Satan's Great Ambition

What is Satan’s great ambition?

Satan’s great ambition is to be like God; which is of course impossible. In our culture today, we’ve all heard the phrase, “The student has become the teacher”. It’s one thing for the student to become the teacher, or to gain more knowledge than the teacher, but it’s another thing all together for the creature to become the Creator; it can’t be done.

In Ezekiel 28:13-19 we can see the story of Satan:
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald,
chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, [b] turquoise and beryl. [c]Your settings and mountings [d] were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence,
and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
18 By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
19 All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.' "
God created Lucifer as one of the greatest creatures ever. As we read in our text, he may have actually been created to be Heaven’s prophet, priest, and king just under Jesus Christ. But that just wasn’t enough for Lucifer. He looked at himself and in pride decided it wasn’t good enough to serve under God, he wanted to be God; and so great was his power given to him by God, that not only he rebelled, but was able to take a third of the angels with him. He is so cunning and so deceitful that even though these angels served in the presence of Almighty God, he was able to persuade them to follow him instead. Amazing.

This ability he has to deceive should be a stark warning to us. If he was able to lead one third of the angels (which are innumerable) away from God, how much more should we be wary of him. True, through God’s word and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we do have a level of command over Satan, but lest we fall into the trap of pride and self-righteousness, we ought to be very careful when dealing with him.