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The Food for Thought Faithcast with Be Rob
Ep.9-Spy Wednesday-From Eden to Judas: The Biblical Story of Spiritual Darkness
The cosmic battle between good and evil stretches far beyond what most of us learn in Sunday School. Dive deep into the fascinating spiritual cosmology of the Bible as we explore the true nature of Satan, demons, and spiritual rebellion.
Starting in Eden, we trace how biblical authors portray spiritual evil across Scripture—from the serpent (who was far more than a talking snake) to the fallen "sons of God" who produced the mysterious Nephilim. You'll discover why "Satan" isn't actually a name but a title meaning "the adversary," and why demons are portrayed as spiritual forces working behind corrupt human power structures throughout history.
This exploration provides crucial context for understanding Holy Wednesday, also known as "Spy Wednesday," when Judas agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The gospel writers don't just blame human greed—they explicitly state that "Satan entered Judas." Was Judas possibly a political zealot disappointed that Jesus rejected violent revolution? What does it mean when Scripture attributes human actions to spiritual influence?
Jesus consistently framed his mission as confronting these dark spiritual forces holding creation captive. His sacrifice wasn't just about human sin but about overcoming the powers of darkness and death themselves. Understanding this cosmic dimension transforms how we view Christ's work and our own spiritual struggles today.
Join us for this thought-provoking episode that will challenge and deepen your understanding of spiritual reality as portrayed in Scripture. Share your thoughts with us and subscribe for more biblical insights that connect ancient wisdom with contemporary life.
We have been learning about spiritual beings in the Bible and I still have a lot of questions about the bad ones.
Speaker 2:Great. Let us talk about the Satan and demons in the story of the Bible. Let us start in the beginning. In Genesis 1,. God creates a beautiful, ordered reality out of darkness and disorder so that life can flourish. He appoints humans as his representatives to rule over all of it, and seven times God calls it good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I experience that kind of goodness often in the world, in things like beauty and truth, love and generosity.
Speaker 2:But in Genesis 3, we meet a creature who is in a state of rebellion against his creator. We are not told yet why or how he rebels, but he is on a mission to ruin God's good world. For other creatures, this thing is trouble. Yeah, this creature is the Bible's first portrait of evil. It distorts what God has purposed for good, ruining and dragging creation back into darkness. And disorder.
Speaker 1:So the humans join the spiritual rebel which leads them back into chaos and death, and from this point on, the human rebellion is interwoven with a spiritual rebellion.
Speaker 2:The biblical story shows how this happens over and over again.
Speaker 1:Okay, but wait, we are getting all this from a slithering snake.
Speaker 2:Well, there are clues in the story that it is more than just a snake. Remember, Eden is a high place where the earth and its creatures overlap with heaven and its creatures.
Speaker 2:So the snake could be a spiritual being. Well, Genesis 3 points in that direction, and then later biblical authors fill in the picture, Like when the prophet Isaiah has a vision of God's heavenly throne room. He's surrounded and being praised by the spiritual beings. Yeah, these are the cherubim around God's throne. But when Isaiah sees these creatures, he describes them as seraphim, which in Hebrew means snake.
Speaker 1:Ah, so the snake is like a former staff member in God's throne room. So why is he talking to the humans?
Speaker 2:Well, the prophet Ezekiel understood this figure as a spiritual rebel who didn't want to live under God's wisdom and authority. He wanted to be.
Speaker 1:God, all right. That is the same temptation the snake puts before Adam and Eve, exactly.
Speaker 2:He says they could rule the world like God, but by their own wisdom. So they are all kicked out of the garden. Yeah, god says this rebel will now crawl on its belly.
Speaker 1:Where does it go?
Speaker 2:after this. Well, the biblical authors offer subtle clues where this being is at work behind the scenes, animating division and hatred between humans. They also use a variety of images to describe this being it's a snake or a sea dragon, or a dark desert creature, or the king of death in the grave. He's also given many titles like tempter, or the evil one, or the devil, which in Greek means the slanderer, but his name is Satan right.
Speaker 2:Actually, no, satan is not a name. It is another one of these titles, which is why in Hebrew it has the word the in front of it. The Satan means the adversary, because he isn't for anything. Rather, he is anti-everything, working through lies to drag us back into darkness and disorder. That is intense.
Speaker 1:Now, what about these other spiritual rebels in the Bible called demons? What are they all about?
