The real “mother of all battles” was not the Iraq war, as Saddam Hussein claimed it would be, but it is the spiritual battle that started in heaven, before mankind even existed, and has been going on ever since. It is described more clearly than anywhere else in the Bible in these verses from the middle of the book of Revelation:
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. – Revelation 12:7,8
Many misleading pictures have been drawn about this battle, showing angels fighting with spears, swords, and shields:
This is a false idea! Angels are spiritual beings, and do not use carnal weapons. Consider just a few evidences:
- When the serpent tempted Eve, he did not come with carnal weapons but with subtle arguments designed to uproot her allegiance and love from God. Genesis 3:1-5
- When Jesus met the tempter in the desert, the battle was over Christ’s mind and heart—His allegiance to God. False ideas were presented very subtly, if possible to take Christ’s allegiance away from His Father.
- When Jesus returns to the earth on a white horse in Revelation 19, it says “out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword” (vs. 15). This is clearly a reference to the Word of God, which is also given as His name in vs. 13.
- The apostle Paul made a direct statement about the battle:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
The battle is over thoughts and imaginations, word, ideas, principles. God and Christ have their thoughts, and Satan has his. They are antagonistic to each other. The highest principle in God’s kingdom is called by the name, Love:
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13
Satan has his counterfeit of that, which Jesus called “lusts”:
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. – John 8:44
We tend to think of “lust” as an extreme excitement of the passions of the human body, but it can be much more subtle and refined. For example, it can manifest itself as an over-strong attachment to one’s earthly relatives:
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. – Matthew 10:37
To love a relative more than God is to put them above Him. It is putting the creation above the Creator, or worshiping the creation, which is idolatry. This kind of “love” is simply “lust” in an innocent dress, and carrying a more polite name. But eventually, when placed under pressure, it will lead to lies and murder, as Jesus said about the devil who originated this mis-use of love.
