Spiritual Warfare - Lesson 14

Dr. Gerry Breshears
Spiritual Warfare
th251-14
The Fall of Satan
Lesson Transcript

I've been talking about the fall of Satan, which I suggest in one sense happens pre-history, and I want to take that and just run that through a bit of scripture with you and see where I come this, because there's nothing at all in Genesis account, anywhere, that talks about anything about the fall of Satan, or anything like that. The serpent shows up and he's already there, and he's already, I would say, a bad guy, because he's trying to undercut the goodness of God and that's a fundamental thing that the demons do, try to say God is not good. That's their primary thing, they want to question the compassion and grace of God. There are a couple of places in the Old Testament that do talk about something like that, and if I look at Isaiah 14, for example, 13-14 are Isaiah speaking to Babylon and speaking destruction to them.

He talks about bringing the... "The Lord will have compassion on Jacob," that's Isaiah 14:1, and talks about him bringing them home, "And one day the Lord will relieve your suffering and turmoil from the harsh labor forced on you. We'll take up this taunt against the king of Babylon." It's got this taunt, to think, on the king of Babylon. Verse nine, "To the realm of the dead below us, all sure to meet you at your coming. It rouses the spirits and the departed to greet you and all those who are leaders in the world, it makes them rise from the thrones, and all those who are kings of the nation, they'll respond and they'll say to you, 'You have also become weak as we are, you have become like us. All your pomp has been brought down,'" all that sort of thing. That's a taunt against the king of Babylon. Then it seems to change a lot at verse 12, and then, "How you've fallen from heaven, Morningstar, son of the dawn. You've been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations, have said in your heart.

I will ascend to the heavens, I'll raise my throne above the stars of God, I'll sit in throne in the mount of assembly, the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will send to the top of the clouds. I'll make myself like the most high, but you are brought down to the realm of dead to the depths of the pit," and it goes on from there. It seems that, embedded in this taunt against the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, it seems that there's something else there that's more than the king of Babylon, because when it talks about, "How you've fallen from heaven, Morningstar, son of the dawn. How you've been cast down to the earth," that would not be true of even a man of the incredible arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar. The rest of that seems to fit a human king, but verses 12 through 15 seems to be a different kind of thing.

One of the enigmas about Satan is that we don't know his name. Satan is a title, it's "The accuser." "Devil" is a title, "Deceiver." In the various things that are done, they're all titles and not names. Now, we know the name of evil gods, evil spiritual beings, and we've got quite a few of them. Baal and Ashtoreth were primary ones, Artemis and Ephesus, and so on, Chemosh, and such. For the number one guy, we don't have a name, it's just a title. Now, some would say in this passage, Isaiah 14, is where we have a name and, if you look in King James, it's going to say there in verse 12, it's going to say, "How thou art falling from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning." They'd say, "Lucifer is his name," but it literally means "Morning star," the Hebrew there. It's Venus rising early in the morning and, interestingly, the same title is used of Jesus in Revelation 22.

He is called "A bright and morning star." I don't think this is the name of Satan, but it's a description that's applied to him. I think we don't know his name and, of course, ask, "Why not?" My take is for the same reason we don't know the Pharaoh of Egypt of the Exodus. We do not know the name of the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Now, Moses and the guys absolutely knew his name. He's never mentioned, he's always called "The pharaoh" or "The king," and I think the thing is you don't use his name, may it ever be forgotten, because he's a bad guy. I think the same thing is true of The Accuser, The Satan, or The Devil, is use a title, not a name. Now some would say, "This means that there's no such real person, it's just a personification." Remember Jesus the Christ, "The Christ" is a title that often gets used as a name.

Titles can be used as a name. "God" is a title, it's a description of spiritual being and that can be a name of Yahweh used as a name, but I think it's deliberate that we never use of Satan. I mean, use the title of Satan, but not the name of Satan, because he's a bad guy and may his name never be spoken in the realm of the kings of light. I think that's what's happening. There's something weird happening Isaiah 14, with this one who has fallen from heaven, cast down the earth. If you look in Ezekiel 28, I find a very similar thing, except here it's a prophecy against the king of Tyre. "Send the king, ruler of Tyre. This is what the sovereign Lord says. In the pride of your heart, you say, 'I'm a God, I sit on the throne of God in the heart of the sea,' but you're a mere mortal, you're not a God. Though you think you're as wise as a God. Are you wiser than Daniel? Is there no secret hidden from you?"

It comes along with this mocking, "You're not nearly as hot as you think you are," and it goes on. It comes down a little bit further in verse 11, the word of God, "Lord came to me. Son of man, take up a limit concerning the king of Tyre and say to him, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says.'" Again, it seemed to be a different level of things. The first to the human king of Tyre, which of course, is a major city in ancient world, it's a port city, still a big city today, significant city today, but here is, "You are the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and beauty. You were Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you and names them. Your settings and mountains were made of gold and the day you were created, they were prepared. You're anointed as a guardian cherub for a soul I ordained you.

