Satan hates you.
If you’re a Christian who obeys God’s commandments, Satan wants to destroy you:
“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the
devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world….And the dragon was enraged with
the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring (symbolically,
the Church or children of God), who keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:9, 17).
This isn’t mere
hyperbole. Satan is venomously upset because you, as “heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17), will inherit what he has been trying to
get his hands on: the Kingdom of God. And he will try desperately to prevent
you from receiving your inheritance.
“Then I saw an
angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in
his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil
and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1). Satan will
receive his comeuppance shortly after Jesus returns. Believe it or not, Satan’s
fate was revealed long ago, in an obscure ceremony on the Day of Atonement.
“The Feasts of the Lord”
Over a thousand years before
Christ, God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Afterward God
revealed His Festivals and Holy Days, which occur during the spring, summer, and
fall harvests. “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,‘Speak to the
children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD,
which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts’”
(Leviticus 23:1). Notice that they’re not Jewish or Hebraic feasts; rather,
they are God’s feasts.
These Holy
Days and Festivals reminded the Israelites that:
1God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt (Passover & the Feast of
Unleavened Bread);
2God had blessed them (the Feast of Firstfruits, or Weeks);
3God will protect them when they’re in battle, and He has provided them
with special events throughout the year, announced by the blowing of shofars
or trumpets (hence the Feast of the Memorial of the Blowing of Trumpets);
4God will forgive them when they repent of their sins (Day of Atonement);
and
5God provided for them during their forty-year trek in the wilderness, and
will continue to do so (Feast of Tabernacles and the day immediately
following this Feast, hereinafter referred to as the Last Great Day).
God chose
the Israelites for the following reasons:
1“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God
has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the
peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor
choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were
the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He
would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you
out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).
God chose Israel because He loved them, and because of His promise to Abraham,
who obeyed His laws (Genesis 26:5);
2Israel served as a vehicle in God’s plan to redeem mankind. The
prophesied Messiah (Jesus)
would come through Israel; and
3God wanted to preserve His laws: “What advantage then has the Jew, or
what is the profit of circumcision?Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of
God” (Romans 3:1-2)
Preservation of the Law (including the Holy Days and Festivals) through the
Israelites had two purposes: (i) obviously the Law of God would be kept alive
among mankind, and (ii) by obeying these laws, Israel would serve as an example
to other nations: “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the
LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land
which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all
these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people’” (Deuteronomy 4:5-6). The law of God, the seventh-day Sabbath, and the
Holy Days and Festivals, would be magnified through an obedient Israel.
Unfortunately, rarely was Israel obedient to God.
The Law of God and
the Holy Days and Festivals would shine through an obedient Israel. Therefore,
the significance of God’s Holy Days and Festivals transcended boundaries. They
are also timeless: they reveal the plan of God, which has unfolded over several
thousands of years.
The Ancient Day of Atonement
“Also the tenth day of this
seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for
you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the
LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement,
to make atonement for you before the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:27-28).
Atonement means
“reparation for an offense or injury” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary). In other words, if you do something wrong, you must pay. Each
person should repent when he or she sins. What is sin?
It’s the transgression of God’s law: “Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the
law” (I John 3:4). In other words, whenever we break God’s commandments
(including His Holy Days and Festivals), we sin. And God will forgive us only
when we repent.
Whenever a particular Israelite sinned, God expected
him or her to repent. However, He also ordained a national day of
repentance: the Day of Atonement, which occurs on the tenth day
of the seventh month in the Hebraic calendar (corresponding to our September or
October). On this Day, God commanded the Israelites
to fast in recognition of their sins, and of their need for God’s mercy. God
also commanded the high priest (Aaron in Leviticus 16) to perform an elaborate
ceremony consisting of the selection of two goats – one for the “Lord,” to be
slain as a sin offering; and one that will symbolically bear responsibility for
Israel’s sins.
“He shall
take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the
tabernacle of meeting.Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats:
one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.And Aaron
shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin
offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the
scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement
upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness….Then he shall
kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring
its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the
bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.
So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the
children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and
so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the
midst of their uncleanness” (Leviticus 16:7-10, 15-16).
