The closest to behemoth and leviathan, that we know of are perhaps the sea horse and the crocodile.  However, the sea horse, and also the elephant, has a small and weak tail, so it cannot be resembled with cedar (40:17).  The crocodile, on the other hand, does not have a tongue, or perhaps have such a small and insignificant tongue stuck to his lower jaw, unlike what is described in 41:1.

Some interpreters(21) see in these two animals an image of two personalities that will appear at the end-of-days and embody the Devil.  With these two personalities the discrimination and violence will be afflicted upon the honest and righteous after the rapture of the Church.  This means the beast and the antichrist.  Behemoth represents the beast that is coming up out of the earth, and leviathan pictures the beast rising up from the sea (Rev. 13).  See chapter 21.

This illustrates the Satanic  school  of thought in the principle of “Salvation through works” This thought implies that man does not love God for God’s own Self, but for gaining reward.  The Godly principle, on the other hand, is that God has given us eternal life, starting now, as a free gift (Rom 6:23).  This gift is our free, but it cost Him His Only Begotten Son (Jn 3:14, 16).  Therefore, I love Him because He deserves love, and because He loved me first (Jn 4:19).

It will not be long until the day of the Lord comes when the wrath of God betides leviathan, “In that day” – i.e the Lord’s day, with his sore and great and strong sword, will visit leviathan the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will slay the monster that is in the sea.” (Isa. 27:1), symbolic of God’s triumph over the powers of evil, and over Satan himself. See chapter 22.

Since God had given, to Lucifer, son of the morning! (Satan before his fall), the power over the earth in its original state before its destruction, as we have seen in the third chapter, it is not a wonder then that he, Satan, was jealous of Adam, when God gave Adam power over the renewed earth.  Immediately, driven by his jealous motives, he tried to grab the power from Adam’s hand.  Furthermore, he tried to draft Adam into his dominion against God.

The same word “nah-haash” means copper, the brilliant and shiny metal.  So, the serpent was indeed glamorous.  The person who used the word to name the serpent was Adam.  He did that before his fall (Gen 2:19, 20), which indicates that the serpent was indeed a glamorous animal.

One indication for how perfect the choice of words in Scripture is that in Gen 3.  The Bible did not mention the word “Satan” which means “the adversary”, or the word “Devil” which means “the accuser”, because up to that time these characteristics did not show up in him yet.  There was nobody yet to complain of, or to resist by protesting the blessing and grace of God to go to, where he did not deserve it.(23)

All pagan religions of ancient, all over the world included worship to the serpent which was considered a god.  Today, Satan is being worshipped in his cults in the West, symbolized frequently with a serpent!

The prophetess of the “Seventh Day Adventists” is Mrs. Ellen Gould White.  The founder of the heresy known as “the Christian Science” is Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy… etc.

We read the words of Satan, speaking with candor in the Holy Bible, thrice:  this one, in which he complains about God to man, is the first. In Job 1 and 2 we find him complaining about man to God.  Lastly we find him in the temptation of The Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness, in Mat. 4 and Luke 4, when he faced-off with the man-God, or God the incarnate.  First he befell man, then he complained of man, but in the third and last time when he was met with the seed of the Woman, he was mortally conquered.

In contrast to the woman’s three errors, we find The Second Man (The Lord Jesus Christ) when He was subject to temptation in the wilderness, He repeated, three times, the words, ‘It is written’. It is, as if He was saying, ‘It is written, so I shall not drop a word from it; and it is written, so I shall not add to it, and it is written, so I shall not change any of it.’

According to Darby’s New Translation.  Young’s Literal Translation of The Bible says, “And the woman seeth that the tree is good for food, and that it is pleasant to the eyes, and the tree is desirable to make one wise.” (Gen 3:6)

God’s style is diametrically opposing to this.  God starts with the heart, “for out of it are the issues of life.” (Pr 4:23).  We see the scene with the two disciples of Emmaus, He held their eyes (external) not to see him, but excited their heart (their hearts were burning in them) with longing to see Him and loving Him.  And finally, their eyes were opened and filled with His Holy sight (Luke 24:13-35).

The responsible man has no business in the issue of salvation, but the weak woman, who was deceived, can be seen here as a result of God’s rich and absolute grace, present in the scene.  Through the woman, the man of God’s counsels would come and conquer the Devil.

The Style of His Dominion: In This World

 “To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan to God,” (Acts 26:18)
We closed the previous chapter with the fall of man into sin when “the serpent deceived Eve by his craft,” (II Co 11:3); so the result was that man was expelled out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:24).  In his fall, man became in no harmony with God, and not fit for communion with Him.  It is not possible for the righteousness of God to allow the sinful man to be in His presence.
We will speak in this chapter, by the grace of God, about the continuation of Satan’s acting to allure man, even while he is out of the Garden of Eden.

