote - - -
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. - Revelation 9:1
So, we see, that satan and his angels, now called demons have been cast out of heaven. It’s believed there were 1/3 of the angels who were cast out. We see that in Revelation 12, when John wrote - --
4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. - Revelation 12:4
The final point for today is maybe a question you’ve thought of personally, as it pertains to our own sin, or to sin in the world . . . The question is - - -
Why did God allow satan and the demons to sin? I mean, why not just destroy them. Kill them all and be done with it. You know, picture a movie, one of my favorites is Braveheart, call on the arch angel William Wallace and away you go.
But that’s not what happened and that may trouble some and even though we really don’t know God’s thinking, as Isaiah 55 tells us - -
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9
We have to understand, really, believe that we can’t put God in a box. God ways are not understandable to us. We can’t always fathom what He’s up to, what the plan is, but that’s where our faith comes in. We trust that there is a good, a better plan ahead of us by God, even when it’s not our plan.
In the end, God doesn’t give us an explanation as to why satan fell. Just as it is with people, there were angels who loved God and sought to worship Him, and some that when given the chance to rebel, took it. We don’t know why God chose to do things this way. All I know is that I trust God’s plan. In His infinite wisdom, He deemed it to be the best way. The Bible makes it clear that God did not tempt the fallen angels to fall, for God doesn’t tempt us to do evil.
Yet, why didn’t God, being omniscient and omnipotent prevent the fall of the angels? Again, the Bible does not tell us God's reasons for doing what He did. But we know people, as well as angels can choose to rebel against God.
Maybe the best way to understand why God allowed the angels to sin and not just destroy them is to understand that if God did, it would send the wrong message to other angels and even us. God would then appear as if He forces His creation, angels and people to obey Him without using our free will. Then we would only come to God because of fear of punishment, not out of a love relationship.
The beauty comes in the words of Jesus in the great passage to Nicodemus in John 3 - -
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. - John 3:16-17
Family, there is spiritual warfare, and hopefully that gives you some background, but always hold onto the hope we have in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That will always be the right and best decision in your life.
NEXT WEEK...We move further into our look at the Spiritual Warfare in the world.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
In keeping with our topic of Spiritual Warfare, lets look further into the prince of darkness.
Satan is very clever in mixing truth with error, so how can we discern the difference between right doctrine and almost right doctrine?
Discernment
Satan is very clever in mixing truth with error, so how can we discern the difference between right doctrine and almost right doctrine? The late Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon said, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It’s knowing the difference between right and almost right.” When a pastor or church has small doctrinal errors that you can see when reading Scripture and you know it’s wrong because of what you’ve read in the Word of God, you should bring this up to the church leadership.
Sometimes it’s more difficult to spot when some of false teachers mix mostly truth with only a tiny bit of error. Of course, changing the gospel in any way makes it another gospel entirely, and really, not the actual gospel itself, so we must have discernment when we listen to or read the teachings of others. Satan is a very clever and deceptive teacher. False apostles and teachers can appear as angels of light, when in reality, they are full of darkness, because their main objective is to grow an audience and fleece or devour the flock.
Truth and Error
The Apostle Peter warned the church that “false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet 2:1). Jesus also warned us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15), and we all know what wolves can do to sheep. These false teachers can and do appear in sheep’s clothing, or as a member of the church, the flock, but “inwardly,” they minds are set on devouring the sheep. A half-truth is a whole lie. As far as teachings go, if it’s new, it’s not from God; if it’s from God, it’s not new!
The Last Days
One of the signs of the last days were that “false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect” (Mark 13:22). They will deceive many, but not the elect, for it’s not possible if they are Christ’s and students of the Bible. The Holy Spirit and the Bible actually helps their discernment, but notice, Jesus is saying it’s not possible for the elect to be deceived, “but for those who believe a lie, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false” (2 Thess 2:11). We must use good discernment today because “in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Pet 2:3).
Test the Spirits
We ought to test every teaching against what the Word of God says, and “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). There are other spirits not of God that are essentially teaching doctrines of demons. The Apostle Paul wrote that “the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). Jude himself was an eyewitness, noticing that “certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). That’s why we too, like Jude, must earnestly contend for the faith that was originally delivered in the Bible through the Apostels and Prophets (Jude 1:3), and in these last days, He has spoken through the Son of God (Heb 1:1-2).
Discerning
Every single one of us has practiced discernment at one time or another in our life. Maybe it was when we were buying a car, or buying or renting a new house or apartment, or even looking for a new pair of shoes. We typically estimate whether something is worth the money or it’s not. We try to discern whether the investment is a good idea or it’s clearly not, so we use certain factors to discern what to do…and we base our decisions upon what we’ve discerned. Discernment can also be an acute judgment based upon whether something is true or not or whether someone is telling the truth or not. If we study the Bible long enough, we should “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph 4:14).
