In the Bible, Satan is described as an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15–” And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” As I mentioned in a previous blog, he uses deception as one of his many tactics. Before Lucifer fell, he was indeed a beautiful angel in God’s good grace and was created for worship, but he wanted to be like God and have all the worship and praise. Ezekiel 28:14-15–” 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.”
Pride was the angel’s downfall, and so shall it be man’s undoing. The enemy uses this sin against us often because of our sinful human nature that resulted from the fall of man from Eve being deceived in the garden of Eden. The devil is a cunning serpent that appeals to our wicked desires in our flesh. In movies and books, he is portrayed in diverse ways, but all are characteristic of him. In the movie Bedazzled, the devil is represented as a seductive woman that grants all your wishes (like a genie—which is derived from a Djinn—meaning a devil) in exchange for your soul but the movie teaches that you should be careful what you wish for, because you may get more than you bargained for. In fact, in the movie there is a scene where the main character wishes to be a rich and powerful man and ends up waking up as a Colombian drug lord, and his wife hates him, and his own crew wages war against him. His reason was to have the “woman of his dreams,” but it turns out she was not the woman he thought he wanted.
In another movie called “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” the devil is a gambler of souls, and it is a competition, he preys on people’s wicked ways and uses temptation to test them in different trials to win their soul. Free will is nothing but a game to him, he cannot know our hearts or minds, but he can judge our actions and use what he sees against us which is why we should never give him a foothold. You hear of artists “selling their souls” in the music industry or Hollywood in exchange for fame and fortune.
People are willing to lose themselves to gain the world, but many have realized once they gained the world, they are bankrupt of love and find themselves on a lonely path of destruction. In Mark 8:35-38 it is revealed that death follows those that give up their soul–” For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” That means if you forfeit your soul, you renounce your faith and have condemned yourself to eternal suffering, no amount of gold in the world can measure up to the goodness of God, and his promise of everlasting life. This world is temporal as told in 1 John 2:17–” And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
The devil can wear many guises, devils will not always appear as devilish because it has always been said that the “road to hell is paved with good intentions.” But the road to salvation is the road less traveled. This is explained in Matthew 7:13-14–” Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” It is better to endure longsuffering in Jesus’ name, because the reward is everlasting life. But do not be afraid of the thorns on the bushes for Luke 10:19 promises–” Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