THE PROJECT OF SATAN TO FILL THE VACUUM (Gen. 4)

The first-born child in this world, Cain, was evil and killed his brother Abel.  And while he refused to repent of his sins, he was dismissed out of the presence of God.
Once Cain went out of God’s presence, we read that he was “building a city” challenging God, who judged him with becoming squandered  “And he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.” (Gen. 4:17; see Ps. 49:11).  After that, the first line of ancestry is recorded in the Scripture, namely, the line of Cain’s ancestry.  The line continues until it reaches Lamech, the seventh after Adam.  Lamech was the first in the Bible to introduce polygamy.  He did that in another rebellion against God’s arrangement of marriage which He established or set up in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:24).  This line of ancestry concludes with the three sons of Lamech,  “Jabal: he was the father of those who dwell in tents, and [breed] cattle.  And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of those who handle the harp and pipe, and…..Tubal-Cain, the forger of every kind of tool of brass and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.” (Gen. 4:20-22).  With these three sons, the seventh generation from Cain, the features of the world were achieved.  These features comprise the system that was founded and decorated by Satan, to set an alternative way of living to the human who was chased out from the Garden of Eden.
In Jabal, whose name means “traveler”, we see an image of the commercial world, and man’s pursuit after his fortunes, his moving from one place to the other to win his sustenance, and his tolerating hardship of life for the sake of his bread and butter.  In this, Solomon The Wise said, “it is vain for you to rise up early, to lie down late, to eat the bread of sorrows: so to his beloved one he giveth sleep.” (Ps. 127:2).
In Jubal, whose name means: “blowing the horn”, we see another image.  He introduces to us the world of singing and music, the joyous and chanting world.  The world that needs nothing, as Job had said, “They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol.  And they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways! Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?” (Job 21:12-15).
In Tubal-Cain we find the beginning of the inventions that diverted the admiration of people to people and their innovations.  About this we read in Ecclesiastes: “Only see this which I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.” (Ecc. 7:29).
That is the world that Satan had established for man outside of the lost Paradise, to make him forget the shame of sin and label of vagrant.  Just as Satan had caused the dismissal of man from the majesty of God (Gen 3), he also labored to set-up a system by which the fallen man would remain away from God (Gen 4).
How can Satan keep man away from God?  He occupies him with matters, that might not be evil in itself, it may even be good and desirable.  It may be science or work, inventions or music.  It may even be jobs and family, or bread and butter and clean water.  What is important is that man be totally preoccupied with things so he would not even think of returning to God.  We see that this is exactly what had happened: “God looked down from the heavens upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.  Every one of them is gone back, they are together become corrupt: there is none that doeth good, not even one.” (Ps. 53:2,3).

Yes, we realize that this worldly system is inspired by the Devil “the god of this age.”  When the apostle Paul said: “Ye once walked according to the age of this world, he add: “according to the ruler of the authority of the air,” i.e. Satan (Eph. 2:2-3).  Satan undertook the task of adding to this system everything he sees suitable for the taste of fallen man, so the world has become a supermarket for all needs of all people, whether it be virtue or evil, religious or materialistic, all the way from the delights of the visible world to the mysteries of the invisible domain.
Considering the relationship between this world and the Devil, the apostle John, after commending the youth for vanquishing evil, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked [one]”, comes back to warn them, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”..  As if Satan will never give up, but will use the world to attack them once more.  And the basic ways of his attack is that which the scripture mentions “because all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (I Jn 2: 14-16).
Here we are today, at the beginning of the twenty first century, seeing the world in its double adornment, dressed up as a harlot to trap the innocent and ambush the naïve.  How easy did Satan make the way to the false comforts.  How abundant he made the ways of temporary pleasures.  He has effortless solutions to all of human problems, but all of it leads to eternal grief.  He has “strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter of soul” (Pr. 31:6).  He has the drugs and the narcotics for the young who are looking for momentary pleasure and seeking temporary thrill.  We remember the warning of the apostle, to the young widows, to avoid evil solutions to their problems, when he said, “But younger widows decline, … because they have cast off their first faith… For already some have turned aside after Satan.”  Indeed, Satan knows the weaknesses of humans, and he always has an appealing alternative.  The worst of alternatives, indeed!!
Rowland Hill,(24) the eighteenth century famous English preacher, narrated that he once saw a drove of pigs following a man.  He was taken by curiosity to follow the pack.  He was stunned to see that the pigs have followed the man to the slaughterhouse.  Then he asked the man, “How did you induce the pigs follow you to be slaughtered?” and the man answered, “I had a bag of beans under my arm, as long as I am walking, I drop a few grains now and then so, the pigs follow me.”
How many millions of people who were trapped by the Devil the same exact way? “Receiving [the] reward of unrighteousness; accounting ephemeral indulgence pleasure; spots and blemishes, rioting in their own deceits.” (II Pet 2:13).

