I don’t know how long it was before God announced in the heavenly realm, for all angels and spirit creates to hear, including you and your rebellious followers, that He had a plan to make what you had spoiled... right. “Satan, do you recall the day when that announcement rang loudly throughout heaven?”
Based on what we all know of your character, hearing the news that God had a plan and a volunteer to make it happen, must have been a real blow to your arrogance and ego. You know what He said... it’s recorded in Genesis 3:14-15. Here’s what it says.... So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
“Did you know who “he” was when you heard this?” There’s no question, “you” were “you” and the subject of this stern declaration of judgement and things to come. “How did it make you feel to know that before you even had a good start in your quest to run amok over humanity, that God already had a plan to bring an end to your murderous mischief?”
“Did you think if you drew a line in the sand with God Almighty, ruining His good and perfect creation, humanity, that you would somehow thwart His plan?”
I don’t doubt for a minute that you must have believed your rebellion was to be a zero sum war. A war of attrition ...to the last man. Ruin all of humanity and God would be defeated. There would be no one for Him to hold up as righteous among humankind. “See, your strategy tells me you knew God’s character and holiness. You knew He could only act in one way – righteously and justly in all things.”
I guess you underestimated fallen man’s character and potential to rise above the vile influences of sin and degradation you wrought on humanity. You missed the qualities deep within our souls that God knew would be capable of sustaining us in withstanding your evil influence.
When the time came for God’s plan to begin... you knew exactly who you would face in the greatest confrontation in all of history. God himself in the person of Jesus, the Christ, born of an earthly woman, fully man and fully God. He would be directly involved in the redemption of His creation – humanity. With your only weapons, the same one’s you used in the Garden of Eden... subtlety, implication, deception and inference, you thought you could even influence the Messiah to rebel against the Father. You took on Jesus head-to-head in the wilderness and He knocked you back... he rebuked you by using the most powerful resource available to all of your enemies... God’s own Words! Those holy words consumed your lies and deception like purifying fire.
“How did you feel when you lost to the “Son of God? Were you reminded of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15?”
You couldn’t even defeat the Cross! The cross is the best friend humanity has ever had. It was God’s great gift of love. Nothing more than old timbers assembled in the shape of a cross, used to torture and execute criminals, became the instrument of mankind’s redemption. I’ll bet you’re still reeling from that one!
There is NO WAY Satan, you can’t ever say God hasn’t played fair! You can’t accuse Him of not giving you every possible opportunity to influence humanity to follow you. He’s been more than fair in dealing with you. God’s fair-play is one of the reasons Christians love Him so much... it’s why all of His followers try so hard to resist your evil influences.
God gave you a man to do with as you would. His name was Job. You negotiated with God the terms of your evil aggression and “He granted you permission” to do whatever you wanted to that man, except kill him. “Remember that battle of wills Satan?” You reached out in your murderous frenzy and took everything from that righteous man, Job. You killed his entire family, took his wealth, turned his friends against him and only left him alive covered in boils, because God told you, you could not take his life. “Would you like me to read what Job did after all the horrible things had happened to him?” Here’s what that man you tried to crush did after suffering such great loss... At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:20-22)
“Seriously Satan... what does it feel like to do what you did, with God’s permission, and then see the man drop to knees, maybe even face down in the dirt... and worship God Almighty!” “...May the name of the LORD be praised.” Satan, you got kicked right square in the gut by a small weak human fraught with imperfections and living under the curse of death. Job landed the greatest punch of all punches, right in your pride! You want to know why? Job thought God had destroyed his family and taken away his possessions. He thought God did it all to him, not you! And he STILL worshipped and praised God for His goodness!
You need to understand something Satan... not in all of recorded human history has so much bad happened to one man as what you did to Job. And yes... you’ve been behind the scenes influencing men with evil in their hearts to commit some of histories most horrific crimes, but nothing compares to what your direct hand did to Job. You lost! You could not turn that man away, regardless of what happened, from his allegiance to the one true God.
“When you saw how Job reacted, didn’t you think then you were waging a war you had no chance of winning?” Surely, you must have seen then the potential for many many more humans, thousands, millions through the ages, reacting in obedience and faithfulness the same way as Job when confronted with wickedness and even death?
It’s hard for me to understand you Satan. You are so incredibly charming at times, I find it hard to imagine the depth of evil that permeates your entire being. Even God says you can come off looking and acting like “an angel of light”... alluring, convincing, mesmerizing, intoxicating to the human spirit.
True believers acknowledge your superiority Satan... you are an intelligent and powerful spirit being, no doubt about that. Yet even today, knowing full well you’ve lost your futile war against God, you still seek to ruin lives. I think you’ve missed a very important point about the war you’ve been waging: since the “victory of Christ over death” at the cross, it only takes “one person” to be loyal, faithful, and obedient to God for Him to declare victory. Just one man or woman. Just one.
“Oh, you think that’s not fair?” Maybe so. Maybe it should be 1 or 2 billion people “accorded as righteous” in the eyes of God for the “victory” to be fairly His. What difference does a number make anyway, God makes the rules. HE is the creator of all things.
This discussion keeps coming back to those very basic facts about God’s character and attributes: His Holiness, His Power, His Justice, His Righteousness, His Goodness, His Love, His Mercy and all the many qualities that make Him superior to you. But that’s the reality you’re dealing with Satan. You never had what it takes to make the rules to govern a universe, and the moment you started thinking you could ...your fate was sealed. All God did was put a divine plan in motion, a perfect plan, to redeem that which you had tarnished by in-sighting rebellion among His creation... in heaven and on earth.
You Satan, by your slander and deception caused humanity to be separated from God, until such time as His plan of redemption and salvation through Jesus the Christ, could be revealed and fulfilled.
“God was always going to win Satan. and you were destined to be the greatest loser in all of His creation. What were you thinking?”
This concludes the hypothetical interview or a very one-sided dialog with Satan the great deceiver mankind and slanderer of God. What more is there to discuss. We know his origin... his rebellion... and we know his end.
The only question that remains for all of us... can we and will we resist his influence in our lives.
Next time... an up close look at our defenses against the machinations of Satan, the Devil.
