3. Satan Steals Man's Kingdom And Domain

Chapter 3 Satan Steals Man’s Kingdom And Domain A Loving Creator Prepared Everything On Earth For Mankind So far we’ve talked about two types of spirit beings: God and the angels. Now let’s go on to the third type of spiritual being—humans. But first let’s talk about mankind’s domain or kingdom—earth. When God was getting ready to create man, he first prepared everything to be in place in advance before he placed humans on the earth. Everything man would require was in place for him to enjoy. God wanted it to be a perfect environment for humans to live. So he made the soil and water and plants and animals, the trees and flowers, the mountains and oceans, the sun, moon and stars and all sorts of other things both large and small. He also provided things like flowers and grass and other types of food for the many kinds of animals, birds and fish and all the sea creatures.

All these amazing and beautiful things show God’s great power and beautiful creativity while also providing everything that was needed for animals and humans to eat and live well. Every insect had food to eat—God didn’t forget one detail. Our loving God created a perfect world for mankind to live well and thrive (Genesis 1). So, after he had created and prepared everything in man’s domain, then he was finally ready to create the first human. The Spirit Of A Person Is The Life Of That Person When we see other human beings walking around, we don’t normally think of them as spirits because we all have physical bodies. But people are primarily spiritual beings. In God’s eyes we are spirits that have bodies. God created the very first human, Adam, as a spiritual being.

Genesis 2:7 says: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils thebreath of life, and the man became a living being.”

We’ve talked about this verse before. The word ‘breath’ here has two meanings in Hebrew. One meaning is ‘breath’ and the other is ‘spirit.’ This means that when God gave a spirit to man, he also gave him life (the breath of life). Notice here that when God first took dirt and formed Adam’s body, it wasn’t alive yet—it was perfectly made, but it was just a lifeless body. But after God breathed his breath (spirit) into this body it became alive. So the invisible spirit of a man is the actual real person, whereas the body is more like a house for that spirit to live in. So the spirit of a man can leave his body, but if it does, then his body will be dead and lifeless (John 19:30). A body without a spirit will decay and become dust again, because the spirit is the life of that body.

God Created Man As A Spiritual Being, Like Himself God is a Spirit and he made man “in his image,” so that man is a spiritual being in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26-27 : “Then God said, "Let Us make man inOur image, according to Our likeness…" God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (NASB) The Holy Spirit Is The Source Of Life For Man’s Spirit The human spirit comes from God himself, and that spirit gives life to man’s body. So God’s Spirit is the source of life for the human spirit and body of man.

John 6:63 says: “The Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6 b) In many places in the Bible God’s Spirit is called the Holy Spirit. He’s always been one with God the Father and God the Son. Together we call them the Trinity. The Holy Spirit has existed from eternity past, and as part of the Trinity, he took part in the creation of the earth (Genesis 1:2). And apparently when God created man and put the spirit of life within him, the Holy Spirit was also joined with that spirit of man.

Job 33:4 says: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” The Holy Spirit gives life to man and God intended the Holy Spirit to always be an essential part of man—an indwelling full-time companion for perfect fellowship and unity, and to direct his every thought and help him with every plan that he makes in life.

Job 32:8 says: “...it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.”

Why Did God Give Man A Spirit? So why did God give man a spirit and make him a spiritual being? He didn’t give his Spirit to other creatures or animals. But God did give man a spirit, so he could be a spiritual being like God himself, in his image—so he could be like a son. In fact, in Luke 3:38 the Bible calls Adam “the son of God.” So God wanted children that would be similar to himself—made in his image as spiritual beings—so that they could have fellowship together with their Father God, and so that the Father could rule the earth through his children. God created man as a heavenly being—a spiritual being with a direct connection to God. But he put this spiritual being in a physical body and made him ruler over the earth on behalf of God his Father. All the other living things of the earth like trees and animals don’t have spirits and they don’t have the same kind of intelligence that man has, so they don’t have the same ability to be in close fellowship with God and love him. God wanted man to be special, so he created him as a son in his own image. God gave part of himself—his very own Spirit—to Adam, in order to be united or joined with Adam’s spirit, so that they could communicate easily together and understand each other and fellowship together in every way.

