Satan’s Agenda in Eden- and Why He Attacks Us Today Genesis 1-3 Introduction Why did Satan tempt Adam and Eve into sin in the Garden of Eden? You’ve probably wondered that before. You’ve probably wondered why Satan felt it was so important to bring sin into this world and to corrupt mankind. And you’ve probably heard answers like this: because Satan hates God, and humans are made in the image of God, so therefore Satan hates man. And that answer’s fine, I guess, but it doesn’t really check all the boxes for me. Such as: what does Satan get out of it? What is his endgame? What does he get by attacking us? I have an answer to those questions that will bring a greater context for this spiritual battle we’re in between God and the devil- and why this planet is the battleground. The Bible tells us why Satan relentlessly attacks God’s greatest creation, which is human beings. And I’m glad it tells us, because I find Satan’s actions to be weird, and I’d like to explore why he does what he does in the Bible. Turn to Genesis 1, and let’s get weird. [theme music] Understanding dominion Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about what the serpent’s agenda was in the garden. And we’re gonna get into some MEAT of the word today. Last week, I explained who exactly Satan was and why Eve was having a conversation with him. And that was some prep-work for today’s episode. If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, go give it 15 minutes, it will catch you up. The past couple weeks, we’ve been in Genesis 3, the famous story of the fall of man. Today, we’re going to go back to the very very beginning, and we’ll start by looking at the directive God gave man. Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion [key word; underline it or remember it] over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion [key word once again. Subdue it and have dominion. Repeat 2x. Having dominion means subduing it] over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” So we see that from the very first page of the Bible, as God is setting up the world, God has created the world. God owns the world. But He gives man dominion of the world. Let’s try to understand what dominion means. God is still the creator and owner of the world. God still has the highest authority. As the old song says, “This is my Father’s World.” God is the one who has ownership of planet earth. Psalm 24:1 says The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof So the earth is God’s, but He gave mankind an assignment over it. Think of dominion like stewardship. We learn about the stewardship concept in the parables of Jesus. Matthew 25:14-15 say 14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. And from there you get the parable of the talents. But this was a parable about stewardship: what you do with the time, talents and resources that God gives you. (Like MIchaelangelo. God gives him abilities with sculpting and look what he did with it. Was that Michaelangelo, or one of the other Ninja Turtles?) Anyway, everyone is going to give an accounting someday of what they did with what God gave them. This is stewardship. Stewardship means you take care of it for someone else. God owns it. He entrusts it to me. I take care of it. Dominion is basically like stewardship. God owns the world, but He entrusted it to mankind- Adam and Eve- to rule over it, to have authority over it. To subdue it. The Hebrew word for dominion in Genesis 1:26 is rada (raw-daw); it means subjugate. Another parallel with the parable of the talents is that- if you remember- there were three servants given stewardship over their resources. One turned his five talents into ten. One turned his two talent into four. Both of those multiplied what had been entrusted to them, and they were told, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Because they had multiplied what had been given to them. The other guy did not multiply the one talent entrusted to him; he is called a wicked and lazy servant. Multiplication is the defining factor in responsible stewardship. Now let’s go back to the dominion mandate. What did God tell man? “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” Multiplication. Subduing, or subjugation. This was the stewardship assignment that God gave man. And that’s the first thing you have to understand about mankind’s authority. Man was still subject to God, but Creation was to be subject to man. How Satan Stole Our Dominion And that was all going just fine. As the old song from Imagine Dragons says, “I’m on top of the world.” But now imagine that a real dragon comes along and starts whispering alternative ideas in Adam and Eve’s ears. Genesis 3:2-6 “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Adam and Eve had a choice to make: God’s way, or the serpent’s way. And in this moment, they chose the serpent’s way. And when they chose to obey the voice of the serpent over the voice of God, they effectively transferred their loyalty and their trust to the serpent. The one you obey is the one whose authority you come under. Romans 6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Adam and Eve obeyed the serpent. They became