The Fall of Lucifer

Have you ever heard the expression, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”? It means that if you have enemies, you shouldn’t necessarily try to avoid them, but instead, get to know more about them. That way, you can better understand how and when they might attack you.

Hopefully, you don’t have anyone in your life you consider an enemy. Sure, we all have people we don’t see eye to eye with but, generally speaking, most of us don’t have someone like the Joker or the Riddler trying to track us down in our secret lair and destroy us.

Or do we?

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan the devil is very much our enemy.

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying you should become friends with Satan. Far from it. However, in as much as he is indeed our enemy, it would be wise for us to know a little bit about him, so we can be more aware of his attacks.

From Lucifer to Satan

Satan the devil was not always Satan the devil. Before he became Satan, he was Lucifer. Think Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Before he became Vader, Anakin was a good man, until something inside him changed. In speaking of the change that occurred in Lucifer, Ezekiel 28:14-15 says: “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” Iniquity, or sin, was found in Lucifer.

A further study shows that it was specifically pride that was Satan’s downfall: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14).

Lucifer’s desire was to literally and figuratively be above God and be the one to call all the shots, including what is right and what is wrong. Once the motives of Lucifer’s heart became a clearly established pattern of behavior, then he was cast to earth as Jesus described in the book of Luke, and became Satan the devil.

So, if we have a secret sin inside us, does it mean we are going to fall as Lucifer did? Will God curse us and change our name so that we are despised and become the enemy of all mankind as He did with Satan? Not at all. God allows us to seek forgiveness and repent (1 John 1:9).

Satan's goal

We read earlier in 1 Peter 5:8 that destroying humankind is Satan’s general MO (modus operandi or mode of operation), and there are many specific examples in the Bible that bear that out. In Job 1, we read that God was talking to Satan, and Satan was looking to pick a fight of sorts. He wanted to prove that humans only obeyed God out of raw fear in order to earn health and wealth from God. In Job 1:9-11 (New Living Translation), we read: “Satan replied to the Lord, ‘Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!’” Satan’s desire was to break Job’s will to obey God, and thus sever their relationship.

Satan could not elevate himself above God as we read in Isaiah 14. Since that time, he has made it his goal that no man achieve what he could not—become a part of the God family.

Fortunately, Job passed the test. Unfortunately, not everyone has. Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ closest companions, fell to the temptation of material wealth: “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money” (Luke 22:3-5). It says that Satan entered Judas Iscariot. This doesn’t mean that Judas was possessed and had no control over his actions. Rather, it means he succumbed to the temptation that Satan put there: 30 pieces of silver (compare Matthew 26:14-16).

Satan could not elevate himself above God as we read in Isaiah 14. Since that time, he has made it his goal that no man achieve what he could not: become a part of the God family.

Satan's goals

To accomplish his goal of destroying man, Satan has many tools. Using pop-culture references for comparison, think of the Death Star from Star Wars or one of the Joker’s traps for Batman. While there are a lot of “gadgets” Satan uses, it could perhaps be boiled down to three basic ones: temptation, doubt and fear.

Going back to the beginning of the Book, we see that in serpent form, Satan put a rather tantalizing bit of information in front of Eve: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die”’” (Genesis 3:1-3). In just a few words, the one thing that God had said to stay away from was thrown into Eve’s face as a temptation. Satan eagerly served up the quite literal forbidden fruit before Eve in a manner she was unable to resist.

Once the temptation was there, Satan planted seeds of doubt in Eve’s head: “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 3:4-5). There are actually two doubts being planted here: The first is about whether she would live or die. The second is about how God was allegedly “holding back” from Adam and Eve, and not sharing with them the whole story.

From here, things progressed quickly. Fear came over Adam and Eve as they made clothes for the first time and hid from God. Adam began to play the “blame game,” claiming it was Eve’s fault for giving him the forbidden fruit, or possibly even God’s for giving him Eve. Finally, the separation that Satan desired to see came to pass when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

In his effort to try and make us fail, Satan plants temptations and encourages us to have doubts and fears. And while our powerful adversary may seem to have the upper hand in terms of strength, we have a secret weapon of our own!

Our battle

So, what is this secret weapon? We actually read about it right where we began today: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9). The key word here is resist; James, the brother of Christ, put it this way: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Perhaps the most curious detail about Satan the devil is his fate. No matter how many people he may end up deceiving, the end result for him will be the same.

Consider what might have happened if Eve had resisted the initial temptation Satan put before her. If, when tempted, she would have responded by telling the serpent, “I don’t need to eat of that fruit. If I did, God would have told me to.” The sequence of events that followed—doubt, fear and separation from God—would have been broken. Similarly, had Judas resisted the temptation of material wealth, perhaps his fate would have been far different.

That’s not to say that resisting is easy, but it points to a key principle. Satan didn’t try to physically overpower them, or intimidate them with some demonstration of supernatural force. We could never defeat a powerful spirit being like Satan in any sort of physical contest, but with help from God Almighty, we can resist him on this most critical battlefield, our mind.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). The war is not carnal, or physical, but spiritual. It’s for our thoughts. We don’t need to bring Satan into captivity. God will do that in His own time (Revelation 20:1-3). The battle we need to fight is the one to bring our thoughts into captivity. We must make sure they align with God’s Word, and not some other thing that attempts to put itself above God, just as Lucifer tried to do.

Victory!

Perhaps the most curious detail about Satan the devil is his fate. No matter how many people he may end up deceiving, the end result for him will be the same. After a 1,000-year jail sentence, Satan will be released upon the earth for a short time. After that, he will receive his final punishment: “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:7-10). While we cannot say definitively what this lake of fire is, we are told it is a place of torment, and that Satan will be banished there forever.

Lucifer’s fate is a very sad one. He started off with such promise, an angel created by God and given many talents. Unfortunately, he fell into temptation, sinned and became Satan the devil. Let’s be fully aware of our enemy and his tactics, and learn from his mistakes. Resist him and the temptations in life that lead to sin, and we can witness this enemy being soundly defeated once and for all!