Luke 22:47 ¶ And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. 48 But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? 49 When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? 50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. 51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him. 52 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? 53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
Judas, the informer and
traitor, arrives with a crowd to arrest Jesus. Peter attacked the servant of
the high priest with a sword but Jesus healed the wounded man. The verses in
John make you wonder if perhaps that servant became a Christian later as one
reason his name is mentioned.
John 18:10 Then Simon Peter
having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his
right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. 11
Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup
which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
Paul uses the phrase the power of darkness, as well.
Colossians 1:13 Who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Jesus is the light of
this world and while He was walking in the flesh in the world there was light
in the world.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John 9:5 As long as I am in
the world, I am the light of the world.
Christ’s presence
illuminates the spiritual world of men as the light of day illuminates the
physical world.
John 11:9 Jesus answered,
Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth
not, because he seeth the light of this world.
This illumination of
God the Creator’s standard and purpose of redeeming mankind back to Himself
from the spiritual ignorance or darkness in man’s soul would soon, with
Christ’s departure, be shrouded by night.
John 9:4 I must work the
works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armour of light.
Through the last two
thousand years of false churches, religious murder, and wicked kingdoms and
nation-states propped up by falsely saying they were God’s special vehicles to
do His work on earth a glimmer of light has shined through the darkness in
Christ’s body on earth. As Jesus said to His followers;
Matthew 5:13 ¶ Ye are the
salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be
trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the
light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in
the house. 16 Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is
in heaven.
2Corinthians 4:6 For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The darkness which like
light can have two meanings, I believe, one purely physical and one spiritual,
which God separated from the light in the beginning;
Genesis 1:4 And God saw the
light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called
the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the
evening and the morning were the first day.
…that darkness which
could not comprehend, which at one time could also mean besides understand to
contain, repress, conquer, or overpower, the light…
John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. 2
The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made. 4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 ¶ And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not. 6 There
was a man sent from God, whose name was
John. 7 The same came for a witness, to
bear witness of the Light, that all men
through him might believe. 8 He was not
that Light, but was sent to
bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
…has its moment here.
We know who the ultimate author of this betrayal is, even though it works against
him in the end. Satan entered Judas, the traitor.
Luke 22:3 Then entered
Satan into Judas surnamed
Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
We know that the religious elite
that sponsored Judas, denying Christ’s authority over them as their Messiah,
was unknowingly answering to Satan.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
I think it might be helpful now to
review who or what Satan is and what might be his purpose.
If the majority interpretation is
correct, Satan is first mentioned as a serpent in the Garden of Eden. A serpent
or worm in English has also traditionally been a term for a dragon in
historical mythology.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast
of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Satan is also said to be a dragon.
Revelation 20:2 And he laid
hold on the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years,
How was Satan found to be in the
Garden of Eden? Judging by his appearance he filled some kind of role of priest
as Aaron and his sons would eventually do. He is said to be a cherub, an animal
type of creature, with cherubs as perhaps the spiritual prototypes of all
creatures, with Satan described in Job 41 as reptilian. See Ezekiel, chapters 1
and 10 for descriptions of cherubs. The Bible often does double and triple
duty, describing one person or one event while also describing others
prophetically. Here, in this passage, the King of Tyre is addressed but, as he
is likened to Satan, Satan is described.
Ezekiel 28:11 ¶ Moreover
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto
him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and
perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created. 14
Thou art the anointed
cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up
and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15
Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Although many modern, evangelical
and fundamentalist commentators have Satan falling from grace in some mystical,
unexplained time between verses 1 and 2 of the first chapter of Genesis we only
have evidence of his attempting to subvert God’s order starting in Genesis,
chapter 3. Of course, God knew his heart even though his iniquity was not made
apparent until then. His pride led him.
In another prophecy against the
King of Babylon this time, Satan, under another title of his, Lucifer, is
described by way of his thinking.
Isaiah 14:12 How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine
heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the
north: 14 I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
And yet, we know from
reading the first two chapters of Job that he cannot go beyond what God allows
and we know that he can be used by God, unleashed, if you will, for a purpose.
2Sa 24:1 And again the
anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel,
and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and
Judah.
1Ch 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and
provoked David to number Israel.
It is clear from
reading Job and these two verses and contexts that a human being will likely
not be able to tell if a thing is done directly by God or if it is a matter of
Satan’s hatred and rage being used or allowed for a purpose.
Satan tried to divert
Christ from His mission by tempting Him to take the crown first, before the
cross. Christ resists being crowned a king by the Jews until it was time.
Luke 4:1 ¶ And Jesus being
full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the
wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted
of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended,
he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil
said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made
bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of
God. 5 And the devil, taking him up into
an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All
this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto
me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get
thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve. 9 And he
brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said
unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10 For it is written, He shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And
in their hands they shall bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is
said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him
for a season.
John 6:15 When Jesus
therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a
mountain himself alone.
By now, at this point, Satan
appears to have decided to simply try to destroy Christ. Perhaps it is from
desperation, or rage, or pride alone but Satan is out on a very weak limb here.
As John the Baptist had asked if there would be another Messiah to come in Luke
7, as there may have been a belief in more than one Messiah, a conqueror and a
sufferer at least, Satan also does not have 100% understanding of God’s purpose.
God keeps quite a lot close and only reveals things when He is ready.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong
unto the LORD our God: but those things
which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
So, whatever Satan’s
motivation here, we know he is doomed. Only immense pride can blind someone so
completely to reality. For human examples see Adolf Hitler in his invasion of
Russia or any number of organized crime figures who eventually end up murdered
or imprisoned for life.
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