What Was Satan Thinking? Luke 4:3-13

When Satan rebelled against God, in Heaven!, who he saw every moment, desiring to be worshipped himself, how did he think he could ever win? Surely he saw what we long to—the perfect essence of God, His absolute power, knowledge, and love. God was revealed, and no one could possibly think that He could be overthrown. Right? And yet Satan must have thought there was a way. So I just pulled on that thread a bit....

Remember our story. We know it by the opening scenes. God creates Heaven, and then fills it with warriors—terrifyingly powerful angels. This is no date movie, no kids' cartoon. It's a war movie, from the start. Why is God's first creation warrior and a barracks for them (Heaven)? What implications did these created angels take from that? What role did they figure they had? Who was their enemy they were made to war after? What does their "Bible" say, if they have one?

I first wonder what God had revealed about events, about Earth, and people, that it would come under evil control and require rescue? Was there some reason that Satan believed that he could become that evil controller of Earth and its people?

I wonder these things because of Luke 4 when Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tested and to fast, and near the end, Satan appears in order to tempt Him. "The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

    And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time."  (ESV)

How could Satan possibly have imagined that Jesus might yield and worship him? Something had to be at stake. For Satan to have had any hope that this plan could work, something had to hang in the balance, something at risk, a deal to be made. What could make it work? What would be so valuable that Jesus might give in and worship Satan, His own creation?

Satan had been given authority over the Earth and its people, and he held them captive, in bondage, enslaved to darkness and separated from God (which he caused!). So here it is: Would Jesus trade the freedom of His beloved people by worshipping the betrayer? That had to be the deal that Satan hoped to strike, to trade the freedom of people for worship. We parents know that we would trade anything to secure the safety of our kids, even ourselves. So of course, Satan knew that Jesus would trade to rescue His people.

What Satan couldn't see was that God had another plan! And the enemy's defeat began right there, in that moment when Jesus walked away. And indeed, Jesus did do what any parent would do, traded His own life to rescue His kids.

This gives me pause, for if even a little bit of this is true, then Satan is far smarter and more crafty than we'd ever imagined. The sheer audacity and brilliance of this plan cannot go unnoticed, even though it failed. It's much like watching a movie where the evil mastermind (who is indeed both evil incarnate and a mastermind of masterminds!) is a formidable foe with many resources, intent on setting off a nuclear device to destroy the Earth. Only at the last possible moment does the Hero manage to deter the plan and defeat the evil mastermind. In a way that the mastermind never imagined...by sheer willpower, goodness, and a knowledge beyond anything the mastermind could know, and sometimes even a willingness for self-sacrifice that the mastermind would never expect.

That's our story. We've been rescued, redeemed, from the hand of an evil mastermind by One who is ever greater. Of course, the mastermind still roams, seeking to devour all of us who claim to be Jesus' offspring. And He is dangerous, make no mistake. But our savior is even more dangerous! And on our side. And He sacrificed Himself for us, to set us free.

The Battle for our Identity—Genesis 28 ( Part 2)

Enter God. Up until now, the entire story of Jacob, who will become father of the 12 tribes of Israel!, nor his father or family, has been told without a single mention of God. Perhaps you find that odd, as I do. But how much of life is engaged on our own, without even a single glance to The One who gave that life, understands it, knows where it leads, and knows how to head off the problems sure to come? Now, without any invitation, but at a time when Jacob's soul was at its lowest point, when he's all alone with a broken past and uncertain future: (v. 11-16 ESV) Jacob came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 

Imagine for a moment. You've blown up your life, maybe walked away from your wife and kids, or job, or ministry, maybe you've been in prison, bankrupt, lost your drivers license. Maybe you've lost a spouse, or been told a dire diagnosis. And you're alone, trapped in whatever small world you have left, so despairing that you don't even cry out to God anymore for fear that even He won't listen! Until you hear, “I am the Lord..." 

We are so undeserving. The grace of God is beyond understanding. And when it falls on us, we are overwhelmed, or should be. This young man, Jacob, so desperate for a blessing just a few days ago that he connives a way to steal it, now receives a REAL blessing from THE ONE who can give it, and who gives it freely and without condition. God does not show up on the scene and say, "Well, son. I've been watching you, and you're a real mess, and I don't have much hope for you. BUT, IF you would do x and y and z, then I will pour open my storehouses..." No, you won't find that passage in the Bible. What you find is written above:  "The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” It's pretty amazing stuff when you see the circumstances, who Jacob is, where he is...But God! The God who redeems, restores, heals, frees, and who promises abundant life.


