And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
Satan was once a powerful and high-ranking creation of the heavenly order. The bible tells us that he was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty and that he was a guardian cherub in the heavenly garden of God. He was called a “star of the morning” and a “son of the dawn” (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28).
His troubles began when he decided that all of that wasn’t enough for him. He looked with covetousness upon the throne of glory that was God’s alone. No longer content to give worship to the Most High, he craved the worship, power and authority for himself. His desire was to exalt himself above God, to raise himself up to be God.
When Satan attempted to “raise his throne above the stars of God”, he was met with a jarring force. Instead of being raised to the lofty heights of the highest heavens, he was cast violently to a crude and foreign realm far below the heavens. He hurdled down like the dead star that he now was; a fiery, burning ball crashing hard into earth’s prehistoric surface.
His position in the kingdom of heaven has been eternally revoked. His membership card now reads “access denied”. Because of his transgression and sin, he will now and forever more cease to be what he was originally created to be. He has been irreversibly transformed by his deceitful act of pride and lust. The voice that before resounded the praises of the Lord of Hosts now spews hateful venom. Then covered in precious stones meant to reflect the glory of heaven are now sealed forever in darkened scales. Once a cherub on the lofty mountain of God, now a serpent thrust into a darkened watery chaos.
God was about to prove to him, and to the entire heavenly host, that “I Am the Lord God, there is no other; besides Me, there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5) And with that we finally come to Genesis 1:2.
“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
It is now that God determines to finish what he began in eternity past. The Spirit of God is hovering over the amniotic waters of a pre-born earth, and it is here that He has a very distinct point to make.
We would do well to remember that the devil was a liar from the beginning, in fact, scripture calls him “the father of the lie.” (John 8:44). The first lie he ever told was to himself, the lie that he could be God, and he was foolish enough to believe it. God is about to bring Satan back into proper alignment with reality and the with the truth.
The unspoken challenge of the triune God echoed in silence over the dark, uninterrupted waters.
“So you think you could be God Almighty, the Lord of Heaven and Earth?
Then CREATE.”
If there had been crickets alive at this moment, that’s all you would have heard. God waited. He waited some more. After all, He had all of eternity to prove His point.
“Go ahead, here’s your chance. Let’s see what you can do with the place.”
Nothing.
Satan had no power to create anything. The darkness remained. The formless void of churning chaos continued until finally the Word of the Lord penetrated the awkward silence,
“Let there be light.”
And light was.
The proclamation of those words brought forth the beginnings of the final phase of creation. In utter humiliation, the devil was forced to watch God do all the he was uncapable of doing. Wave after wave of “God said… God called… and God saw that it was good… transformed the planet and the heavens surrounding it. Time and space manifested in light, matter and energy. The realm of earth had order. It had form and substance.
It had life.
And the devil seethed with a burning envy. The realm of earth was his prison. Yet on all sides he is confronted with the beauty and perfection that reflects the God of the heavens. He is painfully reminded of the Paradise that is forever lost to him. The fire of bitterness and anger blackens his sinful heart and consumes him.
And yet the Heavenly Father isn’t quite finished.
There is still one more element left to fulfill before this realm is complete.
The kingdom of earth must have a king.
I think you may already know where we are going with this. After all, you have heard the story. But maybe not quite like this.