26 NOVEMBER (1876)

Christ the conqueror of Satan

‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’ Genesis 3:15
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Luke 5:1–11

The text evidently encouraged Adam very much. I do not think we have attached enough importance to the conduct of Adam after the Lord had spoken to him. Notice the simple but conclusive proof which he gave of his faith. Sometimes an action may be very small and unimportant, and yet, as a straw shows which way the wind blows, it may display at once, if it be thought over, the whole state of the man’s mind. Adam acted in faith upon what God said, for we read, ‘And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living’ (Genesis 3:20). She was not a mother at all, but as the life was to come through her by virtue of the promised seed, Adam marks his full conviction of the truth of the promise, though at the time the woman had borne no children.

There stood Adam, fresh from the awful presence of God; what more could he say? He might have said with the psalmist, ‘My flesh trembleth for fear of thee’, but even then he turns round to his fellow-culprit as she stands there trembling too, and he calls her Eve, mother of the life that is yet to be. It was grandly spoken by father Adam: it makes him rise in our esteem. Had he been left to himself he would have murmured or at least despaired, but no, his faith in the new promise gave him hope. He uttered no word of repining against the condemnation to till with toil the unthankful ground, nor on Eve’s part was there a word of repining over the appointed sorrows of motherhood; they each accepted the well-deserved sentence with the silence which denotes the perfection of their resignation; their only word is full of simple faith. There was no child on whom to set their hopes, nor would the true seed be born for many an age, still Eve is to be ‘the mother of all living’, and he calls her so. Exercise like faith.

FOR MEDITATION: Consider some occasions when faith in God’s word overcame apparently reasonable objections such as those raised by Abraham (Genesis 15:1–6), Moses (Exodus 6:10–13), Samuel (1 Samuel 16:1–4), Peter (Luke 5:4–6) and Ananias (Acts 9:10–17).


C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 341.

DID THE WAR IN HEAVEN TAKE PLACE BEFORE OR AFTER THE TIME OF ADAM AND EVE?
Bible Study / Daily Devotional
Daily Devotions
Average reading time is about 5 and a half minutes

I believe that the Bible teaches this war began before our world was created. It doesn’t tell us exactly how long this went on. We do know from Scripture that the devil was once an undefiled angel named Lucifer. He rebelled against God and became the fallen angel now known as Satan, meaning “adversary.” In other words, the Lord did not make a devil.

But when did God cast Satan out of heaven? Did this war between good and evil start before or after Adam and Eve? The Bible tells us, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8).

Now God created the garden of Eden and, in the context of freewill, placed a test of Adam’s and Eve’s loyalty. He warned them about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, obviously, somebody was going to be tempting them to turn away from the Lord right from the beginning. It certainly was not God tempting them. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13).

So in order for Satan to tempt Adam and Eve, he must have rebelled before the creation of our world. It might have even added to the devil’s jealous rebellion when God created our first parents, because angels cannot procreate. The devil does not have creative power, but Adam and Eve could create in their own image through the union of love. Because God made man in His own image and the devil hates God, it might have inspired Satan to especially focus his anger on the first couple.
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:7-9