SPOILING THE EFFECT OF THE WORD OF GOD

While Satan founded the worldly system so that he can keep mankind inside it, away from God.  And while this system made it difficult for mankind to return to God, it was not difficult for God to reach mankind.  God, who from the beginning came to man in the Garden of Eden searching for him, and amid the darkness of the fall, He rose brilliantly by His declaration that the Seed of woman will crush the serpent’s head,  did not leave the poor man even outside the Garden of Eden.  He reached out to man, by His word.  Indeed, God had talked to man from ancient times in “many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” (Heb 1:1,2).  Now we find ourselves living in the magnificent age of grace, where the most candid words of God had reached us (Heb. 2: 1-3).  We also know that “so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall do that which I please, and it shall accomplish that for which I send it.” (Isa. 55:11).  It is “living and powerful” (Heb 4:12). We also realize that if the word of God has the proper and natural opportunity, it will definitely change souls.  So, what is Satan going to do?  Would he stand crossing his hands around his chest when God interferes with His word into the souls to be born anew?  No, because Satan has his own style to use with those to whom the word of God had reached, trying to nullify its effects from them.
God explained, in the parable of the sower (Mt 13:3-9, 18-23; Mk 4:3-8, 14-20 and Lk 8:4-15) this satanic style, and the three ways Satan uses to spoil the effect of the word of God.  Jesus said: “Behold, the sower went out to sow: and as he sowed, some [grains] fell along the way, and the birds came and devoured them; and others fell upon the rocky places where they had not much earth, and immediately they sprang up out of [the ground] because of not having [any] depth of earth, but when the sun rose they were burned up, and because of not having [any] root were dried up; and others fell upon the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them;…”
From this parable, and from the interpretation of the Lord  to it, we understand that Satan works here too, just like we have seen him doing to fill the vacuum) in three dimensions: First, he does  interfere personally, then he uses the flesh his fifth column, and finally he employs the world, the corrupted system he founded.
The Devil, first, tries to snatch the word of God from the heart of his victim, exactly like the wild birds snatching the seeds from the fields, so the word of God does not have a chance to react in man’s heart.  There are two ways for this, first is unbelief in the Word (Luke 8:12), and second, failing to understand it (Mat. 13:18).  There exists a large flock of people who are convinced, by Satan, that the Bible is not the word of God.  When they hear the wondrous words of the Bible, and its vivid message, they will not benefit of it, since they do not believe it is the word of God in the first place.  There is yet another group who theoretically believe that the Holy Bible is the Book of God and it contains His words, but because of the gloom of human traditions and the influence of other people on them, they do not understand the marvelous contents of the Bible and its simple message.  These and those, who do not trust fully in God’s word, they open the door for the Devil to snatch the word from their hearts, they lose its influence.
But, if the message was received in the heart and reacted with it, then Satan can play his next card to burn the seedling in its early stage of growth.  He does that by springing discriminations against the person who accepted the word.  The person who accepted the word might have taken it with joy and good cheer.  He may seek a friend or a relative to share his joy with, and suddenly he finds that the recipients takes the news lukewarmly, or even reject it outright.  He may even offend him, or revert to sarcasm.  The result would be the burning of the seedling before its roots take hold in the soil.  Then the person who heard the word originally, accepted it and understood it, relapses away from the righteous way when he finds that walking with the Lord will cost him dearly, a cost that his human nature cannot endure (compare I Th. 3:5).
If the second attack does not work, then Satan changes his tactics altogether and reverts to a third blueprint of action.   Satan starts to use the world and what is in the world.  He may effect a promotion for the victim at his job, so the new position would consume all his energy and time, and thus, neglect his spirituality since he has no time for it.  The word would suffocate when it finds no proper environment to grow.  The Devil may even open new doors of wealth and prosperity to his victim, so a great fortune may befall on him.  Riches become an ambush for his soul.  So, the Devil uses this world with the rich and poor, using the conceit of riches or pressures of poverty.  His aim behind all this is to waste the word of God and diminish its effect on the souls.
So, the Devil, in his three attempts mentioned, may work directly, may use the weakness of the flesh that cannot endure persecution, or may use the world with its conceit or its adversity.

