The Fall

Zephaniah is a book of the Old Testament that is only three chapters long. It is so short and difficult to find that you may need a bloodhound to dig it up. For the sake of this writing, I am only interested in verse 3:1, which states, “The Lord your God is in your midst. A victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy, He will quiet you in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of Joy.”

The verse clearly is in reference to Israel’s repentance and God’s joy as a result of that repentance. Still in all, we must keep two clear points in mind. First, 2 Corinthians 1:20 clearly states that Old Testament promises are for Christians as well. Second, Luke 15:10 quotes Jesus as stating that God’s angels rejoice over one sinner who repents. How much more joy will the Lord have at the same time? With that in mind I wish to bring you to a closer understanding of the metaphysical world that surrounds us, yet is not seen and rarely discussed.

With all this rejoicing going on we can begin to see a glimpse of the battle lines drawn between God and Satan. Genesis chapter 3 and Job chapters 1-2 both offer tantalizing clues about the nature of the eternal realm that transcends our mortal existence. Satan, apparently unable to appear to Eve in his natural form, takes on the form of a serpent in order to communicate with her. His objective is clear, albeit not to Eve. Jesus said that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. In the case of Adam and Eve, Satan’s mission was to steal their relationship of trust with each other, to kill their daily fellowship with God, and to destroy mankind’s opportunity to continue to live in paradise. Mission accomplished.

There is nothing new with Satan. His objective today is the same as it was with Adam and Eve. He will steal, kill and destroy your relationship with your spouse, your children, and fellow believers. It is what he does and he is good at it.

Yet a more intriguing question here is why did Satan choose to be evil in the first place? Here we have the highest-ranking angel in God’s kingdom choosing to rebel against God. Why? What could have possibly caused this catastrophic revolt? I am of the persuasion that mankind has more to do with this then we realize. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God and that raises the question of what were angels made like? The Bible teaches that God made the earth and the animals and then states that man was made in His image. There is no mention of what appearance the angels had when they were created.

This is The Reason Why Satan rebelled against God. Adam and Eve had a relationship with God and spoke with him daily prior to the fall. Their relationship with God was very different than the relationship angels have with God. Angels are servants of God and were created to follow orders. Adam and Eve were provided a large piece of land that we have come to call paradise where they were given the responsibility to care for the land and live in peace with the animals. Their relationship with God was like that of a father with his children. Adam and Eve did not know about angels, as they could not see them. So when Satan wished to appear to them he had no choice, but to appear in the form of an animal. Satan apparently envied the fact the man was acknowledging God as the authority. Man did not acknowledge Satan at all.

No doubt this greatly bothered Satan as he was regarded very highly by his fellow angels. Satan had received considerable respect from his fellow angels the same way a military general would receive respect and honor from subordinate military personal. So it seems apparent Satan was infuriated when neither Adam nor Eve could see him. They could not show honor to someone they could not see. It was as if Satan was told he couldn’t play in this sandbox. Tell a child they can’t play in someone’s sandbox and what do they do? They pout; and have a temper tantrum. Sounds like someone we know doesn’t it?

There is little scriptural evidence to support this theory, as there are few Bible verses on the subject of Satan. Still in all, the theory is plausible and no one to my knowledge has ever explained why a being with the status of Satan would rebel against a being with the status of God. Satan’s rebellion occurred because of two reasons, the first commandment and the tenth commandment. Naturally, the commandments were not yet given to Moses nevertheless, the Lord God almighty clearly knew that violating them would lead to problems even before they were written.

The first commandment states: I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me. The tenth commandment states: You shall not covet. Satan violated the first commandment by worshiping a god that he felt was more important then the Lord God; namely, himself. The tenth commandment was violated because Satan desired fellowship with Adam and Eve the way they had fellowship with God. He desired it to the point that he would go so far as to deceive Eve and destroy her fellowship with God and Adam. In other words Satan was saying, “If I can’t have your respect then no one can have it.” This thinking is very typical of men who abuse and control women.

I will conclude by saying that the creation of man invariably resulted in Satan’s rebellion and that ultimately resulted in the desertion of what is believed to be a third of God’s angelic army. I will discuss more about this complex and confusing issue in future blogs.