ESV Isaiah 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” There are different translations. Lucifer is “Heylel” in Hebrew meaning “light bearer, shining one, morning star, also described the King of Babylon.” (Bible Works) For those who like to claim that the Old Testament doesn’t talk about Hell or Satan, well apparently they haven’t read Job or Isaiah. Matthew Henry notes how the Kings of Babylon were oppressors of Israel, so for the Israelites to think of Satan in these terms would seem natural.

The pericope in Isaiah goes on to say: “ESV Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; ESV Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ ESV Isaiah 14:15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. ESV Isaiah 14:16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, ESV Isaiah 14:17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ ESV Isaiah 14:18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; ESV Isaiah 14:19 but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.” (BibleWorks)

Seems to be pretty cut and dried, no wiggle room here, Satan chose his own way. Jesus described how Satan was cast out: “^ESV Luke 10:18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Revelation makes it very clear what happened before God created man: “ESV Revelation 12:7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, ESV Revelation 12:8 but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ESV Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (BibleWorks)

Clearly the issue has been settled. Lucifer was made to be the most perfect, created, being. To such an extent that he convinced himself that he should be “god”, and tried to establish himself as god. He was defeated by the Archangel Michael and tossed out of heaven. Clearly putting himself outside of any possibility of redemption. But that, obviously, hasn’t stopped Satan. He tried to swing Jesus over to his side and Jesus dismissed him. But the effort continues and apparently his PR people make another attempt, among many, in the Fox television series “Lucifer”. I stumbled on it by accident, I was traveling didn’t have my usual list of recorded programs and just happened to land on the program. I did end up recording it and was able to examine it closer.

The program posits that Satan is actually warming up to man, although his track record has been to try to destroy man. Lest we forget he is the one who enticed Eve to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden that got her and Adam kicked out and condemned to a life of sin and out of communion with God the Father. We know that through Jesus, Satan was defeated and our relationship with the Father reestablished through Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins on the cross. Let’s also remember that Satan in Hebrew means “adversary” and “accuser”. We’ve taken that to mean God’s adversary, although to quote a New York Times reporter, writing before the 2004 World Series who described the Yankee – Red Sox rivalry has a hammer hitting a nail. That obviously the hammer is the active punisher and the nail receives which would more accurately describe the “rivalry” between God and Satan,. It may be adversarial, but God is clearly the punisher. The Greek word translates diabolos, meaning slanderer, the one who accuses and tries to misrepresent man.

Satan finds a woman police detective fascinating in her convictions as one trying to pursue her job with conviction and also able to resist the advances of Satan. This despite her somewhat unvirtuous background. Apparently in her rebellious period against her parents she made a movie where she appears nude, for which she confesses to her young daughter for forgiveness. Part of the plot is Satan trying to figure out why he doesn’t seem to have an effect on her. It’s obvious in the program that he rather easily affects everyone else. Another power of his being to draw out the desires of those he confronts. He uses his celebrated charm (Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones), to manipulate people who presume to be so much smarter, superior to everyone else, in a kind of Pharisaical way. Lest we forget Satan is beyond redemption, he made his decision by rebelling against God in heaven. Sure we humans rebell, but we were only kicked out of the Garden of Eden. The Father, through the Son, has made a way for us to be in relationship with Him. Satan chose to shoot for the top and ended up in Sheol.

A waitress at Satan’s night club, who is a demon, challenges Satan, accusing him of becoming soft, almost in the sense of selling out. The character makes it clear that he is still very much in control, but maybe becoming, at least, a little more respectful of humans. The Biblical truth is that Satan has an implacable hatred of man and he continues by any means to destroy man and undermine God.

Another character in the program is Ariel. This is a very obscure reference and is not biblical. But it is an apocryphal reference. According to Wikipedia he is an Archangel described in the Book of Enoch. “”Ariel” has been called an ancient name for the leontomorphic Gnostic Demiurge (Creator God).”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_(angel)) Gnosticism is a very early “Christian” heresy that kind of creates a non-Biblical paradigm around Jesus. Ariel is Hebrew meaning Lion of God, hearth of God. Interesting note, the angel is played by an African- American man, who is clearly not the contemporary image of a fluffy, beautiful woman. He is clearly a warrior, so I will give the show credit on this score. Angels are very much warriors and men, not at all the feminine, cuddly, nurturing types.

