The Satan and Demons

So, we've been learning about spiritual beings in the Bible and I still have a lot of questions about the evil ones. Well, great. Let's talk about Satan and

demons

in the story of the Bible. Lets start by the beginning. In Genesis 1, God creates a beautiful, orderly reality out of darkness and disorder so that life can flourish. He appoints humans as his representatives to govern everything. And seven times God calls him "good." Yes, I experience that kind of goodness often in the world in things like beauty, truth, love, and generosity. But in Genesis 3 we find a creature that is in a state of rebellion against its creator.

We are still not told why or how he rebels. But he is on a mission to ruin God's good world for other creatures. This is a problem. Yes, this creature is the first portrait of evil in the Bible. It distorts what God has intended for good; ruining and dragging creation back into darkness and disorder. Then humans join the spiritual rebel who leads them back to chaos and death. From this moment on, human rebellion is intertwined with spiritual rebellion. Biblical history shows how this happens over and over again. Okay, but wait. Are we getting all this from a slithering snake?

Well, there are clues in the story that it's more than just a snake. Remember, Eden is a high place where the earth and its creatures overlap with the sky and its creatures. So could the snake be a spiritual being? Well, Genesis 3 points in that direction. And then later biblical authors complete the picture. Like when the prophet Isaiah has a vision of God's heavenly throne room. He is surrounded and praised by spiritual beings. Yes, these are the cherubim around the throne of God. But when Isaiah sees these creatures he describes them as "seraphim" which in Hebrew means "serpent." Ah, so the serpent is like a former staff member in God's throne room.

So why does he talk to humans? Well, the prophet Ezekiel understood this figure as a spiritual rebel who did not want to live under the wisdom and authority of God. He wanted to be God. Very well, that is the same temptation that the serpent places before Adam and Eve. Exactly! He says they could rule the world like God, but with their own wisdom. Then everyone is expelled from the garden. Yes, God says that this rebel will now crawl on his belly. Where does he go after this? Well, the biblical authors offer subtle clues as to where this being is at work behind the scenes, encouraging division and hatred among humans.

They also use a variety of images to describe this being. It is a serpent, a sea dragon, a dark creature of the desert or the king of death in the grave. He also receives many titles such as "Tempter", "The Evil One" or "The Devil", which in Greek means "The Slanderer". But his name is Satan, right? Not really. Satan is not a name. It is another of these titles so, in Hebrew, it has the word “the” in front of it. "The Satan" means "The Adversary" because he is not up to anything else. Rather, he is against everything, working through lies to drag us back into darkness and disorder.

That's intense. Now, what about these other spiritual rebels who are called "

demons

" in the Bible? What are they about? Well. Remember the concept of God's heavenly staff, the Divine Council or the children of God. In the Hebrew Scriptures we are told that some of them also rebelled. When I pass that? Actually, several times. After the serpent comes the rebellion of the sons of God in Genesis 6. We are told that they have sexual relations with women who then give birth to violent giant warriors. Correct. The Nephilim. These are probably the strangest characters in the entire Bible. Well, strange from your point of view.

But ancient readers knew exactly what was going on. The ancient kingdoms around Israel claimed to have been founded and protected by giant warrior kings. That they were part human, part God, and full of divine wisdom. I see. That's why the biblical authors say, "Hey, those warrior kings, they shouldn't be honored!" Good! In this story, they are portrayed as human rebels held captive by spiritual evil. Spreading their violence in God's good world. Yes, one of those kings in Genesis 10 goes on to build the city of Babylon. Yes, Nimrod, whose name sounds like the Hebrew word for rebel.

His reign leads to the next rebellion where humans exalt themselves in Babylon. But God disperses that rebellion. And when Moses in Deuteronomy remembers that story, he says that is the time when God gave the nations to worship the rebellious army of heaven, the gods of money, sex, and military power. Moses is the first to call them "demons", that is, lesser spiritual beings. Demons are spiritual forces that operate behind corrupt human power structures. Yes, but in the Bible they also act on a personal level. Encouraging and exploiting the greed and selfishness of humanity, as well as the weakness of our mortal bodies.

In the Bible, spiritual evil is at work in anything that drags God's good creation back into chaos, darkness, and death. Therefore, when Jesus arrives on the scene, he said that his main enemy is not human beings. Good. Jesus and his early followers saw all the pain and suffering in God's good world as a sign of their captivity to death and spiritual evil. But they didn't think this was the end of the story. Good! Jesus knew that the only way out of this cosmic ruin is to defeat evil and death itself, even if it costs everything. You just watched a video from our Spiritual Beings series.

This one was about Satan and demons. The following is our latest episode about how Jesus paves the way for a new humanity to rule with God over heaven and earth.