slaves to the serpent. They became subjugated by the serpent. They submitted to the serpent. Satan’s lie is that they were going to be autonomous. That they were going to decide things for themselves. He tricked them; they actually ended up submitting to him. And the one you obey is the one whose authority you come under. And now, Adam and Eve’s allegiance was transferred from God to the serpent. And therefore, that gave the serpent legal rights over man and legal rights over man’s dominion. Adam and Eve transferred stewardship of the earth over to Satan. He stole their dominion, with one little sin. I got a comment this week from someone who said, “I have 1 major issue with this story [the story of Genesis 3]. Adam and Eve did not have a moral framework yet, by which they could assess the gravity of eating the fruit because they hadn’t eaten it yet…I read this story and I see Adam and Eve as children. Even though they have adult bodies, they just got created not long ago.” And I will add to that: once you bring in what I spoke about last week regarding Adam and Even surely knowing Satan before the fall and having a trust in him, it becomes a lot more understandable that they listened to him in the garden. But! That doesn’t give them an excuse for disobeying God. They weren’t children in the sense that they had the mentality of a three-year-old. They might have had the innocence of a three-year-old, but they didn’t have the logic of a three-year-old. They could have listened to God, and instead, they listened to the devil. And in doing so, they transferred their dominion of the earth to him. As the old song the snake sings in The Jungle Book goes, “Trust in me, just in me, shut your eyes and trust in me.” (How fascinating that they selected a snake as the animal to sing that song). Adam and Eve came under the snake’s spell because they trusted in him. Let’s talk about the word “trust” for a minute. God put a “trust” in Adam and Eve with the dominion mandate of Genesis 1.To trust means to firmly put your confidence in. If you put your possessions into a trust, that means to legally transfer ownership of your assets into an agreement managed by a trustee. As I said before, creation was entrusted to Adam. God was the owner of these assets; Adam and Eve were the trustees. They had authority to carry out this management of planet earth. But they transferred their authority to the devil. Satan got what he wanted And that was the devil’s plan in Eden. He got what he wanted. He stole dominion of planet earth from Adam and Eve. Look at how Jesus describes Satan in these verses. John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. I John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Notice what Satan offers Jesus in one of the three temptations of Christ in the desert: Luke 4:5-7 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
    and him only shall you serve.’” Jesus passes the test that Adam failed. Jesus didn’t submit. Now, notice that the devil speaks of authority right there. Notice what he said about authority: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” How was authority delivered to Satan? Because of Adam and Eve. Sin. Now Satan has authority. But notice this: “I can give it to whom I will.” Why? Because authority is transferrable. It can be forfeited. It can be stolen. It can be delivered. And that’s Satan’s plan: to gain control. Authority. Dominion. The devil is not like the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors who wants to cause pain just for the sake of causing pain. The devil is more like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors who just wants to devour everything and rule the world. The devil is not a one-note one-dimensional villain who just wants to be bad for the sake of being bad. He doesn’t bring pain to our lives just because he thinks God is ugly and we look like God so he thinks we’re ugly, too. He does this because he has a plan. Now perhaps you’re wondering: well I understand what his plan was in Eden- to get authority over planet earth- but what is his plan today? Doesn’t he already have what he wanted? What is he doing today? And I’m glad you asked. Let’s answer that. 3 Areas where the Devil Seeks Control There are three areas where the devil seeks control. (By the way, if you are overloaded on information right now, I totally understand. Pause this podcast and come back to it later. Won’t hurt my feelings. I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know this is a lot. As I said at the beginning, I’ve got a lot of MEAT for you today. I’ve got a little more MEAT coming still. If you gotta take a break for 24 hours to let some of this soak in, or maybe listen to this episode twice, do that.) (Probably listen to the episode twice. Because that’s probably better for my download numbers than if you turn this off halfway through it. So let’s keep going!) There are three areas where the devil seeks control. I will create a chart about this and release it this weekend for those of you who sign up for the newsletter, so here’s a plug for that. But let’s see how well you understand it just hearing this audibly. The first area the