Woman

After God created Adam, he wanted to create a woman as a life-long partner and companion for Adam. But God did not start all over by creating a totally different human altogether. Rather he created the woman (Eve) out of Adam’s body by using one of Adam’s ribs. So woman was also created in God’s image just like Adam was (Genesis 1:26). At that time they both had a very close friendship with God and the Spirit of God was in perfect fellowship with their spirits. These days we don’t really know anyone who has that same kind of perfect fellowship that Adam and Eve had with God. Why is that, and what has happened that made mankind become so distant from God and unfriendly towards him? It was sin!

Satan Wanted To Break The Fellowship Between God And Man When God had created Adam and Eve he put them in a beautiful garden. They didn’t lack anything. Everything was peaceful for them and they had perfect close fellowship with God and with each other. God’s Spirit was in perfect harmony with Adam and Eve’s spirit and nothing hindered their closeness. But Satan had lost his fellowship with God and he hated the fact that Adam and Eve had a loving relationship with God. Satan was probably jealous and wanted to separate them and create a division between them. Satan knew that God had forbidden the fruit of one of the trees, so he wanted to tempt them to rebel and disobey God and eat the fruit so there would be a division between them and God.

God’s Kingdom And Man’s Kingdom

Satan also wanted to steal man’s kingdom. But before we talk about that, we first need to understand how God’s kingdom works. A kingdom is basically the government of a king. Most kings govern or rule over one nation, and some very powerful kings even rule over other kings in several countries. But God is the Supreme Ruler or King over all countries and all people groups around the world, and over all the angels in the heavens—even Satan and his demons.

1 Chronicles 29:11 says: “Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, foreverything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

It’s also important to understand that the Bible teaches that God’s kingdom has always existed and always will exist because the Kingdom of God is eternal. It had no beginning and will never end.

Daniel 4:3 says: “... his kingdom is aneternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.” (2 Peter 1:11) So we see then that God’s kingdom has always existed, and it is the supreme authority over all other kingdoms that exist under it. All kingdoms and all authority come from God himself.

Romans 13:1 says: “...for there is no authority except that which God has established...”

2 Chronicles 20:6 says: “...You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations...andno one can withstand you.”

Man Is Given A Kingdom—Under God When God created the earth and everything in it, he wanted mankind to be in charge of the earth. The Bible specifically says that one of the main reasons he created mankind in his image was in order that they rule. And so just like their Father who was King over all, Adam and Eve were given a kingdom to rule also—the earth.

Genesis 1:26 says: “Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image,after our likeness, so they may rule…” (NET) Psalms 115:16 says: “The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but theearth he has given to mankind.” So God created the earth to be man’s kingdom. Just like God gave the heavens as a domain to the angels, now God wanted man to rule the domain of the earth as God’s designated king (Psalms 8:6). God is a King and he made man to be a king also—the king of the earth. The earth was to be man’s special domain and he was to be God’s agent or representative ruler over this kingdom called earth. The earth would be a sub-kingdom—it would be the Kingdom of God under mankind. Man was to look after the earth and rule over it in the same way God would. But the earth still belongs to God and always will (Psalms 24:1)—because God is...

...the King of kings and Lord of lords. (1 Timothy 6:15) Satan Wanted To Steal Man’s Kingdom

What was Satan thinking when God created the world and put man over it as ruler of the earth? We don’t know for sure, but we do know that Satan was very proud and wanted to be like God and rule like a king. He failed to overthrow God in heaven, so now that God created the earth and gave it to mankind to rule, Satan was probably very jealous of man because God had given him a special kingdom to rule over. Maybe Satan thought he could rule the earth instead. Adam and Eve were supposed to rule earth in close fellowship with God under his authority. But Satan knew that these humans were not as powerful as he was. Maybe he could somehow defeat these humans. Satan despised and hated God, so by tempting Adam and Eve to rebel against God he could possibly steal the kingdom from them by becoming their king. And since God had told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and fill the earth with people, maybe Satan thought that Adam and Eve could create a whole race of people that would rebel against God. Perhaps they would become a world full of enemies against God, just like him. We’re not sure of everything Satan was thinking, but we do know what he did. He started out by disguising himself inside a snake. So let’s read Genesis 3 and see what Satan did in order to steal the kingdom of man.