MANEUVERING AND COMPROMISE

When both ways mentioned above do not work, namely when the world and what it offers cannot engulf the human heart and divert it away from God, and, when the Devil fails to wipe-out the effect of the word of God from the souls that heard it, he reverts to a third scheme: I mean trickery, in which the Devil excels..
That is what we see in the attitude of Pharaoh, when God sent Moses to him, to save of His people from the Egyptian slavery and the yoke of the Pharaoh.   In this story, we find an indication to the fact that, by nature, we are under the mastery of Satan.  The world has but two kingdoms, and every human soul belong to one or the other, either the kingdom of Satan or the kingdom of Christ.  We need to do nothing to belong to the kingdom of Satan, because we’re born in it.  But we need the grace of redemption to move “turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God,” (Ac 26:18).
When Moses asked Pharaoh to let his people go, so they can worship God in the wilderness, Pharaoh first refused and said, “I do not know Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.” (Ex. 5:2).  He even reverted to increasing the burdens of slavery on Israel so they, “may be taken up with it, and not regard vain words.” (Ex. 5:9).  This is a true image of what Satan does with every soul started to think about God or started to worship Him.  But, under the pressure of successive plagues, which God inflicted on Pharaoh to force him to let the people of Israel go, the Pharaoh, the stubborn tyrant, could not continue to deny Jehovah and His rights upon His people.  So, he changed his style, from blatant refusal to bargaining.  The Pharaoh, did his chaffering in four different trials:
Pharaoh’s first attempt: “Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.” (Ex. 8:25)
This was the first and most dangerous of Pharaoh’s suggestions.  The connotation here is that Satan would agree to the practice of religion, if man stays under his dominion.  That’s how Cain was when he presented his offering to God even though he was evil and of the wicked one (Gen. 4:3 and I Jn 3:12).  Similarly, Satan today allows millions to worship God while in the same time they are his own subjects under his own supremacy.  But, can anyone serve two masters?! (Mt 6:24).
That is why Moses reply was, “It is not proper to do so; for we should sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God: lo, if we sacrificed the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, would they not stone us?” (Ex. 8:26).  It was not a testimony to God, anyhow that His people stay in Egypt as slaves, even if they slaughtered sacrifices to their God.
Moreover, how can we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes?  The Cross, which is the essence of our worship implies judging the world and the end of man-in-the-flesh. (Gal 6:14 and Ro 6:6).  Therefore, it is natural for the Cross, in its real connotation, to become the target of the world’s hatred and animosity.  How then do we worship while we are still in the atmosphere of the world and under the domination of its ruler?
This, regrettably is what happened to Christianity in the era of the emperor Constantine.  When the persecution and bloodshed all along the ages of martyrdom did not succeed in abolishing testimony to God, Satan changed his tactic, and made of the world a friend to the church and not an apparent foe.  It is as if Satan said to the church, “Go, sacrifice to your God in [this] land.”
But Moses, the man of God, said, “We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as he shall command us.” (Ex. 8:27).  No feast and no worship without a complete separation from the world.
The second attempt: “And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only, go not very far away” (Ex. 8:28)
This means that Satan is ready to make the chain he ties us with, as long as we want, provided that the other end stays in his hands, so he can pull us with it when he pleases.
This is one of the most successful tricks of Satan, when he invites the souls to stop being stern and obstinate.  It involves flexibility, and readiness to surrender some of his principles under the slogan of broad-mindedness and liberalism of thoughts.  Every time he tells people: “Do not go too far”! But if the people become saturated with the general atmosphere of Egypt, and submitted to its influence, then they are coming back to it, no doubt !  For someone to return to what he was previously called to abandon, is not only an insult to God, but also the end of this person is much more worse than his beginning, (Compare II Pe 2:20).  Someone(25) once said, “If people do not “go very far away”, they had better not to go at all… The maintenance of a border position suits his purpose amazingly.  Those who occupy this ground are neither the one thing nor the other; and in point of fact, whatever influence they possess, tells entirely in the wrong direction.”
The third attempt: “Go now, ye [that are] men, and serve Jehovah! for it is that ye have desired.” (Ex 10:11)
This means that if Satan finds no use of holding the entire people, he will at least keep the women and children in his captivity.  This is a humanly logical approach.  Why do we inflict the pain and suffering of the long and wearisome journey in the wilderness on women and children?  Pharaoh knew that if he is guaranteed to keep the women and children, he is consequently guaranteed the next generation to be under his authority.  Moreover, this may very well mean that the fleeing generation of men will come back as well.  In fact, this means that the men who were let go, as if were not let go in the first place, since their children, being “chops of the old block” are still under his domination.  The best that can be said to describe this situation is that part of the people; even part of every family, worships God, and the other part serves Pharaoh.  But, would the Lord accept a split or a compromise with Satan?  Impossible!
The fourth attempt: “Go, serve Jehovah; only, let your flocks and your herds remain; let your little ones also go with you.” (Ex 10:24)
This is the last of Pharaoh’s maneuvering.  If the cows and sheep stayed in Egypt, then the people will most certainly come back.  “For where thy treasure is, there will be also thy heart” (Mt 6:21).
This, of course is a rejected condition, because if people were let go to the wilderness without their herds, how then can they slaughter sacrifices to God?  Moses answer was a decisive one, “Thou must give also sacrifices and burnt-offerings into our hands, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God. Our cattle also must go with us: there shall not a hoof be left behind; for we must take thereof to serve Jehovah our God; and we do not know with what we must serve Jehovah, until we come there.” (Ex. 10:25,26).
No compromise with Satan!  When God liberates us, He wants us and all our possessions to Himself, so we become sanctified for the Lord.  Satan, on the other hand, if he cannot prevent the ministers from serving God, then he will try to hinder their service.  If he fails to prevent the worshipper from going and worshipping God, he will try to make him go without an offering, go with his mere body!
When Moses said: “We do not know with what we must serve Jehovah, until we come there,” it indicates that as long as we are not completely separated from the world, and have not been liberated fully from the authority of Satan, we cannot know the thoughts of God and His exalted intensions for us.
How dangerous is that astute and crafty Devil?  He starts with the least of falls to force us into all kinds of falls.  He suffices in the beginning with enough room for his foot, but never yields until all the land is his.  Let us be aware of his maneuvering and be careful not to give him an iota of our lives, not one inch of room for his foot.
It is the steadfast decision of the heart to follow Jesus that most successfully confronts Satan. (See Acts 11:23 and Daniel 1:8).

