War: The Battle Of The Ages

Common Sense Commentary:
"...Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?"  Num.32:6.

War broke out in heaven long before it spread to earth.  The historical record of that conflict's cause is dictated in the Victor's own words.  To his prophet, Isaiah, in about 700 BC, God asked Lucifer, the defeated, fallen Archangel, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.  How art thou cut down to the ground.... For thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt by throne above the stars of God:  I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation .... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."  Isaiah 14:12-15.

Lucifer (Satan) was proud, vain, powerful, beautiful and lustful to rule from god's own throne, in God's place... as God.  That was what caused War in heaven and Lucifer to be cast out from the presence of God "down to the ground", to earth.  His arrival here "darkened" the earth and made it "void" until God saw fit to say, "Let there be light" in Genesis one.

We know that earth, as originally created, "In the beginning" of it, was "good" but then ruined by the arrival of Satan, alias Lucifer, and "became without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep".  The verb "was", here, is the Hebrew word, Hayah which means, "to become" not "to be".  The word is translated "became" in Genesis 2:7 "... man became a living soul"  and in Genesis 19:26 where Lot's wife "...became a pillar of salt."

We don't know how long Lucifer (light reflector), and his fallen angel allies remained in that ruined Earth, "without form and void of all light", before God said, "Let there be light" in Gen.1:3 when He began His restoration and re-creation of earth for animal, vegetable and human habitation.  We do know that when Lucifer lost his position as an archangel, he lost his light (lucere=to shine), his beauty and most of his power. He did
not lose his rebellious angel followers, now demons, or his contempt for Jehovah God.
Since he can't defeat God, he now targets those created in God's image and likeness, especially those who have accepted God's remedy for sin, His Son Jesus Christ.

As Satan's minion, Adolph Hitler's hatred  increased against his enemies, the allies, who defeated him, as a soldier and German, in WWI.  Even so, Satan's loss and  hatred has  increased to rage against God, His people, and all that is Holy "as a roaring lion" 1Pet.5:8.   Like Lucifer, Hitler, and often others, fantasize that no power is greater than themselves.  That illusion is inspired and motivated by Satan who is "a liar and the father of it." Jn.8:44.  Even to this day most of the leadership of the world, "in high places" Eph.6:12, is aggravated with or hates true Christians and Jews.


Back to Adam and Eve, Lucifer used psychological warfare against them, by lying about God and sowing discord to "divide and conquer" them, since he couldn't conquer God Himself, God's "image and likeness" was the next best target.  He succeeded in this, in Eden, and caused the fall of the whole human race into sin.  An immediate result of original sin, by Adam and Eve, was the murder of one of their sons by another son. From that time to this, a continual war, I call "The Battle Of The Ages", has stormed across the face of the earth.  As WWII was a continuation of WWI, so this physical and spiritual war is a continuation of the one Lucifer lost in heaven.  In it's simplest form, it is a war of evil against good, the Devil against God.

Satan continued to corrupt those created in God's "image and likeness", all human flesh, from Eden to the flood. At that point, it appeared that Satan was winning his war against God and good. God had given His image and likeness, including a free will, to we humans, and as a race, humanity was choosing sides with evil and that devil, Satan, alias Lucifer, who had lost his light to become the "Ruler of darkness" in this world. Eph.6:12. The entire human race had sinned away their day of grace ... except for Noah and his family. "And God saw that "The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually
.... And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth .... But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord." Gen.6:5-8. So God wiped the slate clean and started over again, after the flood, with just those in the Ark. At that juncture of history, God chose a new tactic to deal with the evil inclination of man's free will. He introduced Civil Law in the form of a single commandment in Gen.9:5-6.
"And God said ... surely ... your lives will I require... at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." From that time forward Civil Society was "required" (accountable to God) to render judgement and justice upon their race including capital punishment (execution for capital crime).


Again, human rebellion against God increased as people forgot the flood judgement, and the Battle Of The Ages increased in ferocity, and God's people, a small minority, were in bondage to the "Rulers of the darkness of this world." And again, God sent a man, Moses, to lead the battle against Satan's minions and evil. God gave his chosen people a new start in a new and promised land.  Their freedom restored, God expanded that one Civil Law Commandment to ten Commandments, to cover more areas of sin. One of those Commandments, the sixth, in Ex.20:13, was a re-emphasis of the penalty for murder under Civil Law ... "Thou shalt not kill." The Hebrew word here is "ratsach" and means "murder". When Jesus quoted this sixth Commandment in Matt.9:18, He said, "Thou shalt do no murder". Immediately following that sixth Commandment of Exodus 20:6, in the very next chapter, Exodus 21:12-17, Civil execution (Heb. muth), for violators is commanded. "Thou shalt not kill" stands next to "execute murders" in the following chapter.  David did not murder (ratsach) Goliath: He executed (muth) him under God's Civil Law requirements under the authority of the king.  "And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses...." Num.31:21.

The Battle Of The Ages, the war of evil against good, the devil against God and His people, stormed destruction and death across history .... Incorporated in God's Law of Commandments for law and order in a Civil Society, is self defence and execution.

    "And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses." Num.31:21

At it's root, the Battle Of The Ages is a spiritual war but often breaks out into a physical one. Under the surface, that spiritual war is infecting and ruining the spirits and souls of the law breakers and those they influence. A break-out to the surface, open violent war, destroys bodies, minds and lives as well. Either way, the enemy pulling the strings is Satan in an innocent mask. The human puppets on the end of those strings are his pawns. Eph.6:12 ... "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In every war and wicked conflict, Satan is pulling the strings of the flesh and blood instigators who dance to his hands  desires .... and then take the blame. They will share the guilt with their puppeteer at the Judgement .

The Battle Of The Ages continues into the New Testament with the birth of God's remedy for sin, Jesus Christ. Satan's hand on the strings, is clearly seen in the actions of King Herod when he followed the same M.O. as Pharaoh. Both danced across the puppet stage controlled by "powers... rulers of darkness ... spiritual wickedness in high places." They both tried to neutralize God's people and God's plan for His people by murdering their babies in Ex.1:22 and Matt.2:16. Christ's death, itself, was Satan's effort to stop God's plan of holy sacrifice to cover the guilt of repentant sinners and deliver them from eternal condemnation with Lucifer and his followers at the final judgement.

The Battle Of The Ages has never been more fierce than in this decade.  Why ?