33. The war in the spiritual world

From the sermon on October 1, 1987, 14th memorial worship service

God and Satan have always been each other’s enemies. They have been continuously fighting to bring human beings to their side. The first stage of the fight was the physical war between those who believed in God and those who worshipped Satan in Old Testament days. When those who believed in God won a battle, God was pleased, and vice versa for Satan.

God called himself ‘the God of all flesh’ at that time (Jer. 32:27). Therefore, God directly told his servants how to offer sacrifice to worship him, saying, “For all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set

apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether man or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD” (Num. 3:13).

The people of God always asked his help when they had to take part in a battle. The people who worshiped other gods also obtained help from their gods and fought against the people of God. It was like a never-ending battle. Among them, one example of crucial battles between God and Satan was the war at Megiddo (2Kin. 23:29). Jesus Christ taught John the apostle to record Armageddon (har Megiddo in Hebrew, meaning of mount Megiddo) as the symbolic place where the spiritual war will happen (Rev. 16:16).

The biggest sin of humanity was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus was crucified on the cross on Golgotha; in other words, Satan challenged most strongly God there. When the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians, Moses cursed and fought against Egypt with the power of God. At that time, magicians in Egypt also showed the power of their god. But God showed his amazing power to them so that they had to release the Israelites. It was a war between