Cart 0
When did Satan fall? Theories and speculation abound throughout Christian history. John Milton’s Paradise Lost has no doubt taken centre stage in recent years. Today, it is often assumed that Satan––who was called Lucifer, meaning “bearer of light” or “morning star”––fell from heaven after a great celestial war that, perhaps, took place between Genesis 1 verse 1 and verse 2. But does Scripture verify the resounding silence of this interpretation? That Satan fell before mankind is never explicitly mentioned in the Bible. In fact, the strongest indication of Satan’s fall takes place in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)
Before we tackle the interpretation of verse 14, we must first consider one of the purposes and chief themes of Scripture itself: our calling to spiritual warfare against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers of darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). So––with that in mind, our first question ought to be: What is Genesis 3 teaching first and foremost? Is God teaching us about snake anatomy, as creatures that once had legs but lost biological functions, or is God trying to teach us something deeper about reality itself? The nature and purpose of our adversary, the devil, perhaps?
Ezekiel 28 verifies this deeper reality when the Spirit of God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel as judgment against both the king of Tyre and Satan simultaneously; and something crucial is revealed, here. Satan was good in Eden before he fell:
You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
….
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
….
Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
(Ezekiel 28:12-17)
God placed Lucifer (or Satan) in Eden, the holy mountain, while he was a “signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”. He was “blameless” in the Garden of Eden, that is, “until” unrighteousness was found in him. More significantly, notice that God refers to the serpent’s curse in the Garden: “I cast you to the ground” (v.17) –– a direct reference to Genesis 3:14. Meaning, when God cursed the serpent to the ground to eat dust all the days of his life, it was directed and intended for Satan. Like the prophetic judgment against the king of Tyre, Genesis 3 is teaching us to look behind the veil of physical reality. Things are not always what they seem.
But if verse 14 is not explicitly directed toward the snake Satan possessed, how do we make heads or tails of what God means by His curse?
Verse 14, ‘Because you, Satan, have done this – hidden behind a snake (or veiled yourself as one) to deceive man – cursed are you more than all these creatures, even more than the livestock, that is, the animal’s mankind will use as sacrifice.’
The second half of verse 14, “…on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life” is, then, prophetically describing Satan’s new role now that he has fallen from the highest heavenly position. Consider it; Satan is “going to and fro on the earth” (Job 1:7), that is the ground, and “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8-9), that is his belly. Devouring what? According to God, dust. But what does God say to Adam immediately after he falls? “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (3:19). Satan was cursed in Genesis 3 to be a devourer of man, to lead us to death through sin. The New Testament verifies this understanding:
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself [Christ] likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)
Therefore, as an agent of physical and spiritual death, Satan’s new role is to go to and fro the earth seeking someone to devour. For this reason, Christ came to earth, to destroy the works of the devil and to conquer death (1 John 3:8).
Satan now is fulfilling his heart’s desire, to seek and destroy the souls of men through the flesh (Revelation 12:4). Rather than protect mankind, as was his appointed position as a guardian cherub, his new fallen purpose is to destroy them; to oppress, deceive, tempt, and ensnare us in sin so that we fall again and again, and then to accuse us day and night before the Lord for our moral and spiritual shortcomings (Job 2:4; Luke 8:12-13; John 8:44; 2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Timothy 3:6-7; Revelation 12:10-11).
All that to say, the best explanation of the text is that Satan and Adam fell on the same day, at the same time. We fell together. We were deceived. He was the deceiver. We are redeemable. He is not. That is why Satan is called “our adversary”. But through faith in Christ, the second Adam, who is the fulfilment of thew Law, we can ‘extinguish all the flaming darts, such as lies, deception, persecution, and temptation, of the evil one’ (Ephesians 6:16), and we will prevail.
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Romans 16:20)
Matlock Bobechko is the Chief Operating/Creative Officer of Bible Discovery. He is an eclectic Christian thinker and writer, award-winning screenwriter and short filmmaker. He writes a blog on theology, apologetics, and philosophy called Meet Me at the Oak. He is also an Elder at his local church.