The good news is that Jacob isn't totally clueless. He recognizes that God has appeared, out of nowhere. What follows so clearly shows the difference between us and God. (v 20-21) Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God." Compare this to what God had said to him. Do you see a difference? Notice the first word of Jacob's prayer to God. If. If you will do x and y and z, then....Now before we're too rough on Jacob, haven't we all prayed prayers like this? We don't know God, we sure don't love God, and especially we don't trust God! So we put Him to the test with some conditions. We figure that if He does show up and do what we expect, then maybe He's worthy of our attention. Pathetic, yes, but He's heard it millions of times! And notice what isn't here in Scripture: (time for the 'read what isn't in there' lesson) God does not speak again, "Nope, try again. No good." This may be heretical, but it seems that God receives whatever we are able to give Him. Another example is Jesus and John on the beach in John 21 where English translators mangle it, for Spanish and Greek have it, so why can't we? But when Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him twice, and twice Peter responds that he likes Jesus an awful lot...the third time, Jesus then asks, "Do you even like me very much?" (Or something very close to that.) Jesus accepts what Peter is able to give, and not force it.

What does this all have to do with the Battle for our Identity? There's one more part to come. Already we begin to see something here though: Things are not what they seem. Jacob had a pretty good idea of who he was, or so he thought. But when God shows up, everything changes. Deceivers are blessed, prisoners are set free, blind see, the hopeless given hope.

Your Father's Heart (Part 1)—Gen 1-3

Many of us have grown up Biblically believing that since the story is all about God, then we don't matter. The enemy deepens the wound by telling us that God doesn't care, and good, but mistaken, church teachers convince us that our hearts remain wicked and deceitful. Even after God moves in. Imagine. (If God lives in our hearts, what does it say about them? Can God live in a wicked, dark, place?) So let's take a look at God's heart towards us in two parts, the first in Genesis, the second in a story you've memorized you've heard it so many times. But we'll twist it a bit to see it more clearly.

In Gen 1:26-28: "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness". . .

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them." (ESV)

Allow that to sink in a moment. We've read it and heard it so often that it just flows right out of us without landing in us.  We were made in His image. Now, describe God. Go ahead, you have 100,000 words. Will it be enough? For me, to keep it simple, can we call His image Glory? He is glorious, and we're made to be glorious as well. 2 Cor. 3:18 says that we're indeed being transformed day by day back into that glorious image. (Paraphrased) So we start out in His image, and we're being transformed back into it by His work now, even before we get to Heaven.

Now, what happens next? Gen. 2:8-15: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.  And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 

Now, let me ask you, "Does it sound like God is holding out on us in any way?" Or does it sound more like He's pouring it ALL in? It truly is lush, a paradise, and He puts Adam in it. Your Father is NOT holding out. And if in some way it did seem like He was, in the next few verses He gives Adam the freedom to eat whatever he wants except for one tree, and then proceeds to make a woman for him! Adam and God play 'create and name' with the animals. God is there. It is intimate, it is paradise.

But the story takes the bad turn, which we know too well—sin. And from then on, we stand guilty, condemned. Adam sums it well in 3:10: "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” And we've been afraid, ashamed, and hiding ever since. But how does God react? Does He come in anger? Does He slay His own creations? Does He condemn? He condemns the serpent. And He does curse the ground (not Adam!) and takes some of the joy from childbirth (yet does NOT curse Eve). But how does God really feel?

Gen 3:21-24: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Doesn't this sound more protective and caring than condemning? When your young child ruins something, and is injured, what do you do? You care for them, you try and fix the wounds, you cover them, and you make a new rule: Thou shalt not do whatever you just did! Which is what God does. He covers them with the skin of one of His creation, and then protects them by removing them far from the other tree, the Tree of Life, because even God could not suffer the consequence of their eating from that now. What was the Tree of Life? The other tree. One that they could eat from. And had they eaten from it first, we would have been eternally glorified and clean. But after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and now being sin-stained, eating from the Tree of Life would mean eternal condemnation in the fallen state. Unthinkable! So just as you might sell the house next to the interstate after your child wandered near it, God closed off the garden so that no man would return, until Revelation 22:2 where it reappears.

Again, what is your Father's heart toward you? Do you see it differently now? On to Part 2.