devil seeks control is by your standing before God. Your eternity. God wants you to go to heaven; the devil wants you to go to hell. So your spirit is a battleground. I like how a pastor named Mike Rhodes explained it to me one time. (By the way: huge shoutout to Pastor Mike this week. He not only pastors a church in my town, he has a heating and air business called Mike’s Heating and Air. My AC started acting up on July 3. I thought, great, right as we’re heading into a three-day holiday weekend, my AC goes out, this is gonna be a long three days because all the air conditioner repair guys are gonna be out for the Fourth of July holiday and it’s in the 90s this week in Missouri and it’s gonna be a looooong weekend. But Mike has been a good friend of the family for so long that I gave him a call, told him what was going on, and he came out first thing on Friday morning- a holiday- and fixed us up. So I am recording this episode under much better circumstances that I could have been if not for Mike. So big shout-out to Mike and Mike’s Heating and Air!) Alright, so Mike has said this to me before as well: God, the devil and you each get a vote for where you spend eternity. God votes for heaven, the devil votes for hell, and your vote breaks the tie. So that’s the first area where the devil seeks domination: over your eternity. The Gospel deals with this, because once you accept the free gift of salvation offered in Jesus Christ- once you put your trust in Christ and transfer your allegiance to Christ- your spirit is saved. If you are saved, one of the three areas where the devil seeks control is dealt with, at least as much as it pertains to your life; your eternity is secure. The second area where the devil seeks control is in your mind. This speaks of the soul. Your mind, your will, your emotions. These are the areas where the devil and his minions seek control. Your spirit can be saved, but your soul can still be under a lot of attack and domination from the enemy. This is why Peter can make a proclamation of faith in Christ in Matthew 16:16 and then just a few verses later, Jesus is telling Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” Because Peter was saved, but his mind was still under the influence of the devil. Once you understand this, you’ll understand why there are so many warnings about the devil even if you’re already saved. Some Christians read verses about Satan being disarmed or under our feet or how he is a defeated foe so they say, “Why would I have to worry about him, Satan has been defeated.” That’s because they don’t understand that there are different battlegrounds. Once you’re saved, the devil no longer has any power over your eternity. But you’re still gonna have to deal with him in temptations, in your mind, in your mental health, in your physical health, in your finances, in all kinds of ways. And sin opens the door to give him those footholds in your life. So the first area Satan seeks control is over your eternity. That is dealt with once you get saved. Your vote has been cast. He can’t stop you from going to heaven. The second area Satan seeks control is over your life until you go to heaven. As long as you live on this earth, your mind is a battleground. You will have a fight. The third area Satan seeks control is over physical space. Territory on planet earth. Not just your home. Your neighborhood. Your city. Your state. Your country. He is gonna take as much as he can get. The devil seeks control of physical space on planet earth. He wants all the territories committed to him. This will relate a lot to what I was sharing earlier this year about portals into the spirit realm and altars. The devil seeks territory- physical space on earth- where he can create gates of hell. The devil seeks physical space where he can have authority and influence and domination. He wants idols set up to false gods. He wants altars built and activated across planet earth. He wants paganism and witchcraft because these things will open up legal rights for him in various locations all over the planet. So what is Satan’s agenda today? Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan seeks domination over your eternity, over your life, and over physical space. Those are three battlegrounds where the fight happens every day. And Satan gets victories in these areas through sin. When you sin, it can give the devil a foothold or a legal right to oppress you. Sins in a physical location give the devil a right in that location. That’s why God would tell the Israelites not just to take the land but to cleanse the land. And we will talk more about legal rights in the spiritual realm and how that works when we get into our Ephesians 6 study over the next few weeks. I better wind this down for today, but what I want you to know in the meantime is that just because you got saved does not mean you no longer have to worry about the devil. He might have lost his opportunity to steal your eternity. He still wants to steal all the good from your life, he wants to tempt you to sin so he can gain more control over your life. And he wants to occupy physical space on planet earth. That was his agenda in Eden and ever since Eden. But as we wind it down today, we’ll talk about how the Gospel gives you the right to take dominion back. NEXT TIME Real quick: So we see that there was supposed to be a chain-of-command relationship of God first, man second, and creation third. Man submits to God, and creation submits to man. God has dominion over man, and man has dominion over Creation. But where to angelic beings fit into that equation? That’s the next piece of the puzzle I want to explore, and that’s what we’ll be talking about next week, looking at Hebrews 2 and Psalm 8. Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it! And as I mentioned, we have a newsletter. If you want the chart I’ll send out this weekend that gives more of a visual understanding of the three areas that Satan seeks control- visualizing it might help some of you understand it better- I know I always appreciate a good chart- then go to the link in the show notes and sign yourself up for the newsletter. If you come to this podcast episode later, don’t worry, you can still find the chart and all the previous newsletters when you click that link. Some quick shoutouts to those of you who sent an email this week. Thank you to Sherman, to Vicki, to Noah, to John, and to Jennifer, who all reached out. I always love hearing from the listeners, and if you want to get in touch with me for any reason, my email is WeirdStuffInTheBible@gmail.com I hope you’re enjoying this series I’ve been doing on our conflicts with spiritual beings. If you’re digging it, or enjoying this podcast in general, please take a moment to leave a 5-star review. That’s greatly appreciated. If you type something nice as well, I’ll even include it on the website, WeirdStuffInTheBible.com. How the Gospel gets our authority back As we close, let’s talk about how the Gospel gets our authority back. Satan seeks domination over every area of our lives- most importantly, our eternal residence. He wants us on his team and to spend eternity with him. God wants us on his team and to spend eternity in heaven. If we lived a perfect, sinless life, we would have never given any allegiance to the devil, and so we would never have to worry about separation from God. But since we’ve all sinned, we all lost our relationship with God. We can’t blame Adam and Eve for that; we all have our own sins to answer for. Jesus was able to take care of this for us by living a perfect life. This is why He said in John 14:30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me Notice that: He has no claim on me. Why did Jesus say that? Because Jesus never did anything wrong. Therefore, the devil never had any authority in Jesus’ life. No legal rights over Jesus, because Jesus did nothing wrong. When you believe in Jesus and switch your allegiance to him, the devil loses his legal rights to your eternity. The sinful record that you had is transferred to Jesus on the cross; the perfect record of Jesus’ life is transferred to you. But what about the authority that the devil still seeks to gain over your life in the meantime, as well as physical space on planet earth? The Gospel has an answer for this, too. Let’s go to the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus came and said to them [the disciples], “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Notice the first thing Jesus said: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. We will talk about authority in heaven in a few weeks. But as for you and I right now, we’re on earth. Our lives exist down here in this physical space. And we operate in a physical space. Jesus has all authority. And then He gives us the authority go take our dominion back. We get to reclaim this creation for God. We get to regain the stewardship that Adam lost. In fact, part of our mission as the church is to win not just people but territory for the Lord. Sometimes we read about reaching the nations and we limit that to just people in the nations. Yes, God wants the people in the nations. But He also wants the nations. In the meantime, our church are outposts of the Kingdom of God in this enemy territory. Holy ground, or sacred space. So in the weeks ahead, we’ll dig into all that more. But in short, the Gospel gives you authority to take back your life and take back space for God. Now, sometimes to get the devil out of your life, it’s as simple as declaring it. I am not a name-it-and-claim-it guy, but sometimes, it’s as simple as declaring those ties to the demonic realm null and void and telling the devil he no longer has authority over you in that area. Sometimes it’s that simple. Most of the time, getting the devil out of your hair involves cleaning up your life, repenting of sins, changing your mindsets and wrong beliefs, tearing down idols, doing some soul-searching, and humbling yourself. That’s not always easy, but it’s totally worth it if you want to live free of the enemy. Because he looks for any opening in your life where he can get legal rights and have authority. Yes, Satan has a plan. But thankfully, God has a better one. So if you think taking back our dominion sounds weird, I hope you’re a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.