Who Is Satan In The Bible?

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Who Is Satan In The Bible?

Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about Satan. As Christians, we should all be able to answer that question. We have had the Holy Scriptures translated into our language and put in a book we call the Bible for centuries. As followers of Jesus, we should be reading and studying it daily.

Satan is referred to as Satan, the devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, the dragon, and the serpent of old over 100 times in the Bible. Whatever he is called he brings evil everywhere and continues his attack on the children of God. He never turns back from his rebellion.

These are a few of the Scriptures related to Satan’s name.

¹⁵ But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” Luke 11:15 NKJV

“How you are fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!” Isaiah 14:12 NKJV

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1 NKJV

¹³ And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. Mark 1:13 NKJV

The devil is still on this earth

Your Pastor and Sunday school teachers should have taught you about Satan. He is mankind’s number one enemy. The devil is still as active today as he was in the beginning.

He is not some cartoon character with horns and a pointy tail. Just as he tempted Jesus in the desert he tries to deceive all mankind with his lies. He brings hate wherever He goes.

His power is in deception and half-truths. Remember how he tried to tempt Jesus by quoting Scripture to Him? It did not work because Jesus was and is the Word of God and answered Satan with Scripture.

Know your enemy

Jesus tells us this about the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

You need to know your enemy and you need to teach your children about him. Remember that Satan is a deceiver. He will not appear as evil. He will present himself as one who is enlightened and wants to make things better.

We all need to know the Ten Commandments but realize we must be on guard against more subtle sins. Satan will deceive them as he did Eve. He will try to convince us that God’s Word is not true or that we are really not doing wrong.

We all need to remember that the devil is a liar and wants to destroy us.

Satan knows

Satan attacks society with our greatest weaknesses.

The Apostle John warns us about the world.  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ 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. 1 John 2:15-16 NKJV

We cannot serve God if we keep our eyes focused on the world and the things in it. Either we love the world or we love God. We cannot do both.

John lists three key things that seem to drive our world and separate us from God. Each of these things touches our lives: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Three keys

First, the lust of the flesh is yielding to the natural desires we have for food, shelter, water, sex, and comfort. These are God-given blessings. They become sinful when we let them control us and seek them outside of God’s will.

Second, the lust of the eyes is where sin starts. We see something and start thinking about how much we want it. Our desire grows to the point where we will sin to get what we see.

And thirdly, the pride of life which is feeling we are above God’s law. The love of the world begins to drive our actions instead of the love of God. This is how Satan overcomes us. We let our pride control us.

So, where did this enemy of God and us come from?

Now take hold of your seat! God created Satan as He did all things. Wow! Why? Why did God create the devil? We have just said that the devil is evil and seeks to kill and destroy. He is the enemy of God.

So, why did God create this evil force that seeks to kill and destroy all that is good in the world?

This is a natural question for us to ask, but the answer is not what you might think.

God did not create Satan to be evil. He created him as a glorious angel. God created Satan to be beautiful and gave him great knowledge. Satan was intended to serve in Heaven alongside the other angels such as Michael and Gabriel.

God created Satan and us with a holy purpose, but He gave us the right to choose what we do.

Let’s not make the same choice Satan made!

Listen to what is said about Satan.

Ezekiel describes him and his beauty in symbolic terms. The prophet illustrates what a wonderful creature he was in the only way he could, with the beauty of stones.

¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were created.

¹⁴ “You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. Ezekiel 28:13-14

God created a beautiful masterpiece and gave him great powers. Power is meant for doing good. He was created to serve God even as we are.

What happened?

God created Lucifer (day star) and gave him beauty, intelligence, power, and a position in Heaven.

But, Satan wanted more. His sin is the same one that plagues us today. Our pride causes most of our sins. We think that our way is as good or better than God’s Way. Regardless of how many times we see the effects of sin in our lives and the lives of others, we still try our way.

God made us for something better!

Downfall of Pride

Satan was so wonderful that he became impressed with himself. Have you ever known anyone like that? Have you ever been overly impressed with yourself? It is a danger that we all face.

Some wisdom from the Bible is found in Proverbs.

When pride comes, then comes shame;
But with the humble is wisdom.  Proverbs 11:2 NKJV

Satan was impressed with himself and thought that because of his beauty and other gifts from God, he could rise above God.

Pride

Pride is the downfall of many. We were taught and we teach our children to strive to be first. From this teaching, if we are successful, it is easy to start thinking we are better than others and therefore entitled.

There is nothing wrong with seeking to do our best, but being first tends to create a pride issue. Let’s remember this and teach our children to be humble as well as practice humility ourselves.

