What Is Satan? — A Shadow in the Garden and a Prosecutor
in Heaven (Part 1)
By Someone Who Knows Better Than to Trust Serpents in
Gardens (or Prosecutors Who Tempt You to Sin)
Satan.
Few names conjure more terror and fascination — or stir up
more confusion. He’s been imagined as a red-horned monster, a charming tempter
in a suit, a dragon, a snake, and a shadow whispering in the dark.
But when we peel back the layers of tradition and look
directly into Scripture, who — or what — is Satan really?
Is he a fallen angel? A supernatural lawyer? A literal
dragon? Something else entirely?
In this series, we’re going to explore this question without
flinching — and in doing so, we may find that Satan is far more complex,
more mechanical, and more unsettling than we’ve been told to think.
Today, in Part 1, we’ll start with what the Bible
actually says — and why it may be less straightforward (and far more dangerous)
than many think.
"Satan" — A Title, But Also a Person
Before we go further, let’s clarify something important. The
word "satan" (שָּׂטָן)
in Hebrew means "adversary" or "accuser" — and in
some places in the Old Testament, it functions more like a title or role
than a personal name.
For example, in Numbers 22:22, when Balaam sets out
to curse Israel, the angel of the Lord stands in his way and is called a
"satan" — an adversary:
“But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of
the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary (שָּׂטָן) against him.”
Here, "satan" simply means "one who
opposes" — clearly a divine messenger carrying out God’s will, perhaps
even the pre-incarnate Christ Himself.
So yes, "satan" can be a descriptor — a role
someone plays temporarily.
But with that said, there are moments — and I would argue Job
is one of them — where "Satan" is not just a title, but a
distinct, personal being: the cosmic adversary of God and man, whom we later
fully recognize as the Devil.
In Job 1 and 2, Satan appears before God as the
accuser, challenging the righteousness of Job. This is not just any adversary —
this is the same figure we later see in Revelation 12:10 described as
"the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them day and night before
God."
So as we move forward in this study:
Yes, "satan" can mean "adversary."
But in places like Job — and especially as biblical theology develops — we
are dealing with the Satan: a specific, personal enemy of God, and the
ultimate adversary of humanity.
And it’s this figure — the cosmic prosecutor and
tempter — that we’re primarily interested in for this series.
The Enigmatic Portrait: What Scripture Actually Says
For all his fame and fear, Satan gets surprisingly little
direct explanation in Scripture.
Consider his first appearance — Genesis 3.
No red horns, no pitchfork.
Just a serpent — smooth-talking, sharp-witted, and unsettlingly persuasive.
Notably, a pre-curse serpent, suggesting something more majestic,
perhaps even winged — as early Jewish traditions sometimes imagined.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of
the field that the Lord God had made.” (Gen. 3:1)
By the end of Revelation, we see the same serpent
described as a dragon, explicitly tied to Satan:
"And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient
serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
world." (Rev. 12:9)
From beginning to end, Satan is serpent and dragon — but
what lies beneath the scales?
The Heavenly Prosecutor: Satan in the Book of Job
Next, we meet Satan in a courtroom — Job 1 and 2 —
and here, things get complicated.
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” (Job 1:6)
Satan stands before God, not as a rebel storming the
gates of heaven — but as an official, a prosecutor, part of the heavenly
council.
He challenges Job’s righteousness, essentially saying:
“Sure, Job’s good — because You’ve bribed him with
blessings. Take it all away, and he’ll curse You to Your face.”
Thus, Satan emerges not only as the tempter in Eden but
as the divine courtroom’s accuser — the cosmic prosecutor of God's law.
"Morning Star/Day Star" — The Heights from Which Satan
(and Others) May Fall
To understand Satan’s role as an adversary, we need to grasp
how high he stood before he fell — and how Scripture sometimes speaks of
more than one "fallen star."
Throughout the Bible, "morning star" is a
title for radiant, exalted beings — sometimes angels, sometimes Christ
Himself.
"When the morning stars sang together and all the
sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:7, ESV)
Among them, one shines brightest in Isaiah's haunting
lament:
"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star [or morning star], son of
Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!"
(Isaiah 14:12, ESV)
While Isaiah 14 speaks of the king of Babylon (and
some argue prophetically of the future Antichrist), the language evokes a
cosmic fall that later traditions connect to Satan — and for good reason.
Contrast this with Ezekiel 28:12-19, where a
"king of Tyre" is described in terms far beyond human:
"You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom
and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God... You were an
anointed guardian cherub."
This is Satan himself — a being exalted, then cast down.
And yet, Christ claims the true title "Morning
Star":
"I am the root and the descendant of David, the
bright morning star." (Revelation 22:16)
So, while Satan (or perhaps Antichrist) is a fallen
"morning star," Christ is the Morning Star who never falls — the
true and rightful ruler.
Christ is the true Morning Star — Satan, a failed and
fallen imitation.
Coming Up in Part 2: The Anointed Cherub — Did the
Seraphim Create Satan as a Spiritual Machine?
In Part 2, we’ll explore this wild but theologically
grounded idea:
- Did
the Seraphim attempt their own act of creation?
- Was
Satan a unique being — a "cherub" built to govern Earth?
- And if
so, what went wrong — and what does that mean for us?
Because if Satan’s creation was a system failure, what
happens when that system is finally dismantled?
Stay tuned. And remember: never trust a serpent that can
speak — but also perhaps, never underestimate a machine that can think.
💬 What are your
thoughts? Is Satan a fallen angel, a prosecutor, a machine — or something more?
Drop a comment below.
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