THE DRAGON TALE

The story of Satan may be the explanation as to why we are all here. In Genesis 2:17, God cautioned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. But Adam and Eve didn't die... at least not right away, they lived a full life and so did (do) generations of their posterity (aka: humanity). Eating the forbidden fruit seems not to have changed the course of their lives, at least not in the dire way God warned. So what did their choice change and how has it effected our lives?

For this study we have to traverse the entire Bible: from Genesis (the beginning), Ezekiel (the middle), and Revelation (the end). If this Satan character is behind the big, centuries-asked question, ("Why are we here?"), then we have to read about not just his first appearance but also his beginning and how it led to his end. By doing that, we will learn how who or what he is is less important than what he represents. For it is what he represents that changed the plan God had for us. 

• THE ANOINTED CHERUB

“You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty."

Ezekiel 28:12 

Satan was not the monster we think he was... at least not in outward appearance and certainly not at onset. God's description of Satan is quite a lot different from the media's portrayal of him, and not just physically. We think of Satan as an outcast rather than the blessed and beloved one he actually was.

“You were the anointed cherub who covers;

I established you;

You were on the holy mountain of God;

Ezekiel 28:14 

Not only was Satan beautiful, he had everything the storehouses of the Kingdom of God have to offer: he was wise, anointed, established. He was loved and trusted. So how did Satan become the serpent in Genesis? The dragon in Revelation? He gradually became greedy, violent and arrogant. And that is where we have to start paying attention; because the worst of Satan is more relatable to us than the best of him. After all, none of us can boast perfection in wisdom, beauty or behavior. But all of us have experienced at least a modicum of greed, violence and arrogance within ourselves. This is not to say that we are horrible people because the majority are not, but we are capable of the same character flaws that led to Satan's complete eviction from the Kingdom of God.

God's kingdom is broad and hosts a lot of life. In heaven, as it is on earth right now, God elects people to join Him in helping others. Satan was chosen as such, an overseer, a protector, by God. But the power became a drug to him and he a slave to it. He began to abuse his power and manipulate others with the wisdom he was given. He resented that he was chosen by God, a holy honor, and wanted instead to be the chooser. Yet the worst thing Satan did was to drag, connive and convince others to join him... and that is the story of Adam, Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• "YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED" 

Eve's conversation with the serpent in Genesis is an allegory of how humanity obtained free will and consciousness as we know it today. God had designed a perfect system with the kingdom of God, represented by the Garden of Eden. He created life and cared for it. He made all of the decisions and refrained from distributed free will. Why? This is where we would play a montage of things like the widespread poverty, racism, pollution and other injustices on earth. God simply knew that we were not equipped for such responsibility. Satan disagreed; he wanted to unlock that aspect of life. 

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3:4 

 This is an example of the scheming Satan did when he was in the position of power as cherub. He portrayed God as a stingy authority rather than a wise Father. He slyly suggested that God's will was not the best course of action. He manipulated the truth so that it appeared that one's own will could procure glory and power and that God's will could not. Like he did with Eve, Satan made it seem like the righteous, obedient, humble way was ineffective, insufficient. 

And that is what Satan represents throughout the Bible and in our lives today. He represents that temptation within us to live by our own rule; to act and react on our emotions and desires regardless if they are good for us or others or not; to obtain influence by dubious means; to procure power by manipulating the justice system; to shirk responsibility and pursue our desires. Anger, arrogance and greed tempt us like Satan tempted Eve. They make promises that make us salivate, metaphorically speaking (usually), but they cannot keep those promises; because anything we obtain with impure intentions and corrupt machinations will not satisfy us. 

Eve gained free will, her mind expanded, but the quality of her life declined sharply. Indeed her mind expanded, but in many places she had been previously protected from. She then knew what it was to lack, to feel shame, grief, guilt and regret. The everlasting life of her soul (and ours) became subjected to life in a temporary body. Once constant and sustained, she became an aging and fragile form of life... and we all know the many traumas of that. When God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die, He meant this: life, now as we know it. Birth and death on earth, a rich but also traumatic experience. 

