“You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you.”
Ezekiel 28:13-15 NLT
““How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’”
Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT
“Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”
Revelation 12:7-9 NLT
The above three quotes are a shorthand history of devils rebellion. Yes. It started in heaven. And yes. It started in the heart of Lucifer.
Finding himself thrown out of heaven, devil wasted no time, and impersonating an innocent serpent, he set out to deceive the first human pair.
We know the outcome. Devil’s lies appeared as a better option. We set aside God’s warning in the One Commandment which stated: Do not eat of the forbidden fruit! For if you do, you shall surely die. We set it aside in favour of devil’s lie who said: You shall not surely die. So, through Adam and Eve, we did eat the forbidden fruit.
With a fiendish smirk of satisfaction on his face, the devil quietly withdrew.
His diabolical work completed.
Leaving God to deal with the consequences.
The consequence was immediate. After failing to cover our shame with the fig-leaf aprons, we heard God coming… and… oh dear… — we hid from Him! Hiding from our best Friend? It doesn’t make sense. But that is what sin does. It separates us from God.
In the short conversation which followed – there was a glimmer of hope. God said to the serpent:
“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.””
Genesis 3:15 NLT
When through Adam and Eve we chose devil’s lie instead of God’s truth, we were allied with the devil’s rebellion – and the sin was introduced into the perfect human pair. The newly created human beings, perfect in body and in mind and in spirit, intelligent, creative, happy, and capable to meaningfully communicate with their Creator – were the crowning glory of the newly created reality. But sin changed all that. It’s cataclysmic consequences were the degradation of all that makes life desirable. In just a few generations from Adam – we read this sad report:
“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.”
Genesis 6:5 NLT
This was the inevitable fruit of sin. This was a condition from which it was not possible for us to escape. Why? Because when we chose to sin – an affinity, or friendship with it resulted. We gave to the devil, in the beginning, just one little finger – and you have seen what happened. — He grabbed the whole hand. And as we have seen in that quote in Genesis 6:5 – in not much time at all, he came to control the whole body, soul and spirit. Everything was corrupted, and surrendered to the purposes of evil.
But when God said:
“… I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.””
Genesis 3:15 NLT
When God said that, that was a Messianic promise that the affinity, or friendship with sin will be broken. That, in turn, will open a way through the Messiah for human family to be Redeemed.