Genesis 3:1-5 says: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Satan Hid In A Snake

So here in Genesis 3 we read the story about how Satan used a snake to talk to Adam’s wife, Eve. These days snakes generally aren’t in the habit of talking to people, but Satan, who is a spirit being, hid inside the snake and took control of the snake and did the talking (2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9). Satan didn’t want to frighten Eve in any way, so he hid inside a creature that Eve would be familiar with. Of course at that time snakes were harmless and didn’t bite people, so Adam and Eve weren’t the least bit afraid of this snake or any other animal for that matter. They could walk among them and touch and hold them as much as they liked. The animals had no fear of man either (until Genesis 9:2). So Adam and Eve probably spent a lot of time exploring God’s creation and admiring all of God’s incredible creatures with their many amazing characteristics. Each day brought new discoveries and new praise for their wonderful creator! Apparently at that time, snakes were considered the cleverest of all the animals God had created. Maybe this snake was really good at climbing trees or blending in with the leaves or maybe he was always quietly sneaking up on Adam and Eve for fun. Regardless of what made him so clever, most likely Satan had studied Eve carefully and thought she would admire the snake for all its great qualities and not be surprised by discovering some new skill that the snake had, like talking (3:1).

Satan Doesn’t Usually Work Out In The Open. He Uses Disguises And Trickery So why would Satan disguise himself when he talked with Eve? This story shows us Satan’s true character. He doesn’t usually come out in the open and do his dirty work. Instead he hides and disguises himself and uses deceit to draw people into sin. That’s a very typical enemy tactic—they usually hide what they are up to. Satan is a deadly enemy. And even though he often pretends to be friendly, he doesn’t want to help us in any way, but rather he wants to destroy us completely. He is God’s enemy and ours also.

Satan Mixes God’s Word With Lies

Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44) which means he keeps creating new lies all the time. He uses all kinds of deceit and schemes to trick people into their own ruin. He’s not stupid. He’s extremely clever about how he presents the lies since he doesn’t want us to know that we are being deceived. So he doesn’t make it obvious. Instead, he mixes a little bit of error with a lot of truth. So it takes away our natural suspicions and we believe every bit of it is true. That’s exactly how he deceived Eve—through partial truths.

Word Picture: The Way To Hide A Hook And Catch Fish

Satan’s methods are similar to what fishermen use every day. If they want to catch fish, they don’t just throw in a hook on a line. That doesn’t attract fish. Instead they hide the hook inside some bait to tempt the fish. The fish will not notice the hook hidden inside of the bait until it’s too late and he’s caught.

Satan tempts us in a similar way. His lies are like the hook he uses to ruin us. But he doesn’t leave his lies exposed out in the open. He usually hides a small lie inside of a lot of truth, just like the hook hidden in the bait. If we believe this hidden lie, it’s like a fish happily swallowing the hook and ending up in the frying pan. Satan has many ways to hide his lies in order to deceive and destroy us. It’s his full-time job. On the other hand, God always tells the truth.

Satan Tempts Eve With The Bait

Satan really wanted to destroy Adam and Eve’s life, so he tempted Eve with a promise that if she ate the fruit, she would become enlightened and become wiser—“like God.” This lie was bait on the hook. Satan told Eve:

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, andyou will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5) Does this sound a little familiar? When Satan told Eve: “...you will be like God,” does this remind you of something else? Actually, Satan had deceived himself in a very similar way—he also wanted to become like God. Now he was tempting Eve with the same lie that he deceived himself with. The Names And Profiles of S.A.T.A.N.

If we look at what Satan said to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1-5, it will help us understand the ways he works now too. The letters in his name form an acronym that can help remind us of some of his other names. God used these names throughout the Bible to teach us about Satan’s methods and his character. This chart can also be used to form a simple mini-outline of Satan’s story which we will introduce here with the temptation of Adam and Eve. We’ll expand the meanings of these names as we follow Satan’s story progressively through the Bible.