We study Satan as the serpent in Genesis, the proverbial King of Tyre in Ezekiel and the metaphorical dragon in Revelation, but it is crucial for us to recognize Satan he really is. Not the sly characters of the Bible or the monster depicted in movies but Satan is the impatience within us, the frustration, anger, arrogance and greed. All of that behavior was drawn out of us by him. Every time we are tempted to act on our base (ugly) emotions and desires we are Eve in the garden, allowing Satan to convince us our plan is better than God's.

• THE DRAGON TAIL DREW 

We are here because when free will was unlocked, humanity needed a place to exercise their (our) new ability. We needed a place to make the mess of trial and error, a place with consequence enough to take the task seriously, but not permanently damage. Of course death and disparity seem like permanently damage (and they are definite consequences), life on earth was designed to feel that way. But the only permanent damage that can be done can only be done by God and it is the death of a soul, not a body.

We are here because we needed a space to not just to learn the consequences of free will, but also to well, use it. Because with our free will we make decisions and those decisions add up to the inevitable decision: my way, or the highway... to heaven. Joking aside, God honestly wants us to decide. He will not force His will on people who do not want it. He preferred to love us His way, even if it meant that our love for Him was less authentic, if it also meant that we were spared the pain that transpires in life-with-free-will (life as it we know it now).

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

Revelation 12:3-4 

Satan was able to convince a third of God's people buy what he was selling... and trade in all of the free "stuff" God had been providing. Life on earth is our opportunity to give it all back. We were once with God because He chose us. Today, we have the opportunity to be with God because we choose Him. 

We spoke before about permanent damage: the death of the soul. Satan has been named the son of perdition by God, in other words, his soul has been sentenced to that permanent death (Ezekiel 23:18; John 17:12; and many other places!) Satan has been sentenced to death and he doesn't want to go alone. Just like before, he is recruiting people onto his side... even though he now knows his to be the losing side. 

Of course now that life on earth is our reality, God has plans within plans for not just the whole picture but also for every individual. He has made our tale a story of redemption and purpose rather than one of punishment or subsequent consequence. And though some bad things came with free will, two really good things came too: faith and authentic love. We are now able to love God (and others) intimately; that is, love with the knowledge of the power and work and depth and complexity and strength and fragility and value of love. 

Now, when God blesses us and when others love us, we understand how precious the act of love and all that it encompasses is. And that is why out of all the history and instruction and lesson that scripture and life hold, God has chosen to emphasize love:

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40 

So if the history is too complicated, and the future too difficult to grasp, we have been directed by Jesus to simply love in the present.

FEED MY SHEEP

“You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God,” says the Lord God. Ezekiel 34:31 

God's foremost objective is to care for His family. His foremost directive is for us to care for His family. To explain and emphasize His exhortation, throughout scripture God uses the metaphor of sheep and shepherd. We are His "flock" of sheep, a term of endearment used by Jesus Himself in Luke 12:32 ("Fear not little flock;..."). He is our shepherd; and is frequently described as such in scripture. 

• SCATTERED FLOCK

In Ezekiel 34:1-10, God declared the infractions made by people who were supposed to shepherd God's flock:

What they did not do made them neglectful. 

The weak you have not strengthened.
The sick you have not healed.
The injured you have not bound up.
The strayed you have not brought back.
The lost you have not sought. 

What they did do made them abhorrent:

You fed yourselves.

You clothed yourselves.

You ruled with force and harshness.

Negligence and harsh treatment resulted in a scattered flock. A vulnerable flock. The flock became prey. Such negligence and harsh treatment is the reason why God's flock are scattered now instead of gathered in the kingdom. Deviations from God's philosophy, His program of justice and compassion, have caused humanity to scatter. Not geographically but spiritually. Emotionally. 

God charged Ezekiel to prophesy against the abhorrent shepherds, and the heat of His anger will be just as hot against the person today who neglects their duty in shepherdship. He will neither accept not ignore behavior that harms or fails to help His people. We are not on earth for self-serving purposes; we are not here to procure for ourselves. Faithful children of God are provided for by God. Our objective is not to sustain ourselves, that position has been filled; our objective is to sustain others. Therefore, self-serving behavior is wasteful. 

We will not fit-in in heaven if we do not fit heaven's purposes into our lives. It is imperative that we learn that here before there is no place or purpose for us there. This life is our opportunity to declare that we are aligned with heaven rather than against it. This is our time to claim our role as caretaker, as shepherd of our portion of the flock. None of the shepherds above were accused of breaking commandments; they were not even directly accused of sin. They were accused of neglect and selfish behavior. Crimes we are all guilty of committing at times in our lives. And because we are all guilty of them, the "flock" is as scattered and desperate now as it was then.

