The War We Wage - Part 1!!!
The Beginnings!!!
Warfare is physically hard, nasty, dirty work…it is traumatic and violent…and it’s deadly. Throughout every generation of human history we have fought against each other. In many ways warfare is the failure of humans to effectively love each other - or rather their inability to share God’s love for each other. That said, there are times that going to war against evil regimes, to protect the innocent or the weak, or to defend a nation.
While physical warfare is one aspect that we face as human civilisations, spiritual warfare has been there from before the world was even formed by God.
In this series we will explore where and when the war started, who our spiritual enemy is, and how we are to fight the battles that we will face, and what our weapons are in those battles.
From the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis all the way to the final words of the book of Revelation, spiritual warfare is a common and often underlying theme. It is a form of warfare that occurs both on the heavenly realms and here on Earth.
The act of ‘Creation’ by God, shown in Genesis 1 is an act of divine authority and power. There is no other being that can do that from nothing like God did. We know that Jesus was part of that creative event from what is told to us by the Apostle John in John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
In Genesis 1:26-28, God not only creates humanity in His own image, but also gives humanity the mandate to rule over and manage Earth for Him - “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’”
Even the angels in all their majestic beauty and strangeness were not created in the image of God. Yet, humanity was. God is triune in nature and character - thus forming the Godhead Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Thus, humanity reflects this - we are: Mind, Body & Spirit.
Satan hates the fact that we are beautifully and wonderfully made in God’s image. In all his rage and rebellion against God, Satan started a war against God’s creation - especially us humans.
Then comes our mandate to rule over creation, even though we are part of creation. This is another aspect of humanity that Satan despises. He wants to rule over the Earth, and everything in it, and if he can’t then he will destroy it.
Thus the war began in the heavens and moved to Earth…
There are several scriptures, that talk about the fall of Satan - which in the Hebrew language means ‘the Adversary’ - and they speak of a being that was created to have a special role and place in the heavenly realms. A role that included being a guardian angel, and being present on the mountain of God (which means near the throne room).
Ezekiel 28:11-19, is one such passage, and within it are some key statements about Satan, his role prior to his fall, the reasons for his fall and the consequences of his disobedience. These include:
“You were the seal of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” - verse 12. This shows us that Satan was already everything a being could be, yet he chose to rebel and to defy God (as we will see shortly).
“You were in Eden the garden of God…” - verse 13. This is one verse that gets overlooked by many pastors, preachers and teachers of the word…Satan fell after creation, and after Adam and Eve were in Eden. Satan, in his perfection, wisdom and beauty was already present in Eden, and saw the relationship Adam and Eve had with Yahweh (God) from the very beginning.
“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.” - verse 14. A guardian cherub (or Cherubim in Hebrew) isn’t some chubby baby looking angel - rather they were fierce, strong, intimidating and warriors. They have a place in the very presence of God, they were allowed to be right there with God as his personal bodyguard.
“You were blameless in your way from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.” - verse 15 - but what was that wickedness? Verse 17 answers that by stating, “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour.” So we see that vanity and pride are two of the ‘sins’ that Satan let fester in his heart.
Now in Isaiah 14:12-15 we see a different viewpoint of the fall of Satan. It speaks of the heights of his self-deception and delusions of grandeur, when it states, “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!
You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.”
These verse speak of a banishment. A banishment from being able to permanently exist alongside the very presence of God in the heavenly realms.
It is a banishment that even Jesus refers to when in Luke 10:17 he informs his disciples that… “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
These verses also speak of the distinct pride and vanity that Satan held in his heart to think that he could not only be like Yahweh (God), but be higher than Yahweh (God) - to be a god himself, and object of worship.
This is the same line that he ends up feeding Eve.
But the very interesting part of Isaiah’s prophesy is that there will be a day when God will punish Satan’s actions and he will be brought down to the depth and banished to a place of torment.
So we can see that the war started on two fronts - the first was in the heavenly realms where Satan let his pride take over and he wanted to be like God. The second was here on Earth, where he was present in the Garden of Eden and put his plan to corrupt Yahweh’s perfect creation into action.
What these verses also show us is that God must have given ‘free will’ to the angelic beings and heavenly hosts, as well as humanity - because Satan (Lucifer) chose to defy Yahweh (God) and to push his own agenda. And it is this concept of ‘Free Will’ that will play an important role in the path that humanity takes for the next several thousand years.
Thus the stage was set for his evil works to begin in the Garden of Eden…which we will explore in Part 2 of this series entitled “Lies From a Forked Tongue”.