George Burnside
Why Doesn’t God Destroy the Devil?
We shall consider some questions which come to us as soon as we begin to study the prophecies of this wonderful old book, the Bible. I am constantly being asked these questions:- “Who made the Devil?” “Did a good God make a bad world?” “If the devil is responsible for all sin, trouble and suffering, why doesn’t God destroy him?” There are many people who do not believe the devil exists. They claim he is just an imaginary being, or a superstitious idea inherited from past ages. This poem came to me from a friend across the sea:
“Men don’t believe in a devil now,
As their fathers used to do;
They’ve forced the door of the broadest creed
To let his majesty through.
There isn’t a print of his cloven hoof,
Or a fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in the earth or air today,
For the world has voted it so.
But who is mixing the fatal draft,
That palsies heart and brain,
And loads the bier of each passing year
With ten hundred thousand slain?
Who blights the bloom of the land today
With the fiery breath of hell?
If the devil isn’t or never was,
Won’t somebody rise and tell?
Who dogs the step of the toiling saint?
Or digs the pit fro his feet?
Who sows the tares in the field of time,
Wherever God sows His wheat?
The devil is voted not to be,
And of course the thing is true,
But who is doing the work
The devil alone should do?
We are told he does not go about
As a roaring lion now;
But whom shall we hold responsible
For the everlasting row?
To be heard in home, in church, in state,
To earth’s remotest bound,
If the devil by unanimous vote
Is nowhere to be found?
Won’t somebody step to the front forthwith
And make his bow and show
How the frauds and crimes of a single day Spring up?
We want to know. The devil was fairly voted out,
And, of course, the devil is gone;
But simple people would like to know,
Who carries his business on?”
And after all it is a good question too, is it not? Trouble and suffering is very real here, and who is responsible? We are all aware that evil, crime, and wickedness in this world does not come just of itself. The Bible reveals that behind the scenes there is a great superior personality, engineering the fight against God and right. He is called the “Devil”, and “Satan”.
Now, we should always remember that we cannot get rid of the devil by merely saying that he does not exist. The Devil is mentioned thirty-four times in the New Testament alone, and “Satan” thirty-seven times. So to all who accept the Bible as the Word of God, there are seventy-one sure proofs of the reality of the Devil.
In 1 Peter 5:8 we read: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.”
I know quite well that it is fashionable in these days to soft-pedal three certain “d’s” which the Bible warns us against - “Disobedience”, “Damnation”, and “Devil”. Some may think that there is no Devil because they have never met him. No doubt this is because they are going in the same direction as he is. On the other hand, any person who follows Jesus Christ as a real Christian, will not go through a single day without being convinced that there is a real personal Devil fighting against God and opposing those who do right. From Ephesians 6:12, 13 I read: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in this evil day, and having done all to stand.”
Where did Satan come from? In Luke 10:18 we read: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” There was a time when Satan was one of the highest angels in heaven. His name was “Lucifer”, which means “day star”. He was one of the brightest stars among the hosts of heaven.
If God created everything, then why did He create the Devil? Listen, friends, God did create everything. All things in the universe, except the Devil, came into existence by His creative power. God created Lucifer, a perfect being, but Lucifer made a devil out of himself. In Isaiah 14:12-14 we read: “How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning; how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also .upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”
Note how many times the capital “I” is used. “I” stands for selfishness, self-conceit, self-sufficiency. When anyone gets to the place where he thinks he can do things without the help of God, he has taken the first step Lucifer took when he started in sin. Let us ever remember we are dependent on God for everything, even our very breath.
Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of the heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation.
With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. It was thus he deceived the angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Thus he drew man to join him in rebellion against God, and then the night of woe settled down upon the world. The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan’s deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government. He desires only a service of love, and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him. His character is to be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in the universe can do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God, could make it known. Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise “with healing in His wings.” Lucifer had said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . I will be like the Most High.” But Christ “being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the form of man.”
The time came when Satan and the angels who followed him were finally cast out of heaven to this earth. We read the story in Revelation 12:7-12. “And there was war in heaven; Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
How often have I received the question: “Why did not God destroy the Devil as soon as he sinned?” When we remember that Lucifer held one of the highest positions in heaven (this is revealed in Ezekiel 28), we realize he would be honored and respected by mill ions of the angelic host. When he started sin, he made the charge that God was a tyrant: he accused God of being a dictator and that He would immediately destroy any angel who went contrary to His instructions. Many of the angels believed Satan and even sided with him in rebellion against God. The angels knew not the awful consequences of sin, nor to the awful depths that disobedience leads.
If God had immediately destroyed Satan, all the angels would have been convinced that Satan’s charges were true. Satan was very anxious to prove his accusation that God was a tyrant. Hence his desire to lead man into sin, fully expecting that God would immediately destroy man as soon as he had sinned. That awful lie that God is a tyrant, started by Satan, still echoes down the ages, and all too often human beings voice the same charge against God.
But, friends, is God really a tyrant? Does He delight in atrocities? I want you to know what God did when our first parents sinned. He did not kill them. He made a plan whereby they might have another chance, whereby they might be forgiven. But remember it was all at infinite cost. In John 3:16 I read: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The sinless angels of heaven never fully understood the seriousness of sin until they saw Christ upon the Cross. They realized Satan was wrong and that God was right, when they saw their beloved Jesus as He hung upon the cruel cross of Calvary, with a nail piercing either hand, and a crown of thorns embedded in the flesh upon His head; writhing in agony caused by the terrible suffering of the crucifixion, of which Satan and his evil angels were the instigators. Oh, my friends, Calvary once and for all convinced the universe that God is love, and that sin causes unhappiness and death. In Colossians 1:20 we read this wonderful statement: “Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”
So the death of Christ has paid for all the sins and transgressions of mankind, and has proved not only to the angels, but to all the world that God is love. God does not delight in atrocities, sickness, wars or death. He longs for the day when sin and death will be no more.
Some ask, “Why does He not blot out sin, and bring in the new earth of righteousness.” Here is the reason in 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
God longs to see all people saved, and He is holding off the great day of the return of Jesus as long as possible to give you each one, every chance of salvation. He knows that if Jesus had come even today, some would not be ready to meet Him. Why not, today, determine that you will forsake the service of Satan, and live henceforth for Jesus, who loved you and gave Himself for you?