You were on the holy mountain of God, you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created to wickedness is found in you, though your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned," and so on. "Your heart became proud, so I threw you to earth. I made a spectacle of you before the kings by your many sins and dishonest trade," and it comes back to talking about Tyre. Who is this guardian cherub that was on the mountain of God, Eden? My friend, Ralph Alexander, who wrote a commentary on Ezekiel argues that this garden of God is the temple garden that would be in a city like Tyre that had this beautiful place where they'd have the idols, and such. The garden of God would the place of worship of the God of the city. That could be, but I find myself reading this and saying, "No, it's more than that. This description, 'Blameless in all your ways,' that kind of stuff, does not fit who has fallen.

I don't think you'd ever call the king of Tyre blameless and then become sinful, it seems to be too much. I am with many commentators and say Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 talks about a fall, but the question is it's the king of Babylon, and that's Marduk. The king of Tire, I don't know his name, but there would be a God of Tyre, like there's a God of Zidonians and God of which of each up the way. Ashtoreth is the God of Zidonians, which is just a few miles up the Lebanese coast as we see it today. I'm not sure this is talking about Satan himself, the chief enemy, but it may be talking to some cohorts with him and this guardian cherub in Ezekiel 28, an idea is cherubs carried the throne of God in Ezekiel, because they show up at another place in Ezekiel carrying the God mobile, the mobile throne, and the suggestion is this throne carrying cherub, instead of carrying the throne, which would be a huge honor, wants to be on the throne. These are all just speculations, but it's one of those.

Ponder, ponder a lot. Don't take it too seriously, except this does both, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, seem to talk about angelic beings who sinned and were demoted, if you will. I think this is what happens in the pre Genesis 1:1 heavenly rebellion, where some of these angels decide they want to be in charge. In the New Testament we find some similar stuff. Luke 10, Jesus sends out the 72, "Two by two to every place where He is to go. The harvest has plenty of workers, if you ask the Lord to harvest, therefore, to send out... He said, 'Don't take a purse or bag or sandals, don't greet anyone on the road,'" and He gives him some specific instructions and He tells him to heal the sick who are there and tell them the king to come near, and all that sort of stuff.

There's a lot of stuff I'm not going to go through here, it's a powerful passage, "Who listen to you, listens to me, and so on," but then the 72 return. This is Luke 10:17. In this return, the account they give is amazing. "They returned with joy and said, 'Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name,'" and that's my point of interest in this point. They are able to kick demons out in the same way Jesus have been kicking demons out and they're astounded, because nobody could do this except now they can. Then Jesus' reply is this, "I saw Satan falling like lightning from Heaven."

What is he saying here? Then he goes on and he says, "Don't get so excited that spirits submit. You get excited your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life and Heaven," and He goes on and prays for them. "I saw Satan fall like a lightning from Heaven." What is that about? What is that about? I think what's the fall from Heaven here is a fall from Heavenly authority. If I take this and compare it back to Zechariah 3... Yeah, we're doing a lot of Bible stuff here. Zechariah chapter three is another picture of Satan, so, "He showed me Joshua." Zechariah 3, "He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord," and [inaudible 00:12:13], the angel Lord, I would say, is the second person of Trinity who will become incarnated to Jesus, "His high priest is standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.

The Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who's chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not man a burning stick stacked on the fire?' Joshua dressed in filthy clothes. The angel said to those who are standing here, 'Take off your filthy clothes,' and said to Joshua, 'See, I have taken away your sin and put on,'" this sort of thing. This is what Satan is doing, he's in the heavenlies accusing people of sin, according to Zechariah, and I think what Jesus is saying here in Luke 10, "I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven," I think what he's saying here is not the pre-Genesis 1:1 fall. He's saying that the nations that were turned over to spiritual beings, Genesis 11, Deuteronomy 32, that that authority to accuse has been broken. That authority to say, "You belong to me, because of your sin," has been broken.

That's what's referred to in Colossians 2 when He talked about, "The charge against has been canceled." The sin is taken away, nailed to the cross, and the demons have been disarmed, because of the triumph of the cross. I think that's what he's saying here, that in the crucifixion, resurrection, exaltation of Jesus is the breaking of Satan's domination over the nations and his right to accuse before God. That's what he's doing, I think. It's an enigmatic passage and a bit difficult to follow through, but I think that's what he's saying. It's not saying that this is the pre-fall Genesis 1, I think this is happening in the work of Jesus when he sends disciples out, "With authority, cast out demons," something we never see in the Old Testament. This is a New Testament thing and I think what he's saying here is, "You now have that authority," and that's why the Mark 9 thing is so enigmatic, because they can't cast the demon out of the boy.

As I've said already, I think they don't have the confidence or the competence to do it, especially the confidence, but this enigmatic thing, when they go into this mission all over the world there, "Lord, even the demons submit to us. Whoa, demon-chaser I'm putting on my business card." No, no, no. Put "Saved by Jesus' grace" or something, "On the mission of Jesus," on your business card, but, "I saw Satan fall like lightning." I think that's the messianic breaking of the authority that Satan has, I think he had that authority, because of what happened in Genesis 11, when God turns the nations over to spiritual beings, Deuteronomy 32. What other passage? We look at this, Revelation 12. Talk about strange stories. I'm going to just completely skip the first eight verses. First six verses, I'll refer you here to Mike Heiser in his Naked Bible podcast.