The slain
goat was Israel’s “sin offering.” The live goat was symbolically responsible
for Israel’s sins: “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live
goat,confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel,
and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the
head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a
suitable man.The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to
an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness”
(Leviticus 16:21-22). Notice that this goat was escorted into the wilderness by
a “suitable man.”
The live
goat is inappropriately labeled as the “scapegoat.” This term implies that the
goat was unfairly blamed for the sins of Israel. However, this word is
translated from the Hebrew word Azazel, which literally means “goat of
departure.” This goat of departure symbolically bore responsibility for
Israel’s sins. And in departing, it symbolically took Israel’s sins with it
into the wilderness.
Biblical symbolism & metaphor
The Bible is rich in metaphor
and other figures of speech. For example, Jesus is referred to as a Lamb; the
dictator who fights Christ at His return as a beast; and Satan himself as a
dragon and roaring lion: “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). Jesus was not a literal
lamb, and the dictator will not be an actual beast. Similarly, Herod was not a
fox (Luke 13:32).
God’s Holy Days
and Festivals are also rich in metaphor and symbolism. For example, God
commanded the Israelites to slay a spotless lamb in commemoration of the
Passover. (In Egypt, God passed over the Israelite households with the blood of
slain lambs on their doorposts, on His way to slay the firstborn of each
Egyptian household. This act provoked Pharaoh into releasing the Israelites
from bondage.) Moreover, God commanded the Israelites to eat unleavened bread
for the seven days following Passover, in commemoration of their hasty flight
from Egypt; their exodus was so sudden that their bread did not have time to
rise or leaven. Similarly, God commanded them to live in “booths,” or temporary
dwellings, for seven days during the seventh month in the Hebraic calendar.
“You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall
dwell in booths,that your generations may know that I made the
children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt”
(Leviticus 23:42-43).
The significance
of the symbolism inherent in these Holy Days and Festivals became apparent in 31
AD. Only then did the apostles realize that, for example, the ancient Passover
foreshadowed Jesus’ death: hence Paul’s designation, “Christ our Passover.”
By calling Jesus “our Passover,” Paul demonstrated the Christian relevance of
God’s Holy Days and Festivals, as found throughout the Old Testament.
Elsewhere, Paul writes, “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,which are a
shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Colossians
2:16-17). Here Paul described the Festivals as “shadow(s) of things to come…”
In other words, the Festivals and Holy Days foreshadow, or predict, certain
significant events. The Passover foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus “our
Passover.” What, then, do the other Festivals and Holy Days signify? They
reveal God’s sequential seven-step plan for man:
1.Passover: Acceptance of Jesus as our atoning sacrificial Lamb that
was foreshadowed by the ancient Passover sacrifice. “For indeed Christ, our
Passover, was sacrificed for us” (I Corinthians 5:7);
2.Feast of Unleavened Bread: In accepting the sacrifice of the
unleavened “bread from heaven,” that is, Jesus (John 6:41), and understanding
that, biblically, leaven represents sin (I Corinthians 5:7), Paul thus urges us
to “keep the feast (of Unleavened Bread), not with old leaven, nor
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth” (I Corinthians 5:7-8).
3.Pentecost, anciently the Feast of Firstfruits: Those who
have God’s Spirit are called firstfruits (I Corinthians 15:23, James 1:18,
Revelation 14:4), and Jesus was the First of the firstfruits. Pentecost is also
the birthday of Christianity and God’s Church, which is the collection of God’s
saints or firstfruits.
4.Feast of the Memorial of the Blowing of Trumpets: The plan of God
unfolds in these Festivals. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread point
back to Christ, as does Pentecost in pointing us back to the birthday of the
Church. Sequentially, the Feast of the Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets looksforward to the return of Jesus and the first resurrection: “For the Lord
Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel
and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first” (I Thessalonians 4:16).
5.Day of Atonement: What happens after Jesus returns? The banishment
of Satan, itself symbolized in the aforementioned ancient Israelite ceremony
conducted on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). The ceremony foreshadowed
Jesus’ sacrifice in the first century and foretells Satan’s banishment during
the Millennium. Only at that time will man be “at one” with God.