Conclusion
How then can we develop good, biblical discernment? The answer is, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). Hebrews 5:13-14 tells us that “everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil,” so it takes effort in reading and studying the Word of God. Many Christians find that a good study Bible goes a long way in discerning what is right and what is almost right. It can be a very fine line between truth and error, but if error is mixed with the truth, the truth is lost and becomes all error, but God’s Word is always true and that should be the greatest standard of what is right and what is wrong. Being “almost right” is not good enough. That’s why we must contend for the faith once delivered and make sure it’s the whole truth…and nothing but the truth.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
As we continue our look at the Bible, this week....What Do I Do When I Don’t Understand What I’m Reading?
As we saw in the previous two chapters, the Bible can sometimes be confusing or sound contradictory. Nevertheless, there are great riches of wisdom to be found in it, which should motivate us to understand it. Second Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” Even though most of us are not pastors like Timothy was, what Paul told him applies to all of us. God’s Word is true and precious, and therefore it deserves to be handled correctly. But how do we do that?
This chapter is an introduction to a simple but helpful approach to studying the Bible that can produce great results. There are three steps to this method: observation, interpretation, and application. The observation step is where you try to answer the question “What is there to see?” In the interpretation step you ask, “What does it mean?” And finally, in the application step, you try to figure out what difference it makes.
Observation. Most of us wrongly assume that after reading something once, we know what it says. In reality, this isn’t usually the case. Most Bible scholars agree that we must read a particular passage numerous times before we really begin to see what is there to be seen. In other words, the task of observation is not something that is accomplished easily.
We have to read a passage over and over again and look hard for what is there. Think about one of those “Can you find it?” drawings where there are ten objects “hidden” in plain sight. Even though you are looking right at them from the outset, you have to look long and hard to distinguish all ten. That is how Scripture is. There is much to be seen immediately and obviously. Much more can be seen only after looking again and again at the text.
Some of the questions that we need to keep in mind as we observe a passage are as follows: “What are the important words being used?” “What is the genre or literary category of the material—narrative, history, poetry, prophecy?” “What other literary forms are being used—comparison, contrast, question-answer, cause-effect, repetition, emphasis, conditions (if, then)?” “Who is the author and what is known about him?” “Who was the original audience?” “What is the author’s argument or flow of thought?” “Why is the author writing this?” If you are reading a narrative or a story, ask these kinds of questions: “Who are the characters?” “Where and when does this take place?” As you read and reread the passage with these questions in mind, write down what you think are the answers along with other thoughts and observations.
Interpretation.
The goal here is to understand the passage you’re reading as the original audience was intended to understand it. Or to put it in the form of a question, “What did the original author intend to communicate to his original readers?” In the interpretation stage, you should try to verify or modify the tentative answers to the questions that were asked in the observation step.
There are three broad principles of interpretation. First, interpret the text historically. This involves learning everything you can about the time, culture, geography, authors, and audiences of the original setting. This would also include determining the reason and purpose of the text. Why was it written? What did the author hope to accomplish?
Second, with regard to prose (as opposed to poetry) interpret the text grammatically. Try to understand how the passage is structured. What are the important parts of speech—verbs, nouns, pronouns, modifiers, connectives (small, but very important)? How are the sentences ordered? What are the paragraphs or blocks of thought (don’t assume paragraph divisions in English Bibles are best)? What is the author’s flow-of-thought or logic in the passage?
Third, and perhaps most important, interpret the passage contextually. What does a certain word mean within its sentence (most words have multiple meanings depending on their context)? What does a sentence mean within its paragraph? What does a paragraph mean within its chapter? The reason this is so important is because the meaning of the building blocks of literature (words, sentences, paragraphs) is determined by their context. Does that sound familiar??
Much more could and should be said regarding interpretation, but let me just add that there are many very excellent resources available to help with this step: study Bibles, Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, Bible handbooks, commentaries, and more. Take advantage of these.
Application. Although the authors of Scripture were writing for specific people in specific situations, God also intended what they wrote to be for all people of all times and places. So the question to be answered here is “How does this passage apply to me/us now?” This involves three steps: First, identify specific and concrete applications to the original audience. Second, identify the general and more abstract applications that are timeless, universal principles for all people of all times.
A good example is the way Jesus showed the general principles behind the Old Testament law when he said, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37–40). Third, identify specific concrete applications for yourself in your own twenty-first-century situation. To use Jesus’ words as an example, questions of application might be: “What can I do to better love God with my heart? My soul? My mind?” “What can I do to better love others as I love myself?” The more specific and concrete the better the application.
God intended that his Word not only convey important information but also accomplish individual transformation. This cannot happen apart from thoughtful, personal application of Scripture.
We are not left on our own when studying the Bible. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 14:26; 16:13; see also 1 Corinthians 2:12–14). We need to foster a healthy dependence upon the Spirit of God as we seek to truly understand what the Bible has to say.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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