His Dwelling in Mankind

“Jesus who [was] of Nazareth:…..; who went through [all quarters] doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38)
By now, we have seen a part of the Devil’s dealings with mankind to lure them into falling in sin and to drive a wedge between them and God, in order to keep them under his authority.  The entire stratagem we studied so far was “external.”
But the devil has another style of attacking, which is more hard and dangerous that is “internally” not “externally”.  The internal attack does not use temptation, but rather uses overpowering, which involves efface the human will through his ownership of the person’s body, and dwelling in it using his hosts, the evil spirits.  This way, the person is converted to a machine that acts out, not what the person commands, but according to signals received from the demons residing within him.
This matter, as we understand from the Gospels , was quite common at the time of the Incarnation of God’s Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.  It seems that as the Devil knew about the coming of The Savior to the world, so he intensified his work among the people of God, the Jews, in an unusual way using the demons following him to dwell in the people.  That is why, when Peter was speaking about the ministry of the Lord, he mentioned this matter in particular when he says: “Jesus who [was] of Nazareth: how God anointed him with [the] Holy Spirit and with power; who went through [all quarters] doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil ”  (Acts 10:38).  In the Gospel of Mark alone, while Mark is the Gospel that represents Christ as the servant to the needs of the people, we find seven incidents to healing people whose souls were dwelled with the demons. (1:23, 34, 39; 3:11; 5:2; 6:26; 9:17).
This matter, i.e. the dwelling of demons in the bodies of some people, still exists today, especially in the places where the enlightenment of the Gospel is not prevalent.  Jesus said: “But when the unclean spirit has gone out of the man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest,” (Mt. 12:43).  That means they do not attain comfort in the places where the word of God is present, (compare Eph. 5:26), i.e., the places where the Holy Bible is opened and read, or the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is iterate, worshiped, and glorified.  That is why these evil spirits are widespread particularly among the heathen nations, as the missionaries who work in those area reports.
At the beginning, we would like to know:

WHAT ARE THE EVIL SPIRITS?

The word “Demons” that is recorded repetitively in the New Testament, meaning the evil spirits that dwell in mankind, is not the plural form of “Satan” or “The Devil.”: The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word: “Shatan”. From a word that means the enemy or the adversary.  This word, in the Hebrew version of the Bible is not recorded except as singular , to express that distinguished cherub whose fall we contemplated in the third chapter.  The word “Devil” that is used numerously in the New Testament is not originated directly from Hebrew but from Greek.  The word in Greek is “Daimon” and it is derived from a Greek word bearing the meaning of knowledge or intelligence, even though the fall has spoiled that intelligence and converted it to slyness and cunning.  This Greek word, in its plural form, is what originated the plural word “Demons.”
“Demons” is the plural of “Demon” and the word is distinguished from both the Devil and Satan in that they are the followers and he is the leader, one person.  This can be understood from the following:

1. The words of Christ when He cast out one of these demons from a man, then the Pharisees accused Him saying: by Beelzebub , the prince of demons casts out demons, then He answered them, “If also Satan is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom subsist? because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.” (Lk 11:18).
2. When the seventy apostles came back and joyfully said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name.” Then Jesus related this victory of his disciples over the demons to His final triumph over Satan himself when He said, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling out of heaven.” (Lk 10:17, 18).
3. Their common destiny, since those demons fear the fall to the Abyss “before the time”  (Mt. 8:29 & Lk 8:31).  Satan, as we understand from Rev. 20:3, will be tied and thrown into the Abyss.  At that time his hosts will accompany him too. (Isa. 24:21,22).
4. This line of thinking is confirmed by the following references: (Lk 13:16; 8:26-29 & Rev. 16:13,14).

As many of the interpreters have deducted, we can also come to a conclusion, based on what we have seen so far, that the angels who took the side of the Devil when he rebelled, and fell with him (Mt. 25:41 & Rev. 12:7) are themselves the demons.  This may be why they are called devils, because they belong to the Devil.  We may also follow up several other names or titles that will help us painting a picture about their characters and evil activities.

NAMES OF THE DEMONS

1. Wicked Spirits: They are called “wicked spirits” 6 times in Scripture (Lk 7:21; 8:2 & Ac 19:12-16), perhaps because of the nature of harm and destruction it inflicts upon the victim, in whom they dwell.  A man, with a wicked spirit, leaped upon seven men and subdued them all, and, forced them to flee the house naked and wounded. (Ac 19).  Also, the demoniac from the country of the Gergesenes who was so fearful that no one was able to pass by that way.  He was so dangerous he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn asunder by him, and the shackles broken in pieces (Mt. 8:28 and Mk 5:4).  He was, in his demonic state, so hurtful that he was crying out and cutting himself with stones (Mk 5:5).
2. Unclean Spirits:  In the New Testament, this description is mentioned 23 times , (Mt. 10:1; Mk 5:13; Ac 5:16 and Rev. 16:13).  These spirits fill its victim with filth in appearance and in content.  The man who was possessed with the legion of wicked spirits was living in the tombs  a place of death and uncleanness.  He was nude , with no clothing whatever, possessed by impurity in all his ways.  The relationship between the evil spirit and the unclean spirit is evident as we read Mt. 12: 43-45, “But when the unclean spirit has gone out of the man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and does not find [it]. Then he says, I will return to my house whence I came out; and having come, he finds [it] unoccupied, swept, and adorned. Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits worse (more evil) than himself, and entering-in, they dwell there; and the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first.”
3. Lying Spirits: (I Ki 22:22,23 & II Ch 18:21,23).  Lying spirits in the lying prophets of ancient Israel, and in lying teachers in “Nominal Christendom” today (II Pe. 2:1 & I Jn 4:1).
4. Deceiving Spirits: (I Tim. 4:1) Deceiving spirits denies the divine truth, considering them followers of the Devil, the greatest deceiver (Rev. 12:9).  Also described as the “spirit of error” (I Jn 4:6).  The teachings of such spirits are usually admired by people as it attracts them, and avoids to befall them in the outset.  But at the end, it stings like a snake and bites like a cobra.
5. Dumb Spirits: (Mk 9:17) It causes the victim to be unable to speak (mute) or unwilling to speak (Mat. 9:32,33).  It is also described as a deaf and dumb spirit (Mk 9:25) that inflicts dumbness and deafness on the victim.  Similarly, it may afflict the victim with blindness (Mt. 12:22).
6. A Spirit of Infirmity (Lk 13:11) A spirit as this one is what caused the woman to bend over and be wholly unable to lift her head up.  She became like an animal looking always to the ground!
7. A Spirit of Python (Ac 16:16), or a spirit of divination (fortune-telling) and telepath .  This spirit affects the mental vision in order to see what is taking place hundreds of kilometers away. It also enables the victim to recognize people even if he or she had never met before, and know the name of his visitor before the visitor shows up.  Such a spirit is depicted in chapter 16 of the Book of Acts.  We should not forget that the word “demon” is actually derived from a Greek word meaning “knowledge.”
8. Familiar Spirit (Jinn) The expression is cited about 16 times in the Old Testament.
9. A Spirit of Perverseness (Isa. 19:14), which inflicts confusion, discord and hesitation upon the individual.  His attitude becomes conflicting.
10. A Spirit of Ill, or of Evil,  (I Sa 16:14, 15, 16, 22; 19:9, 10 & Jdg 9:23).  This spirit resembles, to a great extent, the previously mentioned Evil Spirit, since it leads to murdering the others (I Sa. 18: 8-10), and may also lead to committing suicide (I Sa. 31:4).