Speaker 2:Okay, so remember the concept of God's heavenly staff team, the divine council or the sons of God. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we are told that some of these rebelled too. When did that happen? Multiple times actually. After the snake comes the rebellion of the sons of God in Genesis 6. We are told that they have sex with women, who then give birth to violent warrior giants.
Speaker 1:Oh right, the Nephilim. These are probably the strangest characters in the whole Bible.
Speaker 2:Well, strange from your point of view, but ancient readers knew exactly what was going on. The ancient kingdoms around Israel claimed to be founded and protected by giant warrior kings who were part human, part God and filled with divine wisdom.
Speaker 1:Ah, I see. So the biblical authors are saying, hey, those warrior kings, they shouldn't be honored.
Speaker 2:Right. In this story they're portrayed as human rebels who are captive to spiritual evil, spreading their violence in God's good world.
Speaker 1:Yeah and one of those kings in Genesis 10 goes on to build the city of Babylon.
Speaker 2:Yes, Nimrod, whose name sounds like the Hebrew word for rebel, and his kingdom leads to the next rebellion where humans exalt themselves in Babylon. But God scatters that rebellion and when Moses in Deuteronomy looks back at that story, he says that is the moment when God handed over the nations to worship the rebel host of heaven, the gods of money, sex and military power. Moses is the first one to call them demons, that is, lesser spiritual beings.
Speaker 1:So demons are spiritual forces at work behind corrupt human power structures.
Speaker 2:Yes, but in the Bible they also work on the personal level, animating and exploiting humanity's greed and selfishness, as well as the weakness of our mortal bodies. In the Bible, spiritual evil is at work in anything that drags God's good creation back into chaos, darkness and death.
Speaker 1:So this is why, when Jesus arrives on the scene, he said his primary enemy is not human.
Speaker 2:Right Jesus and his first followers viewed all the pain and suffering in God's good world as a sign of its captivity to death and spiritual evil.
Speaker 1:But they didn't think this was the end of the story, right?
Speaker 2:Jesus knew that the only way out of this cosmic ruin is to overcome evil and death itself, even if it costs everything.
Speaker 3:Guys, this is B-Rob. This is the Food for Thought podcast. This is an episode about Holy Tuesday and that was a clip from the Bible Project. You can check them out at thebibleprojectcom. I'll share a link at the bottom today.
Speaker 3:So, guys, we're talking about Holy Wednesday. Sorry, I said Holy Tuesday, about Holy Holy Wednesday. Sorry, I said Holy Tuesday. Holy Wednesday or spy Wednesday, otherwise known as spy Wednesday.
Speaker 3:And guys, we often think of Holy Wednesday or spy Wednesday is the day Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. Jesus, judas offers to help. Powerful religion. Religious leaders harmed Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver and of course they jumped at the opportunity and Judas would be their spy. That's where we call Spy Wednesday. But you may ask yourself what prompted Judas to betray Jesus? How did he go from a follower to a betrayer? How did he go from a follower to a betrayer?
Speaker 3:Matthew, mark and Luke all read about greed as a motivating factor in Judas' decision, but there could have been many reasons. Some see Judas' name Iscariot as a wordplay referring to Sicarii or dagger man, a sectarian group of Jewish zealots who worked to violently overthrow the Roman occupation. Was Judas angry with Jesus for refusing to go to war? Perhaps Later in the story we see Judas' extreme remorse, but the authors give a little insight into Judas' motivation and mindset during the events that unfolded the week. One thing the authors make clear is that Judas' actions are incited by God's opposer, satan.
Speaker 3:The Satan, and that's in Luke 22, chapters 1 through six. What exactly does that mean? Who is the Satan and how do spiritual beings like the Satan engage with human beings? In the biblical story and today's clip from the Bible project, you learn how dark spiritual forces will need to be confronted and dethroned when God's kingdom comes into full power. You discover the mission Jesus saw himself fulfilling and how he continually describes his treatment on earth by humans as orchestrated by dark spiritual forces. So kind of a dark day.
Speaker 3:Lord, we come to you in prayer today. Just assist us today, lord, with your mercy and with your grace. Lord, give us salvation that we may enter with joy and meditation of the mighty acts in which you have promised us of life and immortality. Lord, only through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, there's only one God forever. God, the Father, god, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one God. Lord, we just thank you for this day, lord. We thank you for Jesus, lord. We thank you for the gospel of Jesus. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray these things Amen and hallelujah. Guys, I told you we're going to go fast today, so get ready for the next one. It's going to be about Thursday, so let's go. Love you, guys. God bless you. See you next time.