6.Feast of Tabernacles: After Satan has been banished, Jesus will
establish His Kingdom. We shall be kings and priests in that Kingdom
(Revelation 5:10). Since this Feast follows the Day of Atonement, the Feast of
Tabernacles foreshadows the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.
7.The Last Great Day immediately follows the last day of the Feast
of Tabernacles. This Day represents the second resurrection for everyone not
resurrected one thousand years earlier, and the ensuing 100-year judgment period
in which everyone will have an opportunity for salvation.
The Day
of Atonement, the fifth sequential step in God’s plan for us, follows the
Feast of the Memorial of Blowing Trumpets, which represents the return of Jesus
and the resurrection of the saints. (For understanding of the Festival of the
Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets, please read our article entitled The Feast
of Trumpets and the Return of Jesus.) What happens after Jesus returns?
“Then I saw an angel coming
down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan,
and bound him for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1).
Jesus and Satan
The ancient Holy Days and
Festivals are “shadow(s) of things to come” (Colossians 2:17). The Passover
foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrifice, and the ensuing Feast of Unleavened Bread
signifies our acceptance of His broken and dead body as our sin offering (Romans
8:3), and our determination to become sinless. The Feast of Firstfruits
(or Weeks) became Pentecost in 31 AD; it commemorates the birthday of
Christianity and the Church. The Feast of the Memorial of Blowing of
Trumpets anticipates the return of Jesus and the concurrent first
resurrection. The Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows the establishment of
God’s Kingdom on earth, and the Last Great Day looks forward to the
second resurrection and the ensuing Great White Throne Judgment period in which
everyone not resurrected 1,000 years earlier (in the first resurrection) will
have a chance for salvation.
Between the
festivals of the Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets and Tabernacles is the Day
of Atonement. According to God’s sequential seven-step plan, the event
between Jesus’ return and the first resurrection (symbolized in the Feast of the
Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets) and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth
(the Feast of Tabernacles) is the banishment of Satan; an angel will come down
from heaven and throw him an abyss, and his demons will join him there
(Revelation 20:1).
Satan being thrown
into the abyss from which he can’t escape is remarkably similar to the
aforementioned ceremony on the Day of Atonement, in which the live goat that
symbolically bears responsibility for the “iniquities of the children of Israel”
is led into the “wilderness by the hand of a suitable man” (Leviticus
16:21-22). In consideration of Satan’s fate and of how he is partly responsible
for the sins of the world, the live goat in this ceremony on the Day of
Atonement represented Satan.
As recognized in
the sacrifice of the goat “for the Lord,” Satan is not wholly responsible for
Israel’s and our sins. The “goat of the sin offering” is killed because of the
sins of the Israelites. It is their sin offering. The apostle Paul refers to
Jesus as our sin offering: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was
through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that
the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). The “requirement” for
breaking God’s law is death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). By becoming our
sin offering, Jesus removed the requirement, or penalty (death), of breaking the
law: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse
for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)”
(Galatians 3:13).
It’s crystal clear
that the ancient ceremony of slaying and exiling goats on the Day of Atonement
foreshadowed, respectively, Jesus’ sacrifice in 31 AD, and the banishment of
Satan at the outset of the Millennium, just before the establishment of God’s
Kingdom.
Moreover, Jesus’
sacrifice makes us “at one” with God. Even Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary recognizes the significance of atonement: “the reconciliation of
God and man through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.” This reconciliation
between God and man, and the banishment of Satan, was foretold by the ancient
Day of Atonement.
Satan’s fate
Satan is on a mission to
destroy God’s saints who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17). He’s upset at them because they’ll inherit
what he believes is rightfully his: the Kingdom of God.
The Bible
specifies three archangels by name: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Two of
these archangels – Michael and Gabriel – remain devoted to God. Lucifer,
however, is another story. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of
the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
to the lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will gaze at you, and
consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook
kingdoms’” (Isaiah 14:12-16).