• TEND MY SHEEP

Jesus anticipated that God's flock would require shepherding in future generations, that is why He exhorted Peter to take care of His sheep three successive times; and it is why that text is still alive today.

In John 21, Jesus asked Peter: "do you love me?" When Peter answered that he did, Jesus responded: "Feed my lambs." Jesus asked again and a second time, Peter answered yes. Jesus responded: "Tend my sheep." The third time Jesus asked, Peter became distressed, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." It was so important to Peter that Jesus knew he loved Him. A final time, Jesus answered: "Feed my sheep."

It's probably important to you, too. You want God to know that you love Him. From Jesus and Peter's exchange, God told us how to truly love Him: by tending to His sheep. You do not have say that you love Him three or three billion times to make it true or known. You just have to tend His sheep. Do that and He will know. 

We are so loved by God that he used His final hours on earth to exhort the disciples to tend to, to feed, His flock. Instead of exhorting the disciples to follow rules or rituals, He urged them to take care of people. Selflessly, Jesus turned the attention away from Himself and onto others.

SHEPHERD THE FLOCK

How do we shepherd the flock? Fittingly, we can look to 1 Peter 3;5 for the answer.

There is hunger in the world; and certainly, there are people who need food. But there is another type of hunger prevalent in the world as well. We are called to feed both. There is a hunger we can fill with our behavior. There is hunger, a restlessness, a desperation in the world that can only be filled and calmed by the lifestyle God has outlined for His children. If we know it, we have to live it. And by living it, we feed others with a way of life previously foreign and unattainable to them.

Our temperament and choices are a type of food the people around us eat by observing it, by being recipients of it. They adopt the lifestyle when we evidence that it works. That is fills and calms empty, restless souls. What are the elements of this lifestyle?

Unity of mind. Sympathy. Brotherly love. Tender hearts. Humble minds. Bless instead of curse. Speak truth. Turn from evil. Do good. Seek and pursue peace (1 Peter 3:9-11). We "feed" (metaphorically) the world by doing the reverse of what the people did in Ezekiel 34. We strengthen others with our friendship and support and with our own strength, with the resources we have and they lack. We heal the injured with our kindness and empathy, by providing our time and attention. We bind the injured with truth when the world showed them only deceit; we bind their wounds with steadfastness when the world abandoned them. We seek the lost when we reserve harsh judgement; when we try to know them, understand their circumstances. We pursue the lost when we pursue their restoration rather than merely observe their destruction.

We have to feed others when others in the world starved them of family or friendship or opportunity. We have to clothe others when pain and shame and injustice have stripped them bare. We cannot dominate the people weaker than us; we must express mercy with gentleness. Ultimately, the thousand plus pages of the Bible are teaching us, urging us to simply... be kind. Humans have complicated life so much that we require so much lecturing, so much encouragement, so much example to do a truly simple thing: love people.

Those who do so live under God's gracious gaze (1 Peter 3:12).Those who shepherd the flock are shepherded by The Shepherd. 

•  SHEPHERDSHIP 

For God has declared Himself so: "Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered..." (Ezekiel 34:11-12).

In response to the selfish neglect and cruelty of the irresponsible shepherds, God replaced them with Himself. Although a cruel and selfish person neglects and harms the sheep, it is not the sheep that will ultimately suffer. For God has spoken, "I will feed My flock and I will make them lie down... I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in my judgement." (Ezekiel 34:15-16). 

Our spiritual Father is a shepherd and He wants His children to continue the trade. He is a peace-provider, a chain-breaker, a soul-savior; and as we are made in His image (Genesis 1:27), we have both the ability and responsibility, to draw those spiritual elements out of ourselves and into the world. Willingly. Eagerly. Selflessly. Humbly. (1 Peter 5:1-3).

Those who adopt shepherdship now receive as well as reinforce God's peace and blessing, rescue and security. 

Jesus' life and Resurrection provided us with a Shepherd. Emulate the life He lived. 1 Peter 2:25, "For you were like sheep going astray," but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. It has been declared that each of us have gone astray. Maybe in the past, maybe in the present. God wants you to shepherd the people in either place.