God Wanted Man To Do The Right Thing

It’s very important to understand that God was the one who put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden. Satan did not. Even if Satan did not exist or if he had never rebelled against God, the tree would still have been there in the garden. And even if Satan had never tempted Adam and Eve, God still wanted that tree to be there. God was not trying to trick Adam and Eve so they would fall into sin. He had a purpose for putting the tree there—He wanted them to choose to do the right thing. God is perfectly good and always had Adam and Eve’s best interests in mind when he told them NOT to eat from that tree—no tricks or hidden agenda. He just told them the simple truth. “Don’t eat it,” he said. Was this a test? Yes, in a way it was a test of loyalty and love, because without a choice, there is no love. But this choice or test was not a temptation because God does NOT tempt people to evil (James 1:13). He was not trying to trick them into eating the fruit. God did not secretly want them to fail, but instead he wanted them to PASS THE TEST—to do the right thing. Doing the right thing is called righteousness. God highly values righteousness because he himself is righteous and he created us to be like him—to imitate his righteousness. So yes, this was a test of righteousness. God wanted Adam and Eve to trust him completely and obey him by doing the right thing. Even though Adam and Eve were innocent, they were still not righteous. They were still untested.

Righteousness Is Not Just A Lack Of Sin—It Involves A Choice

Some people think that righteousness in the Bible means being forgiven or being without sin. But righteousness is more than just a lack of sin. Righteousness involves a choice to do what is right when there is an option. God wanted Adam and Eve to choose to do the right thing—to trust God alone and therefore obey him (by not eating that fruit). If Adam and Eve trusted God and chose to do the right thing, that would be righteousness. They would be acting righteously—reflecting God’s righteousness.

God Allowed Satan To Tempt Adam And Eve

God knew that Satan wanted to tempt mankind, and he allowed it. We don’t know all his reasons but we do know that he wanted them to resist Satan. By resisting they would become even stronger to resist Satan and evil. Possibly that could have stopped Satan forever. We don’t know. But even if Satan had never come to the garden and tempted mankind, God still wanted them to make this good choice. So God gave man a choice to reflect God’s character—a choice to willingly choose righteousness.

If man by faith in God chose the right thing (and obeyed), that would greatly honor God and give him glory because man would be acting as God would—and so he would be reflecting God’s character and his glorious image. But God did not force man to honor him. Forced honor is not honor. Forced love is not love. It had to be man’s choice. God gave man a choice to do the right thing, but Satan lied and made the wrong choice sound enticing and good.

Adam And Eve Submitted To Satan And Died Spiritually

God did not want Adam and Eve to rebel against him or be hurt by Satan. He wanted them to trust him—to believe and submit to him. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve chose to trust and submit to Satan instead—by eating the fruit from the tree that God had forbidden. By disobeying God they became “children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6). By submitting to Satan they immediately placed themselves under his rule.

Romans 6:16 says: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves,you are slaves of the one you obey...?” So now Adam and Eve served Satan and were in Satan’s family—in Satan’s kingdom. They died spiritually immediately, which means that they were now separated from God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit was no longer joined or linked to man’s spirit. God’s Spirit was now separated from man’s spirit, so man’s spirit no longer had the Spirit of God to guide and control his thoughts and actions anymore. They were now separated and distant and it was quickly obvious, because they were immediately ashamed and hid from God. And even when God called out for them, they were afraid of him (Genesis 3:9-10). This was a new thing—a totally new feeling. Adam and Eve had always been very close to God in every way. They had walked and talked with ease with their loving Father, and enjoyed great fellowship together. But now they were ashamed and hiding from him. This is how we know that they were already “spiritually dead” in relation to God. God is the origin of life, so therefore the meaning of death is to be separated from him. Adam and Eve’s spirits were no longer in close fellowship with God. In God’s eyes, their spirits were like dead men who do not hear and do not respond. And so now none of Adam’s descendants hear God’s voice very well. The spirit of man is now like a dead man that doesn’t listen to God.

Man Became God’s Enemy And Joined Satan’s Kingdom

God had created man to be like him (Genesis 1:26-27) and he gave him a spirit so he could fellowship closely with God. But now man had chosen to become rebellious like Satan, and follow his own desires and was no longer close to God. God’s Spirit was no longer living in man to guide him. When children are born today, they also are born into Adam’s family which is part of Satan’s kingdom and family. As they grow up, they don’t have to be taught to be rebellious or do evil. They do it naturally, all by themselves, because their spirits are also separated from God.

Satan Hides The Truth About Hell And The Spirits Of Dead People

Satan knows that he will someday be sent to a place of eternal punishment (hell), so he wants to drag everybody else there with him too. But he doesn’t want us to know about hell and fear it. So for hundreds of years he spread lies to deceive our ancestors. He used demons to spread those lies so that people everywhere think that when they die, they stay nearby. Some people think the spirits of the dead remain close by, near to their own family or in their houses. Some think that they go to a place in the jungle or to a mountain somewhere, or a water hole or a lake or the ocean.

