September 2: COVETOUSNESS
His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Revelation 12:4a
Lies can be very seductive and convincing, especially to anyone ignorant of, or who has veered from, Bible truth. The tail mentioned here symbolizes lies that are presented in such a way as to draw the hearers away from the truth. Isaiah makes a distinctive contrast for us: The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail (Isaiah 9:15).
Lucifer did not start out as the liar and deceiver that he became. This magnificent, exalted angel began to covet God’s position as King of the universe. In failing to dismiss such thoughts, Lucifer cultivated them instead. This is the default mode of entertaining impure thoughts. In His amazing love, God wants to protect us from taking the devil’s detours which always begin with a thought process. Therefore we are to be proactively casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Lucifer became obsessed with exalting himself to the place of God, who told him: Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. (Ezekiel 28:17a) Before he fell from heaven, he must have conducted a stealthy campaign among his unsuspecting fellow angels, against the Heavenly Father. The story of Absalom (2 Samuel 14:25; 15:1-6) who campaigned against his father, King David, provides us with some insights as to how this campaign was conducted.
Consider that angels in heaven had never heard a lie. Their respect and admiration for Lucifer was exploited as he began to introduce ideas that were incongruous with the reality of the perfect goodness of the government of God. As the campaign progressed, they slowly became convinced that God is an arbitrary, even tyrannical, ruler and that He needs to “lighten up” or step aside. A full one-third of the stars of heaven – symbolizing the heavenly angels – willingly joined the rebellion. This earth became the abode of the lead rebel and his deceived minions.
Lucifer, through his cultivated covetous thoughts, became Satan, whom Jesus called the father of lies (John 8:44). Each of the Ten Commandments are interwoven with the others. This is why James tells us that breaking just one is the same as breaking all of them (see James 2:10).
Satan’s first lie on earth, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4) was a blatant denial of the consequence of disobedience to God. That lie qualifies as a whopper. To this day, denial of death’s reality is behind the undermining of all of God’s word. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren (James 1:17).
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17