When a person is said to be turned over into the hands of the tormenters (Matthew 18:23-35), they are not directly tormented by Satan, but by the army of evil spirits in his kingdom. Satan may issue a command in his army to oppress a person or to carry out a certain task, but he himself rarely gets involved because he’s only one spirit and cannot be everywhere at once. When we hear of Satan oppressing a person, it is actually a demonic spirit within his kingdom that is doing the dirty work according to Satan’s rule and leadership. For example, if you look at Luke 13:11, we find the woman with the spirit of infirmity. It clearly tells us that she was bound by Satan, but who was carrying out the actual dirty work? A spirit of infirmity!
Luke 13:11,16, “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself… And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”
Our enemy is obviously Satan, but it’s not him that we directly struggle against, it’s against the demonic army of evil spirits that is under his rule. It is important that we learn who our enemy is and how he carries out his plans, so we can effectively wage spiritual war against them.