Satan has also used many kinds of deception to make people think that his spirits (the demons) which roam the earth are actually the spirits of their dead ancestors. He does this so we’ll believe they’re still here in this world with us and that we can communicate with them if we want. The demons try to deceive us so we’ll be afraid of them instead of being afraid of hell. But God doesn’t lie to us. He says that the spirits of the dead no longer live with the living people here on the earth (Luke 16:19-31) and they are not allowed to communicate with us. We’ll talk about that more later.

Satan Pretends To Be Our Friend Until We Die

Satan is a master of changing his disguise. So sometimes he likes to use demons to frighten us and at other times he tries to act like our friend. He wants to befriend us until we end up in hell, which would make him very happy. So he lied to our forefathers, making them believe that some of the demons were “good spirits” which would help them in various ways. In some countries, people try to get the spirits to give them guidance concerning the future or help with food in their gardens or healing for sicknesses or many other things. But instead, these spirits don’t want to help us at all. They just deceive people until their lives are destroyed.

Parable Of The Blind Pig

Consider an illustration. In some places around the world, people raise pigs without using fences. And so sometimes they purposely blind the pigs so they won’t wander far from home. They want to fatten them up, so after they blind them, they start feeding them a lot of food so they will just lie around close to home and grow very big. They treat them almost like pets. The pigs love their masters and love being with them. They don’t know that their owners have one thing in mind—to fatten them up to kill. This is a good picture of what Satan did with many of our ancestors. They didn’t realize that Satan and his demons were trying to make them spiritually blind by deceiving them in order to destroy them later—just like the owner of the pig was just pretending to be nice to the pig. Satan and the demons just wanted to befriend them for their own purposes, so they fed them with lies until they died. Did Satan Defeat God, Or Not?

Satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin and they fell because they didn’t believe God’s words. By following their own thoughts and desires, they rebelled and turned against God. Satan won a great victory against mankind. But did he also defeat God by defeating mankind? Was God surprised when this happened to Adam and Eve? No, not at all. God knows everything long before it happens, and he knew this would happen. God allowed man a choice and man chose the wrong way. But Satan can’t defeat God. From the beginning, God had a wonderful plan to rescue mankind from Satan. So he told Satan right away that he would be defeated, and he gave Adam and Eve a promise that it would be fulfilled.

God Promised That Satan Would Be Defeated—By A Human! In Genesis 3:15 God spoke to the snake (and Satan) and said:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This prophecy is a word picture which foretells that a human being (the offspring of Eve) would someday come and do battle with the snake (referring to Satan). Since the Bible usually traces the lineage through the male (in this case Adam), it is unusual for this prophecy to say that this promised one who would fight with Satan would be an offspring of Eve. This is the first biblical clue that this promised one who would defeat Satan would not have an earthly father. The Bible also says that the snake would attack the heel of the man, while the man would attack the head of the snake. We know that Satan isn’t really a snake—he was just hiding inside the real snake. So this word picture shows us that while this man is fighting with Satan, Satan would try to destroy him (‘strike his heel’). If a snake strikes someone on the heel, that shows he is attacking frombehind. This shows us that Satan would use deceit in order to try to destroy this promised one. But the promised one will still completely triumph over Satan (‘crush his head’). We know that if you crush the head of a snake, it will die, because the head of the snake is a symbol of his strength. From this we see that this man would be victorious over Satan’s power and authority, and Satan would be totally defeated. This is how God planned to redeem those who are under Satan’s power so they can live again in fellowship with God.

What would Satan’s reaction be to this kind of prophecy? Satan had abused his power and taken advantage of Adam and Eve who were weaker in power than he. He thought he had struck a hard blow against God when he had defeated these two humans and gotten them on his side so that all their offspring would now be enemies of God. But now God had prophesied that actually a human (from Eve) would be the one to fight with Satan and win. Satan would not have been happy to hear that a human could defeat him! How would that be possible? Is The Order Of This Prophecy Backwards??

