What are Satan’s changing targets? Let’s see what the Bible has to say about this question.
“But you (Satan?) said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’
Isaiah 14:13-14
Satan’s First Target was the Most High God
God addressed this taunt to the “King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:3).” However, no earthly king has experienced anything like this; Bible teachers believe this addresses the power behind the king: Satan. If so, it addresses Satan’s initial rebellion against God. Satan was once the highest-ranking angel with the beauty and wisdom appropriate for his high position. In the pride of his heart, he could make himself “like the Most High.” In this rebellion against God Himself, one-third of the angels followed him (Revelation 12:4).
***************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: The Crown of God’s Creation, Adam, and Eve.
He tempted them to sin and succeeded. Now they needed, and God promised them, a future Savior (Genesis 3:15).
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: Destroy the Human Line of the Messiah
The human Savior had to be purely human
“The sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose…. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them (Genesis 6:2, 4).”
Angels corrupted humanity
Teachers debate precisely what the passage above refers to. But in the Old Testament, every reference to the sons of God is to angels. Taking these verses at face value, angels interacted with the daughters of men, producing mixed-breed offspring. In God’s judgment, these beings die in Noah’s flood, and Jude tells us where God has bound them in Jude 6-7:
“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
Satan planned to corrupt the pure humanity needed by the Messiah to provide salvation. God destroyed the angel/human hybrids in Noah’s Flood. And the earth was re-populated through Noah’s family.
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: God’s Faithful Servant, Job
“Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face (Job 1:9-11).”
Satan targeted an individual believer named Job. Satan charged Job with serving God because God had blessed and protected him. Satan attacked God through His servant, Job. God permitted Satan to take away Job’s family, health, and possessions. But Job remained faithful.
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: The Savior Becoming Human (Jesus)
“Now when they had gone (the shepherds), behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him….Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under (Matthew 2:13, 16).”
Satan targeted Jesus through Herod when the Son of God took on humanity
Satan couldn’t attack the Second Person of the Godhead when God the Son was in heaven. But he tried to find human weakness when the Son of God became Jesus, a baby on earth. God protected the baby Jesus by telling Jesus’ stepfather Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt until Herod died. Satan also attacked Jesus by tempting Him (Matthew 4:1-11), and Jesus defeated Satan’s temptations.
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: The Church, the Body of Christ
“Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord … that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11).”
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world (1 Peter 5:8-9).”
The Church is Jesus’ representative on earth during this Age. When Jesus takes the Church to heaven in the rapture, it will no longer be vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. So, he will again turn his attention to Israel and the Jews.
******************************************************
The following passage gives a historical overview of Satan’s changing targets
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman (Israel) clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child … Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great red dragon (Satan)…. The dragon stood before the woman … to devour her Child (Jesus)… a male Child, “who was to rule all nations … And her Child was caught up to God and to His throne. The woman (Israel) fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they may nourish her there for one thousand two hundred and sixty days (the second half of the seven-year tribulation) (Revelation 12:1-6).”
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: The Jews During the Tribulation
Once Jesus survived infancy, was resurrected, and ascended back to heaven, He was no longer vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. So, Satan will once again target the vulnerable. His target is always the vulnerable person or people with the closest relationship to God. In this case, after Jesus takes the Church to heaven, it’s the Jews again. But God provides a place of protection for them during the tribulation. Because the Jews are safe, Satan targets the believing Gentiles who live during this last half of the tribulation.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now the … kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren (Satan) has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night (Revelation 12:10).”
Note: The Archangel Michael casts Satan out of heaven and down to earth at the tribulation’s midpoint.
******************************************************
Satan’s Next Target: Always the Most Vulnerable
Satan first rebelled against God Himself and lost. Then he tried to corrupt humanity, and God stopped this corruption with the flood. He attacked Job, an individual believer, to get at God’s character. When the Son put on humanity as Jesus, Satan attacked Jesus as an infant. Once Jesus was resurrected and back in heaven (not vulnerable), Satan again attacked God’s people, the Church, by accusing them before God.
Satan always attacks God or God’s people when they are most vulnerable. And in this Church Age, his main attack is against us; those who believe in Jesus’ Name. He will continue his attacks throughout the future tribulation. After he’s released from his thousand-year prison, he will lead a rebellion against King Jesus at the end of Jesus’ Millennial reign. But he will rebel no more after he’s cast into the Lake of Fire at the final judgment (Revelation 20).
******************************************************
An Ongoing Theme
This theme of Satan’s rebellions against God appears throughout the Bible. The Apostle Paul tells us our real battle isn’t against “flesh and blood” but against spiritual powers of wickedness (Ephesians 6:12). We only see this battle when the Bible allows us a peek behind the curtain separating our known world from the spiritual world. We are unwittingly involved in this battle. Knowing about this spiritual battle helps us understand what’s at stake in this earthly battle and who’s behind the world’s attacks on God and His Kingdom.
Whose side are you on?
