Satan and the Traits of Narcissistic Personality

What does perfect narcissism look like? We can see it in the evil of Satan.

I read a list the other day about the characteristics of those with narcistic personality disorder.

Grandiose Sense of Self-Importance: They believe they are superior and special, deserving of exceptional treatment and recognition.
Exploitative Behavior: They manipulate and take advantage of others to get what they want, often without remorse or guilt.
Arrogance and Conceit: They often come across as arrogant and boastful, displaying a sense of superiority.
Difficulty Handling Criticism: They react negatively to any perceived criticism, becoming defensive and angry.
Preoccupation with Success and Power: They are often fixated on fantasies of success, power, brilliance, or beauty.
Entitlement: An unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment and special privileges, believing they deserve more than others.
Lack of Empathy: Difficulty understanding or sharing the feelings of others, often dismissing or invalidating their emotions.
Need for Admiration and Attention: A constant craving for praise, validation, and attention from others, often seeking it through manipulation or grandstanding.
Envy: Experiencing envy of others or believing that others are envious of them.
Unwillingness to Accept Responsibility: Blaming others for their mistakes or failures, rather than taking accountability for their actions.

I think I could add an eleventh characteristic and this comes from those who have been entrapped by a narcissist into a long-term relationship.

11. An Attractive mask: They have such a beautiful, alluring presence to them that it’s not until you’re deep into a relationship with them that you are able to see behind the facade.

As I read this list, I began to identify maybe shades of some of those characteristics in myself.

A narcissist would never do this.

The perfect narcissist has no, or very limited, awareness of their inner world.

My self reflection on the list is more a prompting to say I still have prayer work to do.

I still desires where I need Christ to come and fill those needs.

But as I read this list, I began to think of characters in the Bible which exhibited these characteristics.

One such character shone brightly above the rest.

The angel Satan.

Satan: The Perfect Narcissist in the Bible

Read these passages about Satan and see the characteristics.

How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne
above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.’ Isaiah 14:12-14

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’

Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,

“Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ Luke 4:6-8

Combined with other passages in the Bible, about the work of Satan, we see the full 11 characteristics played out.

Satan is all about the worship of Satan.

The like of Turkish delight

In the C.S. Lewis story of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe there is a scene in which the white witch (Satan) offers to Edmund, one of the children, an offering to have anything he would like to eat.

He asks for Turkish delight.

This is the allurement and the trap.

This is the temptation that is so innocently given to fill our heart’s want in our own way.

A small taste of ‘Turkish delight’ can lead to a sugary corruption of the soul. (By the way, I quite like Turkish delight but I don’t overindulge)

Other characters from the Bible

As one looks over the list above, I can see biblical characters leap out at that exhibit various aspects of narcissist behaviour

King David and his behaviours related to Bathsheba
Nabal and his drunken folly 1 Samuel 25
Samson and his grandiose sense of self-importance
Saul (later to change his name to Paul) and his lack of empathy and pride
Queen Jezebel and her evil manipulations
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who created a gold idol and demanded everyone bow to him Daniel 3

So what are we to do?

The first step, and probably the most important, is awareness.

We need to know that there is a spiritual element to the narcissist pull we all experience.

There is an angel, a dark one, that their sole desire is to pull our gaze away from God.

To make them the object of our worship.

It’s subtle and its sneaky.

It’s the kindly invite to sample the ‘Turkish delight’.

We invite, through prayer, God to expose our eyes to see the syrupy sweetness of Satan’s plans.

We also ask that those under the spell of the narcissistic reflected delight see the distortions in the mirror.

That their vision of reality, as painful as it is, will be restored.

I see your sneaky ways

I see your sneaky ways

I see your sneaky ways
You’re alluring invites smell so sweet
They seem so natural
To meet my mortal needs

This path I’m on
Desert dry lonely feet
What you offer to my taste
Could bring easy relief

Success and fame
Adoration could be my name
All I have to give
Is submission to your game

I give you a worship bow
A curtsey twist of two
The taste of fruit is oh so sweet
Now something else comes into view

I now keep wanting more
There’s a hole I have to fill
Once it wasn’t there
Now I do what I must do

Worship me
Adore me
Fall down at my feet
Can’t you see my reflection glory
Wisps of darkness
Licorice lust oh so sweet

I’m in a grip
Enchantment deep
Break the spell
Drop of blood
Pierced hands
Nailed feet

I come to you Christ
To fill my every need
You’ve done it all for me Lord
Freedom found
Deliverance sweet

I quietly bow before you
Exposing my tired tempted heart
Show me what I need to let go of
New daily manna
Sweetness for me to eat

Questions?

Comments?

Email me 🙂📨 barry@turningthepage.co.nz

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Quotes to consider

For someone as amazing as you, attention is like food, and you’re always hungry. Seth McDonough
Fasting reminds us that we are sustained by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. Richard Foster
He is inviting you – and me – to come home, to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we were created. His arms are stretched out wide to receive us. His heart is enlarged to take us in. Richard Foster
I would argue that temptation is not so often temptation toward something – usually portrayed as doing something you shouldn’t – but rather is usually the temptation away from something – namely, our relationship with God and the identity we receive in and through that relationship. David Lose
The absence of waiting for complete satisfaction till heaven begets the presence of addiction, a demand to feel pain-numbing delight in this life. There is no question that addictions soil our souls, adding power to our natural self-centeredness which, because it feels necessary for our felt well-being, is accepted as justified, not terribly sinful. We insist on experiencing an intensity of consuming pleasure that quiets all worry and fear if only for a few moments. We then live a life style of arranging for successive short-lived experiences that achieve our goal of nirvana, a Buddha-like sense of heavenly peace. As a result, addictions, growing out of our core universal addiction to ourselves, eventually take control of our lives. Larry Crabb Waiting for Heaven
The Devil is a sly old fox,
if I could catch him I would throw him in a box
I’d lock the door and throw away the key
for all the tricks he’s played on me. Author Unknown
On the back of Satan’s neck is a nail scarred footprint. C. S. Lewis
Above all else, the devil can not stand to be mocked. C. S. Lewis
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
God don’t make promises that He don’t keepYou got some big dreams baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.

When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake upWhen you gonna wake up strengthen the things that remain ? Bob Dylan

Questions to answer

Which of the eleven characteristics of a narcissist have you seen in others and yourself ? What is the call of prayer for you?
Read the list of those in the Bible exhibiting narcissist behaviours. Could you add some others?
In what way does temptation present itself to you?

Formation exercise

Something we need to remember is that Satan is an angel. Satan is not equal in power to God. When we focus on what Satan is supposedly up to, we lose focus on what God has done, is doing and will do. Reflect on the quotes above and journal about those that grab your attention the most.