It’s interesting to note the order of the events in God’s prophecy in this verse above. It says:

...he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This order would seem to be backwards. In the word picture, it would seem more logical that the snake would strike the heel first, and then the heel would fatally crush the head of the snake afterwards. But if we consider that God is the one in control of how things happen, we realize that God will not be surprised by Satan’s attack. He was anticipating it ahead of time so in God’s mind he is crushing the head of the snake, even before Satan (the snake) strikes—because God always knows ahead of time what Satan will do. But Satan does NOT know what God will do!! So even though Satan may sometimes deceive himself and think that he is ahead of God and winning against him, instead he is always losing.

Things That Aren’t Powerful Will Defeat Satan’s Power

Even though Adam and Eve were together at the time of temptation (3:6), Satan had focused on talking to and tempting the woman, Eve. We don’t know exactly why Satan chose her. It could be that Adam was more cautious, and Eve was more accepting of new ideas and quick to try out something different, so Satan thought she would be more vulnerable and easier to trick with his deceitful words (1 Timothy 2:14). But after they disobeyed, God said that it would actually be someone from the woman’s lineage that would be the one to defeat Satan. God wanted to show Satan that whatever he thought was a weakness, God would use to defeat him. Satan could not defeat God.

We’ve heard God’s promise. Satan heard it too, and he would have thought about it a lot and worried too. Satan is a very powerful spiritual being—so could this prophecy possibly come true? Could a human being actually defeat a strong spirit like Satan? From that point on, Satan must have thought about the prophecy often. So he watched and waited for that man that was promised to come. He planned to kill that promised one as quickly as possible. Satan certainly didn’t want any offspring of Eve to come and defeat him.

Satan Wanted To Kill The Man Of Promise

Later, Adam and Eve had their first two sons named Cain and Abel. Satan watched them carefully. Would one of these sons be the man of promise who was to come and defeat him? Cain and Abel both wanted to come close to God and be accepted by him, but Cain didn’t really believe God’s word or trust God. So he wanted to come to God in his own way and in his own strength. But Abel trusted God.

Hebrews 11:4 says: “ByfaithAbel brought God a better offering than Cain did. Byfaithhe was commended as righteous....”

It was faith that set Abel apart from his brother. Abel trusted God to save him, and he lived out his faith by how he approached God. He repented of his sinfulness and brought a blood sacrifice, showing that he realized he himself deserved to die, and trusted God alone to forgive and save him. But apparently Cain did not trust God. He came to God in his own proud way. Instead of repenting of his sinfulness and trusting in God to save him, Cain showed by his actions that he was depending on his own abilities and strengths to be accepted by God. He should have brought a blood sacrifice—showing that he deserved death because of his sin. But instead of bringing a sheep as God had shown Adam and Eve, Cain brought his own garden produce that he had worked hard for. Even though Cain pretended to be religious, it seems that he was an unbeliever, whereas Abel was righteous in God’s eyes because he had faith in God alone—not himself. Satan possibly realized then that Abel was favored by God and might even be the man of promise, so he wanted to make sure to kill him quickly.

1 John 3:12 says that, “...Cain...belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.” (Genesis 4:8) So we see that Satan used Cain as his slave to do his evil work against his believing brother. Satan does the same today. He will use anyone who will listen to him as his slave in order to fight against God and his children. Satan always fights against God’s children and everything that God is doing.

Death Is Not A Defeat For A Believer

After Abel was dead, Satan may have thought that he had killed the promised one and won against God. Of course, it is not possible to defeat God, but sometimes it might look like Satan is winning in the battle against God. Keep in mind also that even though Abel died, he is much better off now in heaven with God. Sometimes God allows an early death for his own reasons—just like Abel.

“…by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11:4) Satan Is A Murderer

Satan is not all-knowing like God. He doesn’t know the future. So he couldn’t know when God would send the man God had promised to crush the head of the serpent. So instead he tries to kill and murder anyone he thinks is a threat to him, like Abel.

John 8:44 says: “...the devil... he was a murderer from the beginning...” So from the beginning of time, we see a long history of Satan’s work of trying to persecute or kill or destroy all those who believe in God. He has used unbelievers to try to destroy people like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David and others like them, whose stories we can read in the Bible. Although Satan’s purpose is always to harm believers, God will actually sometimes use Satan to help believers too. Satan doesn’t realize everything that God is doing, but God is all-powerful and all-wise, so he can even use Satan’s hate for believers in order to benefit them. In our next story we’ll talk about one instance where this happened.