Know Your Enemy

If I’m A Soldier, Where’s the War?—Part 3

It would appear that one of the best strategies in wartime is to “know your enemy.” It works in football as teams watch video of other teams playing before they face them in a game. It happens in wrestling and martial arts where competitors study the strategy and moves of their opponent so they know what to expect, how to counter and overcome them. 

I remember the classic movie Patton. In one scene, after defeating Nazi Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s troops in the North African desert during World War II, General George Patton shouted to his enemy, “I read your book!” That is, Patton took the time to study his opponent’s wiles and ways, and as a result, knew how to defeat him. 

The same holds true in our spiritual warfare: we must know our enemy, opponent and adversary! In the previous articles in this series, I said that one of the four conclusions we could draw from the Scriptures in Ephesians and 1 Peter is that there is an enemy—Satan.

In describing Satan, we must understand that he is not God, nor is he God-like. Satan is not omniscient; he is not omnipresent; he is not omnipotent. Satan is limited; he is finite. He was given many titles that describe his character or being, but he has only one name. His name is Lucifer, but his titles and descriptions are many: Satan, serpent, devil, dragon, angel of the morning, father of lies, anointed cherub, angel of light, and more.

If these titles were given in order to better describe his character and being, then it would help us to understand some of these titles better. For instance, the two that are most familiar are Satan and Devil, but few know what these titles (not names) really mean. So, let’s take a look. Satan means “adversary, opponent or enemy”, and devil means “accuser”.

In other words, Lucifer is probably best recognized as an “opponent” of God and every person called of God to be a part of Him. He will oppose God’s will in creation, which means he will oppose us, since God’s purpose in creation is to “prepare a people for Himself.”

But Lucifer is also well known as the “devil”, that is, the “accuser”. In his efforts to oppose God’s will and purpose, he will attempt to destroy God’s work in man by “accusing” us of all our wrongs and sins and thereby making us noticeably and remarkably unfit for the Kingdom of God.  This understanding is clearly shown in such Scriptures as: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ:  for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10).

“Well,” you might say, “our opponent, Satan, will be before God spending much of his time accusing us of all our sin, but how can he if he is not omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent? How can he know what we have been involved in? How can he tempt and harass me, especially when there are so many other people in the world at the same time? He can’t be watching all of us at the same time can he?” These are good questions and can be understood as we learn more about the background of Satan.

Lucifer’s Background
We find that Satan has other beings that work with him. Revelation 12:4 describes a time when Satan rebelled against God, and one-third of the angels followed him. The Scripture indicates that when this rebellion occurred, Lucifer “became” a satan (an adversary or opponent) and the other rebellious angels became known as demons.

Lucifer’s background is better described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. These passages describe him before and during his rebellion. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, which weakened the nations! For you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14).

The passage in Ezekiel is often seen as a double reference. That is, while it is given to a man on earth, much of it appears to apply only to Satan, for only an angelic being meets the characteristics described here. “Thus says the Lord God; ‘You seal up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering…the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so:  you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you…. I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness’” (Ezekiel: 28:12-17).

Satan rebelled against God because he wanted to be like God. His pride was lifted up because of his beauty and wisdom. I find it interesting that there is no Scripture to say that Satan became ugly and dumb when he rebelled. There is no reason to believe that he is not still beautiful and wise. He was merely pictured this way in ancient and medieval art when the common man received most of his religious teaching from art because the study of the Scriptures themselves was reserved for the priests. The artists depicted Satan and demons as ugly to let the commoners know they were evil.

If you have questions at this point, then, you’re right on schedule. Tune in to the next issue when we discuss where the demons came from and what they do, and how Satan can know so much about us if he isn’t omniscient.

Gerald Robison is co-founder of UnveilinGLORY, a seminar and resource ministry dedicated to unveiling the glory of God in all areas of life and taking it to all peoples of the world. UnveilinGLORY is best known for the book and seminar Cat and Dog Theology. Gerald has pastored churches in the US, Australia, and the Netherlands, and he continues to lead national seminars for “Walk Thru the Bible” Ministries.