Somewhere along the way Satan became totally infatuated with his beauty and his power in Heaven. I can just imagine him constantly complaining to God about his fellow angels. Saying something like, “You know ‘so and so’, he is worthless. I always have to fix his mistakes and work late when he calls off. Frankly, I can’t take it anymore. Can’t you do something with that slacker?” His heart and soul became so puffed up and full of himself that the worst emotion ever known to man was born —pride.
Satan had to make up a rational explanation for why he was feeling so prideful. Without the necessary facts, his mind justified his emotions and told him that he no longer needed to worship or obey God — in fact he deserved to be God for all that he had done in Heaven. His mind said to him, “God never appreciates anything you do around here anyway. If it wasn’t for you, this place would go straight to hell.”
His will (which is free like yours and mine) finally kicked in following his mind’s decision and his emotion of pride. His will told him that it was tiring to work day and night to be obedient to God, and pushed him to decide to be disobedient, rebel against His authority, and destroy any of His plans. Once the three elements of his soul (mind, emotions, and will) joined together, sin was born.
God clearly created our mind, emotions and will to work in the sequence described by Ray C. Stedman in Lesson 1:
- Gather the necessary information
- Analyze and process it
- Weigh the pros and cons
- Make a rational decision
Once you’ve made a decision, your emotions get excited about the prospect of your decision, and then your will begins to implement the decision, driving you to achieve your desire.
Satan didn’t follow this process because if he had rationally thought about it and weighed the pros and cons, he would have quickly realized that he had no chance of defeating God (who created him).
Satan’s first step was to follow his emotion of pride and then he forced his mind to rationalize that feeling and come up with a good reason to justify it. His new Satanic will then followed, and his obedience to God became open rebellion. So what came next?
We find the fall of Satan in the book of Isaiah. Notice how many “I will” statements exist in these two verses:
13 For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.
Isaiah 14:13-14 (NKJV)
Because of Satan’s sin of pride, God removed him from his position of great dignity and honor and barred Satan from heaven. The Bible does not tell us exactly when Satan’s fall occurred. However, it had to occur sometime between the creation of the angels and his entrance into the Garden of Eden.
In the book of Revelation, chapter 12, verses 7-9 we find the description of the final battle for Heaven. Satan’s time is short and judgment time is at hand and he knows it. God finally had enough of Satan and his evil demonic minions.
7 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.
8 And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven.
9 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)
This last ditch effort of Satan reminds me of General Robert E. Lee in charge of the southern armies of the Confederacy. When he realized that the South was going to lose the war to the North, Lee decided to throw a Hail Mary pass and attack the North directly with his army at Gettysburg. His hope was to catch the North by surprise and turn the tide of battle in his favor. Satan tried the same thing. However, Satan had forgotten that God knows everything (Omniscient) even before it happens. So there was no surprise.