Now Satan does have the power to punish those under his authority, those being people who are not saved in Christ. Ephesians 2:2 grants that: “ESV Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-” (BibleWorks) Having said that Lucifer claims in a couple of instances, that he will be passing judgment on humans. Lucifer is sitting across from a papparazzi, Nick, who is a rather unsympathetic figure, trying to convince him to tell him who the real murderer is. Nick is having some guilt re-assessing his life and the lousy things he’s done to “succeed”, “at what cost to my soul”. Lucifer tells him that he will be deciding the cost to his soul; “Well that someone is sitting opposite of you and it’s not looking good.” No, that is above Satan’s pay-grade. Jesus will be making those calls and even a sleezey papparazzi is not beyond redemption. It’s odd though that Nick would think that he could somehow get redemption from Satan, but it seems as if many in the world today think that they can somehow be justified or protected by Satan and ignore Jesus.

Another scene to try to demonstrate Lucifer’s new found virtue is with a street preacher. It becomes obvious that the man is just putting on an act, has found a way to make money doing this. (Why? I have no idea.) Certainly such a man is guilty of simony, described in the Book of Acts. And certainly this man is also on his way to Hell for this sin. Dante describes the level of Hell from simonists, granted it’s not biblical either, but shows that this sin is historically considered a heinous sin. Lucifer frightens the poser into knowing that Satan is very much real. My question is did Lucifer do this as a way to frighten the man into taking Satan seriously, for mocking Satan? Or is he trying to scare the poser street preacher straight. I have to go with Lucifer was more angry that the man was really mocking him.

There’s more, but I’m not really sure how to posit the rest. I was interested in the depiction of Satan going to a psycho-analyst to hash out his issues. Yea, this may be the cynical wise guy talking, but I found it interesting that he seems to be, somehow, confessing to what many think of as a priestess of this worldly religion of psychology. Why not bring a liberal clergy person in? But the science of self-obsession/self-appraisal and of course for Freudians, that everything in our psyche really comes down to sex, that this is almost confession/worship for him.  Each session begins and ends with Lucifer having sex with the attractive woman who is the psycho analyst. Seems to be in the sense of the temple prostitutes of the various cults in the ancient world.

There is a lot more that could be analyzed. Certainly the writers of the program are trying to portray Satan in a sympathetic light. Calling himself Lucifer Morningstar linguistically speaking, is a much more positive, uplifting name meaning morning star (literally his name would read Shiningone Lightbearer Morningstar) Lucifer also means shining one/lighbearer. Maybe I’m reading too much into the imagination of some writers who really don’t know anything about who Satan really is, but, I don’t know, identify with him more than Jesus. A case could be made that most of the world feels that way. Night clubs, sex, drunkeness, fornication, those are a way of life for most people in the world today, all in all it does seem as if the attempt is “Sympathy for the Devil”. In today’s biblically illiterate world, I’m sure there are lots of people who are buying what the Fox program is selling making Satan attractive, charming, relatable. They did show their hand once with the street preacher, Satan is the Beast, he is unredeemable. Unfortunately anyone buying this and rejecting true salvation in Christ, is condemning themselves with a lie. The sad fact is that God is in control and the rest is another attempt by the Prince of the Power of the Air, to delude people into their own damnation.

We take way too lightly both God and Satan, beings that are far superior to us in so many ways. We really are arrogant enough to think that we can somehow control and sway, both/either. Let’s be clear, God is there for your eternal good, your eternal redemption and salvation in Jesus to true life in the resurrection, the New Jerusalem. Satan is there to corrupt and destroy you, he will try to do this in any winsome way he can or try to terrify you into it, either way that works. Your only refuge is in Jesus, no matter how shiny and pretty Satan looks.

The television show? Really cute, but dangerous as hell.