INFORMATION ABOUT DEMONS

As we follow the facts about these demons in the Scripture, we find:

1. They are spirits (only), meaning that they have no bodies (Compare Lk 24:39).
2. They perpetually try to enter into people’s bodies (or even animals, see Mk 5:8, 12).  Not only they try to enter the body, but also to dwell in it.  When it possesses a person, it can enter and exit his body as it pleases (Mt.12:43-45; Lk 9:39).
3. They belong to a huge kingdom, innumerable in count, to the extent that a whole legion of them dwelled in one person. (A legion is a military assembly from the Roman Empire which numbers about 6,000 soldiers) (Mk 5:9).
4. They are well organized in spite of their tremendous number.  In their discipline they are much like modern armies.  They all have submission to their commander in chief, the Devil.
5. They are all evil and unclean spirits, but they are not all of the same degree of evil or strength (Mk 9:29; Mt 12:45).
6. They possess enormous power.  Their power is used in destruction rather than in construction, as we explained before.
7. Their ultimate fate is eternal torment.  They know that and are trembled of it (Mt. 25:41; Jas 2:19).

Their effect on their victims of mankind is threefold:

1. They affect the body , (as we have seen when we studied the names of the demons). They inflicts a variety of ills on their victims without apparent physiological reasons, e.g. inflicts muteness (Mt. 9:32, 33; 12:22 and Mk 9:17 - 29), or blindness (Mt. 12:22), or bending-over (Lk 13:11 - 17), or epilepsy (Mt. 17:15 - 18).
2. They affect the psyche of the person, so he loses the symptoms of his personality, and loses dignity.  He may walk naked, with no shame or embarrassment, since his psychological well-being is lost.  In Mark 5 we find the lunatic of the town of Gadarenes had lost his identity completely.  The legion of unclean spirits was speaking through him, but he had lost his personality completely.
3. It affects the spirits of their victims. (The spirit is the land of the mind and conscience (Job 32:8).  It afflicts victims with madness (Mt 8:28 & Mk 5:15) and leads them, in their madness to commit suicide (Mk 9:21,22).

Therefore, we can learn the symptoms of those dwelled by evil spirits from the lunatic of the town of Gadarenes (Mark 5) and others.  The symptoms may be unusual power, excitement, conflicting attitudes, fear of spiritual matters and resisting it, knowing people without previously dealing with them, speaking in a voice totally different than the natural voice of the person (who spoke in the town of Gadarenes was the legion of demons, not the person himself).  Some experts in this field(27) add more symptoms that appear on the possessed person, which we mention here, because of the fact that knowing it has its own merit, such as a desire to tell lies or foul sentences, sexual excitement, evil desire to speak against God, inability to utter the holy name of The Lord Jesus , harshness, swearing, extraordinary bodily power, vast knowledge, far-reaching sight, speaking unintelligible language, depression, fear, feeling of bodily pains and aches without a physiological reason or injury.

 

CASTING-OUT THE DEMONS

When The Lord Jesus Christ came to the world, exorcism of demons was an important part of His work.  His method was that He ordered them, with one word, to leave the body.  In this, He demonstrated His authority over the demons.  In this we find:

1. A proof that something new had entered the picture.  Something that did not exist before (Mt. 9:33 & Mk 1:27).  Now the prophecy was fulfilled, “Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” (Ps. 89:19).
2. This Exalted One was no one but The Messiah, The Son of David, the hope of the nation, the One for whom promises were given (Mt. 12:22, 23 and Ac 2:22; 10:37-39).
3. This meant that the Kingdom of God had come upon them (Lk 11:20).

