Bible Study Simply

God has not asked any of us for our opinion or thoughts on what His plan should be. Things are not falling apart. Everything is falling perfectly into place.

God raises kings and deposes them. He does this not according to mankind’s demands, but only according to His purpose and will to fulfill what has been spoken of by the prophets.

”He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.”
Daniel 2:21

God does not bend to the whims of mankind. He doesn’t seek the counsel of humans when He accomplishes His purpose.

Choosing a King to Discipline His People

There was no way in the world that Hillary was going to lose the presidential election. They had every reason to believe she was going to win. Wait! What? Trump won?

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s intention was to raise up the nation of Israel to be a blessing to the world. They would be a nation that God would use to show His glory to all people.

God would put forth in front of the people of Israel, light and darkness. He told them to always choose light.

He made it clear, if they followed Him in obedience, they would be richly blessed. If they chose darkness and rejected Him, they would be disciplined.

They unfortunately chose darkness over and over again. Their sins led them to God’s discipline.

Approximately 2500 years ago, God chose King Nebuchadnezzar to ransack and destroy Jerusalem and carry off the Jewish people into exile in a foreign and pagan land. God chose this pagan, idol worshiping king to fulfill His promise that the people of Israel would be disciplined for their repeated transgressions. God’s people would be exiled into Babylon for 70 years before they would be released.

God did not go the the Jewish leaders of that day and ask them if this was a good idea. He didn’t ask them for their thoughts or if they had a better plan. No!

King Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled God’s purpose by exiling God’s people out of their land. Then when God was finished with this king, He was disciplined for how He treated the people of Israel.

Raising a President

Trump became President through the will of God in order that he might perform two very important tasks. God’s hands are on all things and all things move toward His will.

In 1948, against every piece of advice given to him by his staff, U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized and declared that Israel was a nation.

Why was it important that the U.S. make this declaration? Because what the U.S. says carries a great deal of weight in the world. Nations listen to what the U.S. says and does. On this day, God used the U.S. as a mouthpiece to declaring it’s right to be a nation.

In a single day, a nation was born.

“Before she goes into labor,
she gives birth;
before the pains come upon her,
she delivers a son.
Who has ever heard of such things?
Who has ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day
or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labor
than she gives birth to her children.
Do I bring to the moment of birth
and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Do I close up the womb
when I bring to delivery?” says your God.
Isaiah 66:7-9

Some 70 years later, the U. S. is used again as a mouthpiece to the world to make a declaration concerning God’s Holy Land. After the failure of prior presidency’s and against the will of his staff, President Trump makes the big announcement. Jerusalem is officially the capital of Israel.

Are you seeing this? Not since the time of King David has Jerusalem been considered the capital of Israel. Against the whims of mankind, God restored His Holy Land and He’s in the process of physically restoring His people back into His land.

“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
Genesis 12:2-3

More than half of all Jews now live in Israel and the number is climbing daily.

“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God
Ezekiel 36:24-28

Let me clarify that this passage begins with the physical restoration of God’s people. This physical restoration is happening right now, before our very eyes. The second half of this passage points to the spiritual restoration of God’s people that is still to come at a future date. These are two separate events. The second is going to occur at the end of the Tribulation period.

But wait, that’s not all!

The Second Important Thing

A young Jewish man by the name of Jared Kushner was chosen by President Trump to lead an important peace effort. A peace effort that had the support of no one within the administration.

Just as Truman did in 1948, as Trump did in 2017, Jared Kushner would go against the grain and every piece of advice given to him. He would lead the effort to create a channel of peace between several Arab nations, former enemies of Israel and form the Abraham Accords.

Who thought a young Jewish man against all odds, could convince Arab nations to form a peace alliance with Israel. But God.

Why is this important? Israel, in the near future will enter a period of peace before the beginning of the Ezekiel war. Jared’s work in creating these peace alliances will serve as the foundation for this temporary peace that Israel will soon experience according to Ezekiel 38.

God has been and will continue to accomplish what He desires. He will fulfill all that He has spoken through the prophets. Not a single nation has changed that fact nor will there ever be a nation to change the course of God’s plan.