In Isaiah 14 God
condemns the king of Babylon. However, He inspired Isaiah to include a passage
about Satan, or rather, Lucifer. Isaiah wrote that Lucifer fell from heaven,
and Jesus corroborated this account: “And He (Jesus) said to them, ‘I watched
Satan fall from heaven like lightning’” (Luke 10:18).
Satan’s
original name was Lucifer, which means “morning star.” Lucifer’s hubris
motivated his attempt to overthrow God (exalting his “throne above the stars of
God”). Furthermore, Isaiah identifies Satan’s plan to “weaken the nations.”
Elsewhere, Satan is described as deceiving the nations (Revelation 12:9).
Ezekiel also describes Lucifer: “Son of man, take up a lamentation
for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You were the
seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the
garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and
diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you
were created. 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. By the abundance of your
trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned. Therefore I
cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O
covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted
up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your
splendor’” (Ezekiel 28:12-17). Again, in the middle of a condemnation of a
king, this time of Tyre, God inspires Ezekiel to include a passage about
Lucifer. Ezekiel referred to his subject as being in “Eden, the garden of
God.” Moreover, he was the “anointed cherub who covers.” Obviously God is not
referring to Adam, but to Lucifer.
Ezekiel
delivers important clues as to why Lucifer turned into Satan the devil:
1God refers to Lucifer as the “anointed cherub who covers.” This
poetic description suggests that Lucifer occupied a very high position in the
government of God. Lucifer was on the “holy mountain of God,” which implies he
had access to God’s throne.
2As Isaiah indicated, Lucifer became very proud. “Pride goes before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Jesus said
that Satan fell “from heaven like lightening” (Luke 10:18). Lucifer was too
proud for his own good (“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty”). As
Ezekiel stated, Satan “corrupted” his “wisdom for the sake of” his “splendor.”
Lucifer
attempted to overthrow God. Because of his position and charisma, and because
God entrusted him with authority over one-third of the angels, Lucifer was able
to convince an innumerable amount of them to conduct a coup against God. This
attempted coup precipitated the first and original star wars.
The
universe has never recovered from the wreckage caused by this war. In the
initial chapters of Genesis we see a ruined world in which the continents are
buried underneath the oceans, and the “Spirit of God was hovering over the face
of the waters.”
Lucifer’s
rebellion turned him into Satan the devil. He will again try to overthrow God
(Revelation 12), and when he fails, Satan will inspire the false prophet to
declare himself to be God incarnate: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for
that Day (the day of the Lord, His return to earth) will not come unless the
falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of
perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that
is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God” (II Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Paul calls Satan
the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), and the “god of this world” (II Corinthians
4:4). Satan is very angry at the children of God because they will inherit what
he believes is rightfully his: the Kingdom of God. Therefore, after his failure
to overthrow God (again), Satan will “make war with the rest of her offspring
(the members of God’s family), who keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
Satan’s failure
Despite his unbelievable power
and intelligence, and despite his dominion over this earth (Paul calls Satan the
“god of this world,” II Corinthians 4:4), ultimately Satan is a failure. Satan
has:
1failed twice to overthrow God;
2failed to kill Jesus, and to tempt Him into sinning and thus
disqualifying Himself from becoming our Savior; and
3failed to destroy God’s Church.
Moreover, Satan will fail to
prevent us (those who keep God’s commandment and have the testimony of Jesus)
from inheriting the Kingdom of God, and from becoming kings and priests in it
(Revelation 5:10). And Satan will fail to prevent his fate.
The Day of
Atonement foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus, and His victory over Satan on
that stake. Furthermore, it foreshadowed Satan’s failure to prevent Jesus from
becoming our Savior. And it predicts Satan’s failure to prevent his temporary
banishment at the outset of the Millennium, and his permanent exile (alluded to
in the book of Jude, verses 12 & 13). According to Jude’s allusion, Satan and
his demons will be like “wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of
darkness forever” (Jude 12, 13).
God will
eventually send Satan and his demons into permanent exile, into a dark,
impenetrable void (not unlike a massive black hole) from which there is no
escape. They will be there forever, with each other and their thoughts;
bickering, accusatory, angry demons without light and hope. This is Satan’s
fate, foretold long ago in an obscure ceremony on the Day of Atonement.
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