Just think of the magnificence of the Garden. Everything in the earth was new and glorious, fresh from the Creator’s mind and hand. How amazing that must have been! To top that off, God made man, the epitome of all that He had conceived.
Observing everything that God had done, His divine sons cheered. They were as excited about what they’d seen as God probably was in creating it. Job 38:7 indicates the wonder:
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy
But then, something happened. God had created His divine sons sometime prior to bringing the earth and its glory into existence, and He had given them much. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give us a glimpse of what one of God’s sons had. In fact, if any one of His sons had favor, it was certainly Satan. He was wise and wealthy beyond compare. But that wasn’t enough.
Satan and all the heavenly host were created in God’s image with free will just as mankind subsequently was. But man had flesh. He had a corporeal body. The heavenly sons of God were spirit beings, although with great wisdom and power. Yet, that wasn’t enough. Satan grew proud and, in that pride, didn’t like that man had something that he didn’t: a fleshly body.
It must have eaten at him. So much so that he decided to act. In the creation of the world and of man, God imparted much knowledge to His divine family so that they could work at His pleasure and execute that which He wanted done. Satan knew of man’s free will because he knew of his own. He knew man could be tempted because he himself was.
At the success of his venture to tempt Adam and Eve, God cursed and punished Satan just as He punished mankind in His own way. Can you imagine the grief God’s human children must have experienced in leaving such an incredible place as the Garden? What remorse they must have experienced.
But Satan in his punishment felt regret only by the fact that he’d been caught out. He must have stewed in his anger and planned his revenge. Remembering his jealousy, Satan likely whispered to his brothers, “Look at what God held back from us. He made man with a corporeal body. In that flesh, see what man and woman can do. Why is that we can’t have that kind of pleasure? In their union, they even produce offspring that are just like them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for us to likewise mate with such beautiful women and create sons and gods like ourselves? Why did Yahweh not give us this ability?”
Those words must have insinuated themselves into the minds of Satan’s brothers. They looked down at the earth and realized that indeed God had withheld something very special from them. The daughters of man were lovely to behold, they wanted what they couldn’t have. And so, Genesis 6:1-2 tells us that they acted:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
However, God had determined certain limits and boundaries for His creation. Those in heaven were to remain there, those on earth were to remain in that sphere. No doubt God had made these domains quite clear, but Jude 6 tells us:
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling
These angels, these sons of God, had gone where they were forbidden. But Satan had done his work well. He had tempted not only man and made him fall, but he likewise tempted his brothers with the same result. The remainder of Jude 6 makes it clear that God punished these offenders of His holy dictates, surely to their eternal regret:
he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day
Even this wasn’t enough for Satan. He smoldering anger at God continued. His accusations and insinuations caused more of his brothers to rebel, which we see in Psalm 82. In fact, Satan’s consuming hatred for God and all that is His is like Proverbs 30:15-16 tells us:
The leech has two daughters:
Give and Give.
Three things are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough”:
Sheol, the barren womb,
the land never satisfied with water,
and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
Satan and his jealous rage can never be satisfied.
There is a day coming, however, when everything finally blows up in Satan’s face. Despite his denial and continuing efforts to corrupt mankind and defeat God, he loses for the final time. We know the victory has already been won. Jesus defeated death and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
On that day of reckoning, Satan will have his comeuppance. The abyss will welcome him. All sin will be abolished. All grief will be made right. What a glorious day that will be!