The Lord explained that these demons comprise a large and organized kingdom, whose president is the Devil.  But Christ came to represent a greater kingdom presided by God (the Kingdom of God).  Therefore, God was ordering those demons to exit the bodies, so they immediately did.  Of this the apostle Peter said, “Jesus who [was] of Nazareth: how God anointed him with [the] Holy Spirit and with power; who went through [all quarters] doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” (Ac 10:38).  He was the representative of the Kingdom of God.  This is the meaning of his saying, “But if by the finger of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Lk 11:20).
That is why when God sent His disciples, the ambassadors of the King, carrying the Gospel of the Kingdom, He endowed them with the same authority (Mt. 10:5-8 & Mk 3:14, 15 & Lk 9:1,2).  He also repeated the same endowment when He sent the seventy apostles (Lk 10:1-19).  And again when the King was rejected and His Messiah was murdered, the new mission came after His resurrection, not to Israel only but to the whole world.  The Lord had extended the proof of the validity of the endowed powers among which was the miracle of casting out of demons: “And these signs shall follow those that have believed: in my name they shall cast out demons… The Lord therefore, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God. And they, going forth, preached everywhere, the Lord working with [them], and confirming the word by the signs following upon [it].” (Mk 16:17-20).
We notice that casting-out of demons is not included among the list of gifts given from God to the Church, either what came in Romans 12 or I Corinthians 12 or Ephesians 4. It is not a gift that stays permanently with the Church, but it was an authority given to the apostles at the age of laying the foundation, and points out to the beginning of instituting the Kingdom on earth.  It was also one of the signs that followed the believers in the beginning to confirm the verbal words before the accomplishment of the Scripture.  It ended, naturally, with the end of the apostolic age, just like all other miracles (Mk 16:17, 20 & Heb. 2:3, 4).   The Lord had left in the hands of the Church, not signs nor miracles, but something much greater, which is the Word of God. (See Lk 16:30, 31 & Deut. 13:1- 3 & Ac 20:32).
What must distinguish the Church now, in harmony with the Holy and The True, in the age of abandoning His word, the age of chaos and anarchy that we live in, is not miracles but honesty and obedience to God’s word. (Rev 3:8).
Yes, the signs that existed, among which was the casting-out of demons, were necessary at the time of laying the foundation of the Church, to prove that the apostles were indeed the representatives of the Kingdom of God.  But, is the church’s mission in the world today, the casting-out of demons?  Did God leave us in this world to purify it from the unclean spirits?
An incident of casting out Demons cited in Acts 16, sheds important light on this subject, when a female slave, having a spirit of Python, met Paul, Silas and Luke, who brought much profit to her masters by prophesying. She, having followed Paul and the others, cried saying, These men are bondmen of the Most High God, who announce to you [the] way of salvation. And this she did many days.  Although Paul had the God-given power to cast-out demons, he did not exercise his authority in the first or the second day.  It actually lasted for several days.  Lastly, when Paul’s nuisance mounted, he looked at the spirit, as if he did not look at it before, a mere glimpse, and, in one word he ordered the spirit, “I enjoin thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out the same hour.”
Millions of people are enslaved by the Devil even though they are not possessed with demons.  They are headed, of course, to the eternal destruction.  What did we do with those people?  If we exhaust our energies at casting-out demons, we would be losers, because, when demons exit one man they will enter into another.  Moreover, unless the person, who is liberated from demons, surrenders his life to Christ, he would gain nothing.  On the contrary, his end may be worse than his beginning (Mt. 12:45).  If we spend our time dealing with this invisible world, instead of offering the word of life, the Gospel of the grace of God, to the lost souls, this would be a waste of time. Even though some workers in the field of God have, regrettably, slip into this slippery path of exorcism.
On the other hand, if we truly feel the guidance of God to help someone who is burdened under the influence of those demons, we are not without means.  The Lord Has given us a way, appropriate with the limited powers that distinguish the honest believers nowadays (Rev 3:8), when He said to His disciples, “this kind does not go out but by prayer and fasting.” (Mt 17:21).  Since God persuades the believers to feel their self-weakness, which they express in their prayers, and to be certain that they are not worthy of anything whatsoever, which they express by fasting, then He responds to them, and extends a helping hand to deliver (Ps. 107:6, 13, 19, 28).
On the other hand, what we hear about nowadays, the meetings held to cast-out demons, and the people who are gifted with the gift of exorcism, are strange things, devoid of the word of God.  Similarly, the same applies to these meetings, where discussions are held with the demons! We do not find in the whole Bible anything, but one instance, pointing to a discussion between the Lord or the apostles, with the demons.  That instance is when God asked the lunatic man from the town of Gadarenes: “What is your name?”  The Lord meant by this to uncover something about the enemy that dwelt in that poor person with a whole legion of demons, and how did the demons subdued him and wiped-out his personality, and denied him his will to the extent that he was not given a chance to speak, but the demons spoke on his behalf.  Apart from that unique incident we never read that Christ permitted demons to speak, or any of the apostles had entered into a discussion with them (for example, the incident of the woman possessed by a spirit of Python in Phillipi - Ac 16:16-18).
But, beating the people inflicted with demons, or raising of incense and writing of talismans and amulets using verses from the Psalms or otherwise, with the purpose of driving out the demons, are altogether different methods of the demons themselves, thereby evil, regrettably associated with the name of The Lord Christ, while Christ is innocent of it.
In this occasion we remember the conclusive words of Christ in His famous Sermon on The Mount, in Mt. 5-7, when He said, “Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied through thy name, and through thy name cast out demons, and through thy name done many works of power? And then will I avow unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, workers of lawlessness.” (Mt 7:22, 23)
This passage was a source of confusion to many:  How can followers of the Devil, cast-out the demons?  Did Satan divide against himself? The Lord Himself explained that this is impossible (Mt. 12:26).  Then, how is it possible for Satanic people, led by Satan, to cast-out demons?  Don’t we deduce, from all of this, that the whole matter was a play, a theatrical act, by the Devil, that he perfected?  We explained before that demons many times exit their victims with their own willingness and power (Mt. 12:43, 45).  There is no problem then in comprehending that they can be cast-out by those evil people.  There is no problem in that demons flee their victims after they give the wrong impression that they were forced to liberate them, then, they can come again and possess the same person or to possess others.  But what do these demons gain from putting out such a theatrical act?  In my opinion they benefit from conducting the discussions between the exorcists and the evil spirits.  We knew before that the grave mistake of Eve was to discuss matters with the serpent.  Hence, these evil demons know how to fold lies into their discussion with an outstanding skill, amid sentences of brilliant truths.  They can divert hearts away from Christ, not exposedly but using their Satanic guile.   The greatest benefit these demons find behind these theatrical acts, in which they seem to be forced to exit, is that they are provided with the opportunity to speak with people, discuss, so they can try to lead them away from truths .
It is a game, greater than our comprehension, and, fortunately, God did not let us slide into them.  We are only invited to witness for Christ and his truth in the middle of a corrupt and evil world.

