As you know if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, I am a fan of several obscure television programs. Janet records most of her shows, so if I want to watch something, I usually have to wait until I am out of town or wait until Janet heads to bed. Tonight, it’s getting late and I am surfing the channels looking for something to watch as I complete my post for the evening. Sure enough, one of my favorite channels is the Discovery Network and a relatively new show, Property Wars, happens to be on.
If you have never seen it, I don’t know that I would suggest that you waste your time. The idea is pretty simple. A group of adversarial investors competitively bids on properties in the Phoenix area to see who can outbid the others. Then, the houses are “flipped” or sold, hopefully at a profit. The gimmick is that the potential buyers can’t tour the properties before the auction – so each purchase is a risk. Sometimes, the investors make out really well, but most of the time, that isn’t the case. Repairs need to be made, upgrades accomplished and then at times they lose money on the chance that they took.
It is amazing to see how adversarial the bidders really are. They get all amped up trying to justify their purchases and they pretty much stake their claim and run off all the others once the bidding is complete. Of course they talk quite a bit of “smack” to each other and you can tell that there is genuine dislike among them.
From a theological perspective, the same thing happens between Christ and Satan. From the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, it is readily apparent that Christ and Satan will be at odds with each other until Christ ultimately prevails and “crushes the head” of Satan. In the meantime, we are told that Satan will “bruise the heel” of Christ, but as you can tell, that is little more than a nuisance to the the second member of the Trinity. Another thing we are told is that in the present age, Satan is referred as having dominion over the earth. Even though God created the heavens and the earth, most people don’t realize that Satan, a fallen angel referred to originally as Lucifer, impacts the earth and still even has access to God in heaven. If you don’t believe me, go read the first chapter of Job and you’ll find out how scary it is to think that Satan can actually approach God in God’s domain.
And to be sure, Satan doesn’t only want the earth – he wants it all, and that includes heaven. For the time being, God allows Satan access to the creation, but that won’t always be the case. I should also note that while Satan fights with God, there are also battles between the angels. We refer to this as spiritual warfare. It’s going on all around us and God’s legions of angels fight the powers of the dark side on our behalf constantly. So the war rages over control.
If you have ever read the accounts of the birth and ministry of Christ, you will notice that the references to angels increase tremendously during this period of time. That’s because during the Old Testament, Jesus had not yet taken human form and it wasn’t until the birth of Jesus that we read more about the forces of light fighting the forces of darkness. If you think about it, recall how angels announced the birth Christ and how often we read about them during the temptation of Christ in the wilderness and throughout His ministry.
Throughout the past two thousand years, this theme of “property wars” and dominion has been a constant theme. We know the outcome – Christ wins eventually. Tonight’s verse is from the book of Revelation announcing the war when Satan was finally thrown out of heaven by Michael and his legions of angels. We are told in Rev. 12:7-9, “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”
My encouragement this evening is that God and His angels have you covered. Even while you are sleeping, God’s heavenly ambassadors are fighting for you. My prayer is that you will continue to keep the faith and thwart the advances of Satan in the earthly realm. After all, we know who wins, but there is no use in allowing Satan to get a stronger foothold where we live. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…