He went through the book of Revelation back before he died and went through that with a lot of detail, and then he cleaned it up and publishes a book on the Revelation Viewed from the Old Testament, something like that. He goes through and using Old Testament, inter-testamental literature, gives the reasons for all these different symbols and what the meaning is behind them. It's an interesting study. I've worked through it a bit, but I haven't the competence to understand it, much less analyze it. I can understand it, but I can't analyze it, but he gives reason for all these kinds of things. It's very clearly, "The woman who gives birth to a son, a male child." He's talking about Israel giving birth to Messiah, and Satan is there ready to kill Him.

Verse seven, "A war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was not strong enough, so they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down," and then it identifies this dragon is the ancient serpent called "The Devil" or "Satan" who leads the whole world astray. I think this is the only place in scripture where the Genesis 3 serpent is identified as The Devil or Satan, the arch enemy of the things of God, but I think that's what it's doing. It says he was hurled down to the Earth and his angels with him. I think this is very similar to the Luke 10, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven," which is the breaking of that authority. "The nations have been turned over to spiritual beings and the ultimate one is Satan," and what he's saying is that authority they have is done.

Then you get a song of praise, "Now come the salvation, the power of the kingdom of our God, 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." Accusing is what we saw in Zechariah 3, where he is accusing Joshua the high priest and he's saying that is overdone. Then it has what, I think, is the theme verse of Revelation. "They," that is the people of Messiah, "Triumphed over him and we triumph over Satan by three things, the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love the lives so much as it shrinks from death." That's our primary weapons, I'm going to suggest, the conquering victory of Jesus, it disarms of powers. Our testimony is Jesus is the Messiah, Satan is not, and that He has authority and we have authority in him and we will not compromise even if our life is on the line. I think that's the heart of Revelation.

There he says, "Rejoice you, Heavens, those who dwell on Him, but woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He's filled with fury, because he knows his time is short," and then it talks about the battle, "The dragon saw he'd been hurled to earth, he pursued the woman who'd given birth to a male child," and you get all this stuff going on, that the woman is protected. The woman here probably is Israel. A lot of debate about exactly what it is, but you see in verse 17, "Then the dragon enraged at the woman went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus." What this is saying, I think, is that back in Genesis 11, Deuteronomy 32, the nations have been given over to spiritual beings, chief of which is Satan, the devil, and he has authority to entrap them, accuse them, and he's at war with Israel as well.

Of course, they play in his hands. What was happening in the crucifixion of Jesus is that has been overdone and that authority has been broken. He no longer can trap us in his ways and we are now at the spot where we are freed from his authority, but not from his attack. We are freed from his authority, we are not freed from his attack, because he's at war with Messiah and his offspring. This actually goes back to Genesis 3, "I'll create in between your offspring and her offspring." That's us, we are the offspring of Messiah. He's at war with the rest of the offspring, those who keep his commands and hold fast the testimony of Jesus.

That's that spiritual war that we're talking about, that we're involved in here. Again, I think the heart of what's happening in Luke 10 and Revelation 12 is what happened at the Jesus event, the cross, resurrection, and exaltation. That freedom we have is where we stand now, where we're not under the authority of anymore. We have the authority of the demons, they do not have authority over us, but they will attack us and attack viciously sometimes. That's what we're doing. We're going to talk more about this, but this is a packed lesson about the fall of Satan and then the breaking of his authority through the work of Messiah Jesus, which is foundational to the work that we're called to do.

In Revelation. It says that Satan knows his time is short and, earlier, I think you had talked about how Satan thinks he's going to win. How do you put those two together?

Okay, we'll unpack this now a little bit further, but I think this is akin to World War II, when the allies invaded at Normandy and Russia attacked from the east, when the allied armies from the west established the beachhead at Normandy and captured the port there at... I forget where it is, on the [foreign language 00:21:29] Peninsula. At that point, early June 1944, there was no possibility that Hitler would win. He knew his time was short, but he thought he was going to win and he had to maximize the opportunity to win, so up until the middle of April 1945, Hitler was convinced he was going to win. I think Satan is in the same spot, he thinks if he pushes quickly, he can win, but it's got to be a decisive attack and he's got to be all-out battle, because the opportunity is short. I don't think he believes he's going to lose, I don't think he believes it. I don't think 1 Corinthians 2 indicates that, had the powers understood the reality, they would not have crucified Jesus.

They thought they were going to kill him, "Yes!" And what they found is, in killing him, they stabbed the knife in themselves. That's the thing, that's the mystery. I really think Satan believes he's going to win. In one level, to look at another level, he does win for a lot of people, because a lot of people are still in the dominion of darkness and will be in Hell.

When it says the time is short, he knows that there's a decisive event coming and he has to act before that time to secure his victory.

The enemy has invaded, "Son of God, what do you have to do with us?" Sort of thing. The invasion is on, the time is at hand, "Okay, forces come together. We've got to counter-attack and counter-attack hard," I think that's what it's saying, but I really think he thinks he's going to win.