QUESTION: CAN THE EVIL SPIRITS DWELL IN A BELIEVER?

Discussing this question will put a conclusion to this difficult or critical subject
The answer to this question is: NO.  The reasons for that are:

1. The Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of the believer and does not desert it. (Rom. 8:11 & Eph. 1:13).  Therefore, can The Holy Spirit and the Devil dwell in the same house?  Impossible, because, “what agreement of God’s temple with idols? For ye are [the] living God’s temple.” (II Co. 6:16).
2. The Father had saved us from the authority of darkness (Col. 1:12, 13).  God has “spoiled principalities and authorities, he made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it [the Cross].” (Col. 2:15).  Is it possible, then, that God retreat from His gifts, or could He return to Satan a person who had placed his full trust in the Crucified?  This is also impossible.
3. In the story written in I Sam. 30, when the men of David found the boy slave, who was left by his master to die after his illness, the salve, asked David for only two favors in order to serve him: “Swear to me by God, that thou wilt neither put me to death, nor deliver me up into the hand of my master” (I Sam. 30:15).  Our great God is not any less in character than David.  He shall never surrender us to the old and cruel master.
4. Because we become the property of Christ, He bought us with His precious blood.  “Do ye not know that your body is [the] temple of the Holy Spirit which [is] in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? For ye have been bought with a price:” (I Co. 6:19, 20).  To say that a person who became a property of Christ, can revert to the Devil and surrender to him, is more of an insult to Christ than a loss to the believer.
5. Because Christ, who is a lot mightier than Satan, preserves us. “We know that every one begotten of God does not sin, but he that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked [one] does not touch him .” (I Jn 5:18).  The last part of this passage becomes more illustrious if read according to another translation which says: “but the Son of God keeps himself, and the evil one doth not touch him”
6. Because we never read in the word of God that the demons dwelled in the body of a believer, or a follower of Christ.  The Holy Bible does not warn us against such a thing or gives us directions of what to do if that happens.  We can interpret this as it is impossible to happen [dwelling of the demons in the heart of the believer].  If the believers are able to cast-out demons, it only makes sense that demons do not dwell in them.
7. Because the examples given in the Scripture confirm this issue:  For example, in the Old Testament, God permitted Satan to inflict harm on Job “Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand; only upon himself put not forth thy hand.” (Job 1:12), then God allowed Satan to afflict Job’s body (his flesh and bones) without exceeding these limits.   In the New Testament, when the apostle Paul surrendered one of the believers to Satan, it was for the extirpation of the body with illnesses, not for the evil spirit to dwell in him (I Co. 5:5 with 2 Co. 2:6, 7).
8. If it was possible for the unclean spirits to dwell in the believer, we would have been warned to fear Satan.  But we are cautioned to be careful of Satan’s tricks only.  As far as his power is concerned, The Holy Book tells us: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7).

Yes, indeed we should be very careful and watchful for the Devil’s tricks!  Even though he cannot dwell in us, we the believers, but he can inflict harm upon us by influencing, directing, and deceiving us.  He can wage war against us from outside and invade our minds with dark thoughts leading to depression.  He can inspire us with thoughts that cause spiritual troubles.
Let us hope and pray that God gives us the power and determination not to give the Devil or his demons any space in our lives.  The true believer, who is filled with the Holy Spirit, has no room in him for the evil spirits, and thus, the evil spirits have no influence or dominion in his life whatsoever.