Genesis 3:1- 6 Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made.
"Really?" he asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?"
2 "Of course we may eat it," the woman told him.
3 "It's only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die."
4 "You won't die!" the serpent hissed.
5 "God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil."
6 The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and as He finished each day God said that His work was good. God made it all in an orderly fashion and it all worked together perfectly, that includes everything, even snakes, and yes even Satan. (Genesis 1:31 / 1 Timothy 4:4)
Satan must have been a part of God's good creation but that didn't last, Satan rebelled and he suffered the consequences but he isn't content to suffer alone, he wants to get us to rebel against God as well. Satan put revenge on the top of his to do list.
The work of Satan is to tempt us to reject the authority of God and become like God ourselves. Satan works to nurture and cultivate the pride that puts its own desires above the law of God. Satan decided to go after the part of creation that was the most dear to God.
The man and woman that God enjoyed being with each day in the garden, the part of creation that was made just below the angels, the part of creation that God allowed to rule the other parts of his creation. And to top it all off, what Satan really doesn't like about us, God made us in his image.
Satan knows that God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. He must have thought that he could make man detestable and undesirable to God. How could a holy God overlook these rebellious people since he didn't overlook Satan and the angels that followed him? At this point Satan must have thought that God would have to destroy mankind for their rebellion but he didn't know that God has always had a plan to make us right with Him as if we had never sinned.
1 John 3:8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
Destruction was on the way but it wasn't what Satan had planned, instead of man being destroyed, the plans that Satan made were going to be destroyed. Satan didn't realize how much God loves us and that he would pay the price for our sin.
God loved us all so much that he gave his only Son, the only entry point back to God, the only one given by God so he is the only one acceptable to God. God's love and mercy extended unearned favor to us through the death of Jesus as our substitute.
The vast majority of people rightly have a negative view of Satan but they don't realize that they are doomed to share his fate unless they turn to the only Son of God that came to change our destiny.
Thank you Lord for destroying the Devils plans, he wanted you to destroy us but you had something else in mind, your love for us is truly amazing!