He doesn’t ask our opinion nor does He need it.

“So is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11

With each passing day, there appears to be a growing commonality between people of various beliefs and backgrounds. It’s revolves around the idea that something is terribly wrong with our world. We hear increasingly the things that are happening in our midst are evil.

Well, if you’re one of these people, you’re on the right track. It can almost seem comical to dig into the different meanings the world has for the term evil, especially when the articles attempting to define evil are steeped in psychology.

Quite simply, evil is anything that contradicts the holy nature of God or demonstrates a rejection of God and His desires for us.

God does not force evil on anyone nor does He purposely try to trip you up into evil behavior. We as humans are perfectly capable of making ourselves fully available to the whims of the one we call Satan. In fact, mankind has perfected sin in such a way that we’ve made this world a perfect habitat for the devil.

Who Satan Is Not!

Satan is not that fleshy character that’s all spray painted red with a long pointy tail holding a pitch fork. This is the Hollywood Satan. Since this particular character came on the seen, Hollywood has creatively devised many different fleshly looking Satan’s over the past several decades. But this doesn’t work, because there is no Satan in the flesh.

Besides, these are scary Satan’s and the devil has no intention of trying to scare you. Quite the opposite. He would prefer to gently take you in the direction that you think is good and leads to God while leading you straight to hell.

C.S. Lewis said it best.

“The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

In other words, he doesn’t want to believe that you’re being lead to hell. So he does it gently and quietly.

This is why Jesus began His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:4 with the words “watch not to be deceived.” While the world is filled with deception, Jesus was concerned for mankind’s spiritual deception.

If the Spirit of Satan is Real, Where Does He Come From?

We know that He was one of the greatest angels among all angels in heaven. He likely committed the very first sin of pride. This is taught by Isaiah in the following verse.

12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Isaiah 14:12-14

The Word of God does not reveal when Satan fell from heaven but we can surmise that it was before creation. We know this because he was in the garden with Adam and Eve.

What is the Character of Satan?

Ezekiel, the prophet describes the character of Satan through the evil King of Tyre in the following verses.

12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
Ezekiel 28:12-18

Where Does Satan Spend His Time?

After reading the passages from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, it’s not surprise how Satan answers God’s question in the following verses from the book of Job. After all, he was cast down to earth.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
Job 1:6-7

This verse from Job helps us understand why the devil was given certain names, which we’ll discuss next.

By What Names Is Satan Known?

We can see in the following verses that Satan has many names by which he’s referred to in the Bible. Here, John names him the prince of this world.

“I will no longer talk much with you, for the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”
John 14:30

While we know his spirit is here among us, John notes that he is the ruler of the world we live in. This gives us a clear indication as to the lawlessness and evil that is at work around us today.

Paul also calls him the ruler of the air from this verse in Ephesians.

“in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
Ephesians 2:2

John calls him by another name in his first letter to the church of believers. He makes a point to call out the difference between the followers of Christ and the unbelievers.

“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
1 John 5:19

We see here in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians that Satan is the god of this world.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:4

Those who have wisdom and understand God’s word know that Satan is the prince of this world. He is a very powerful ruler. We now his power is limited and his time is running short. His end is insight as we see the days grow more evil.

Satan is after everyone of us. He’s wiser and more cunning than any of us. We are a testimony to that fact by our sinful nature. Especially in the boasting and pride of sin that we display today.

Does Satan Have a Kingdom?

Absolutely! It has a hierarchy that flows all the way down to mortals that do his bidding for him here on earth.

“If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?”
Matthew 12:26

Paul reminds us that our daily battle is against the governmental system of Satan’s kingdom. He has many followers and those who do his bidding. While the Bible doesn’t indicate this, many scholars believe that a third of the angels of heaven fell with the devil.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Ephesians 6:12

All of these Bible teachings should be taken literally, just as God intended them to be. It should lead us to take heed the advice that Paul lays out in his letter to the Ephesians.

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Ephesians 4:25-29

“10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Ephesians 6:10-11

All the more so today, as we see the “Day of the Lord” approaching rapidly like a thief in the night.