Iran has exercised a significant threat and influence around the world, far beyond its actual political, economic and military might. The country is a significant military power in its own right. However, much of its influence is indirect through proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and The Houtis. Similarly, Al Qaeda primarily relied on influencing people to carry out attacks through ideological influence rather than organisational connection. I find these examples a helpful way of understanding the devil’s power and influence.
What does the Bible actually say about the Devil or The Satan (Accuser). Well, in Genesis 3, a creature, the serpent shows up in Eden and tempts Adam and Eve into rebellion against God. The serpent isn’t at this point specifically identified as Satan. In fact there is minimal reference to the devil in the Old Testament. The Satan shows up in the book of Job, someone who has access to the Council of God and there argues that he can get Job, a righteous man to curse God. All that he does to provoke Job is only with God’s permission. Also in Zechariah 3 he shows up to accuse but his accusations are rejected by the LORD.
Then there is an interesting prophecy at Ezekiel 28. The prophet is speaking against the King of Tyre and describes him as arrogant, seeking to take up the position of a god when he is just a man. Then Ezekiel compares him to a creature that was in the garden of Eden, beautiful and bejewelled, in fact, a cherubim. However, that creature became proud and so YHWH humbled it, casting it down to the earth. Similarly a prophecy about Babylon in Isaiah 14 uses language of the bright morning star falling. It seems that the prophets are using a big cosmic event to illustrate the arrogance of human kings.
In Luke 10:18, Jesus says that he “saw Satan fall like lightening.” 2 Peter 2:4 also describes angels who sinned. From this, we can, I believe piece the jigsaw pieces together. One of the angelic beings is seen to have fallen, to have rebelled against God and so to have been cast down from Heaven. I am minded to see this as having all taken place in the context of Genesis 3. This angel seems to have seen itself as the pinnacle of creation and so, the creation of man will have been a blow to that pride. Satan’s aim therefore was not so much to do the impossible and dethrone God but rather to dethrone man. God cast him down in judgement, or in the language of Genesis 3, made him crawl in the dust.
However, you will recognise that this point, there is very little said about Satan. Then you get quite a bit of mention in the Gospels of both Satan and demons, who we may infer are fallen angels allied to Satan. There are also significant encounters with them. Jesus is tempted directly by Satan and encounters much demonic activity. It seems that either those demons particular show up, perhaps summoned in the light of the threat from a new Adam, or that they operated like sleeper cells, present but reality unnoticed until Jesus disturbed them. Again, though, outside of this cluster there are not so many mentions in the New Testament. Even when we get to the point in James where it is made clear that God doesn’t tempt, we aren’t told “it’s the devil”, rather, James says that we tempt ourselves.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
What are we to make of this? Well, I think it helps us get the right perspective. You see, some people are tempted to see the devil almost as having equal power with God, to be omnipresent and omnipotent. They blame him for everything that goes wrong saying things like “the devil is on my back again” and they see demons everywhere. Others act as though the devil isn’t real and demons don’t really exist. In fact, they may well argue that demonic activity was really just examples of mental health issues, misunderstood by superstitious primitives.
Scripture instead tells us that Satan and demons are real. They are personal beings with real power. In fact, Scripture shows an ability to distinguish health issues from spiritual attack or possession. However, we are not to give too much importance to them. They are finite and limited, they are no rivals for Jesus. Even the Jews should have grasped that, given their own nickname for Satan was “Lord of the flies”, the demons are at best an insect like nuisance to Jesus, the true king. Scripture is more focused on our relationship with God, rejection of him, weakness to temptation and need for restoration and reconciliation.
Satan is finite. That’s the ironic thing about when we see the devil behind everything. At times we can talk about Satan being on our case when it’s we who have taken ourselves out of the battle. A friend used to say that the devil is only going to try and tackle you if you are on the ball. So, if we are not on the ball, not even in the stadium but in the club shop browsing the merch then why should we expect the evil one himself to be giving us too much attention when he has bigger fish to fry.
But Satan doesn’t need to be personally active in each and every life all the time. He has his proxies. In fact, the Bible talks about “the world, the flesh and the devil”. Yes, he and his demons will be active, causing trouble but also they can rely on a world that has conformed its ideologies, systems and structures to his service. Then there’s the biggest proxy danger of all, our own sinful nature, our desire for status, comfort and security.
Where does this leave us? Well, we should not ignore the possibility of direct Satanic of demonic activity. This will be particularly so in crucial missional battle grounds. It will also be so when people open themselves up to Satanic and demonic control by specific decisions they make such as engagement with the occult.
Yet, whether encounters and attacks are direct or by proxies, our response can and should essentially be the same. First, we do not need to be afraid and even if we are dealing with a case of demon possession, we don’t need to call in some specialist people or employ lengthy, complex rituals. Second, our trust needs to be in God and these encounters should serve to heighten our dependence on him So, we respond with prayer. Third, we repent or encourage repentance. Fourth, we can confidently declare that the powers of darkness have no authority and insist that they must leave.
We can do this knowing that the enemy may be powerful but he is already defeated. We can be confident that “he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world.”[1]
[1] 1 John 4:4.
Faithroots 
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