Satan had this problem. He couldn’t stand being less than the top. So the Scripture says that he fell from Heaven.

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV

Notice Satan’s Five “I wills”

These “I wills” show how he looked at himself. They illustrate his total surrender to his idea of who he was. He believes that he is so powerful that he can rise above his Creator.

He says I will:

1. Ascend into Heaven.
2. Exalt my throne above the stars of God.
3. Sit on the mount of the congregation.
4. Ascend above the heights of the clouds.
5. Be like the Most High.

Unlike the angels Michael and Gabriel, Satan was unwilling to continue as a mighty angel of God. Instead, he wanted to be like God. He even wanted to sit on a throne and have all worship him. To have power over all that God had created.

He was so filled with pride that he thought he could be equal to his Creator, the Most High God.

The devil chose

Satan chose to give up what God had created him for and seek to build a kingdom of his own.

Because of his unrepentant sin, God cast him and those lesser angels that chose to follow Satan out of heaven. These lesser fallen angels are what are referred to as demons.

And yes, demons still exist in our modern day. Today, the church largely ignores them and the great damage they do.

We also have Jesus referring to what happened to Satan,  “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Luke 10:18 There is much more about what happens to him in Revelation. Later, in a follow-up article, we will cover it.

Essential for us

I believe that it is essential to get to know the facts about Satan if we are to avoid his traps. Life is a war between good and evil. When we choose Christ, join His army, and fight for good as God has defined it, people often reject us.

We need to remember what the apostle Paul says, ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

Our Battle

The battle may seem to be with groups promoting evil in our society, but this is not true. Our warfare is with spiritual forces of darkness (Satan’s forces). Good soldiers need to know the enemy and what weapons they will face, as with all wars.

The name “Satan” comes from an English transliteration of a Hebrew word for “adversary.” So the word fits because he is an adversary who opposes everything good that God does for man. He also is our adversary when we try to serve God.

The book of Genesis first portrays Satan as a serpent who works his trade with Eve. 3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Genesis 3:1 NKJV

Satan starts by misquoting God, and Eve gives him an opening by correcting him. She tells him that there is only one tree they are not to eat of in the middle of the garden. They should not eat it because God said they would die if they ate from the tree.

Satan lies

Satan lies to her and tells her that it is not so, and she believes Satan rather than God.

The world today has this same problem. God has told us what is wrong and what will destroy us and Satan says it is not true. Yet look at the world around us and see what sin has done to it. Is it any better today than it was twenty years ago?

Who is Satan? The answer is that he is a liar and one that seeks to destroy you and everyone else. Furthermore, he seeks to destroy all God’s creation.

We will not understand all about Satan until we are with God. We know that God created him, as He did all the angels. His home was Heaven, and he had access to God.

Does Satan have access to God now?

We know that Satan has limited access because of a key passage in Job 1 and 2. In these scriptures, we find Satan in God’s presence. ⁶ Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Job 1:6 NKJV

We do not know if this happens often or rarely. It is simply a fact that he was there and spoke with God.  ⁷ And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

⁸ Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” Job 1:7-8 NKJV

So he once did

These verses tell us that Satan was able to go into the presence of God at least this one time.

However, “Does Satan have access to God?” is not as clear. We know that Satan was there for the Job experience, and it seems that he may still appear before God. His appearance is, of course, as God permits it and only until Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation.

⁷ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, ⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 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. Revelations 12:7-9 NKJV

¹⁰ Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. Revelations 12:10 NKJV

Might note

We might also note that Satan’s access to God is different from those condemned. Jesus gives one description of unbelievers in hell. In Luke 16, Lazarus and a rich man both die. Lazarus goes to “Abraham’s side,” a term used to describe being in God’s presence (where Abraham dwells) while the rich man is in agony.

Abraham told the rich man, God fixed a great chasm between Heaven and Hell.

Instead of wondering if Satan still has access to God, perhaps the more important question is what part he plays in our daily lives.

What can we do?

What can we do about Satan? Our first step is to recognize that there is a God who created all things and set them in order. He gave us rules to live by so we could have a happy and productive life. God also gave us a choice.

The choice God gave us is to follow Him or to follow Satan. We can love God and do what is best for us and the world or we can follow a path of rebellion.

Scripture tells us that “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23.

However, there is still hope for us. Even though sin brings death God has provided a way for us. Scripture also says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 NKJV

Choose

You must choose whom you will follow. God loves you and wants to save you from your sinful nature. We find this key Scripture in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

However, even though God loves you and Jesus died for you, you may still be lost to Satan’s hell.

God lets you choose between His salvation and Satan’s world of lust, greed, hate, and pride. Our Creator will not make you follow Him or accept His salvation.

Who will you follow?