Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Satan – Hebrew for "Adversary; accuser".
Part the First-
As a word it appears 47 times in the Bible.
In I Chronicles it is said that he incited David to take a census. Because of David’s sin he was given a choice between three years of famine, three months of loss to his enemies, or three days of plagues. He chose the last and seventy thousand Israelites died, though it does seem that God was so grieved by the loss that the full plague was not carried out. He gave David the opportunity to build an altar to end the suffering.
Then there comes Job. Here Satan approaches God’s throne and demands that God test Job and interestingly God allows Satan to test him, but only to certain points.
Again in Zechariah God is shown as having authority over Satan and rebukes him.
In the New Testament Jesus rebukes Satan and casts out devils, proving that he is not Satan.
He “enters” Judas.
He wants to ”sift” Simon like wheat, but Jesus prays for him and prevents it.
He fills Ananias’ heart and costs him his life. The death of he and his wife causes great fear in the church.
He tempts us if we separate ourselves from our spouses for too long. He can be used to try brethren in the process of sanctification. Gives us thorns, may stop us from acting on God’s will (though at God’s good pleasure if the Satan of Job is the same one). He has a throne in Pergamum. He will be bound for a thousand years only to be released to attack God’s city. Ultimately he will be cast into a lake of fire to be tormented forever.
So what we have is this cross between the mystical drug dealer who gets us hooked on a particular sin and a supernatural DA who wants nothing but a chance to confront us with that sin and watch us go down for it.
Sometimes God uses him to help us grow and sometimes He just lets Satan have his way. This makes me pretty uncomfortable overall. God has Satan on a sort of leash, or so it seems. ¶
11:57 AM
Part the First-
As a word it appears 47 times in the Bible.
In I Chronicles it is said that he incited David to take a census. Because of David’s sin he was given a choice between three years of famine, three months of loss to his enemies, or three days of plagues. He chose the last and seventy thousand Israelites died, though it does seem that God was so grieved by the loss that the full plague was not carried out. He gave David the opportunity to build an altar to end the suffering.
Then there comes Job. Here Satan approaches God’s throne and demands that God test Job and interestingly God allows Satan to test him, but only to certain points.
Again in Zechariah God is shown as having authority over Satan and rebukes him.
In the New Testament Jesus rebukes Satan and casts out devils, proving that he is not Satan.
He “enters” Judas.
He wants to ”sift” Simon like wheat, but Jesus prays for him and prevents it.
He fills Ananias’ heart and costs him his life. The death of he and his wife causes great fear in the church.
He tempts us if we separate ourselves from our spouses for too long. He can be used to try brethren in the process of sanctification. Gives us thorns, may stop us from acting on God’s will (though at God’s good pleasure if the Satan of Job is the same one). He has a throne in Pergamum. He will be bound for a thousand years only to be released to attack God’s city. Ultimately he will be cast into a lake of fire to be tormented forever.
So what we have is this cross between the mystical drug dealer who gets us hooked on a particular sin and a supernatural DA who wants nothing but a chance to confront us with that sin and watch us go down for it.
Sometimes God uses him to help us grow and sometimes He just lets Satan have his way. This makes me pretty uncomfortable overall. God has Satan on a sort of leash, or so it seems. ¶
11:57 AM
