There is a struggle of the will. This verse reveals several significant things. One, the announcement of victory for God. Two, an announcement of hope for mankind and three, an announcement of doom for the government of Satan. God told Satan that he had lied his way to power and that it would not always continue. He warned Satan that He would win back the right to rule and that it would be played out under fair conditions. The very thought that God would work through the defeated human race to accomplish is purposes infuriated Satan to such an extent that he concentrated his efforts on sabotaging this plan.

Think of it! God would bring a drama to the planet earth, involving mankind, which would re-establish His government of love. It became Satan’s studied effort to coerce the will of man and see that his cooperation was impossible. Satan has pulled out all the stops to see to it that God is made out to be arbitrary, malicious, greedy and unattractive. Satan makes every attempt to see to it that God does not command the respect of His subjects. He mounted a tremendous smear campaign which was a assault upon the very character of God. His usurped power as prince of this world was used to sabotage the rebuilding effort by God concerning a lost human race. The very thought that God would work through this conquered human race plunged Satan into frenzied activity.

Satan heard God’s announcement of a promised deliverer and his hatred for the human race increased. He heard God promise there would be a redeemer for this lost race. He hated the human race all the more. He did not know which baby might be the redeemer so he worked feverishly right from the start to see this redeemer plan was not a success. The very first child born on this planet became a murderer. No doubt his parents thought the promised redeemer had arrived but that hope was soon shattered. Imagine it. Cain, the first child born on this planet, murdered his brother, Abel. Satan was taking no chances that one of these children might be the Savior. He moved in with his tremendous power and succeeded in capturing the will of the one who turned unbridled jealousy and hatred into murder.

Satan was now on his way to implementing his plan of sabotage and destruction. He considered that he had killed the redeemer, the promised Savior. Sin, finding root in Cain’s heart, eliminated him from being the Redeemer. Death eliminated Abel. There would be no redeemer at this point in history. He would do it. Instead of a beautiful place where God’s love could be appreciated earth had become an arena of war.

But God’s plans are not so easily frustrated and He gave Adam and Eve other children, thus enabling the line of the Promised One to be established. It was set up through Seth, the third child. Luke’s genealogy records this fact in Luke 3:38. What is significant about all of this is that we are part of this drama. We can all testify to the fact that our wills are very much a part of this struggle. Certainly it is true that there is a tremendous battle within our own beings concerning one to whom we offer allegiance. Everyday we are confronted with the lies and deceptions of Satan and now, because of our sinful natures, the decisions we make are not always the ones we absolutely want to.

If it not been for the promise God made that He would not allow Satan to dominate our wills we would be out of the race with no choice but to serve Satan.

When Satan was expelled from heaven and found fertile ground for his lies here on earth he knew it was his final opportunity to get it all. He needed proof that his plan was the best and he spared nothing to get it. Enslaving earth’s subjects was his first move.

All you have to do is go through the Bible only a short distance before you realize the near-success of Satan and his plan. In just a few short years Satan so totally dominated the course of history that the wickedness of man was at a saturation point.

Had the course of history followed as it was going there would have been an impossibility for the redeemer to be born. All of mankind would have been lost. But God is not indifferent to our needs. He did not simply create a wonderful universe and then, like an absentee landlord, leave it to our ruling. Earth is not like a giant clock with a mainspring that is slowly winding down. God is personally involved with our needs. He is concerned. Knowing the course of events, and seeing what Satan was doing, He extended His grace. That which the Bible records as the flood is the historical way of revealing this love and grace of God. Had God not intervened mankind would have totally surrendered to the power of Satan and all hope of a restoration with God would have been lost. The promise of Genesis 3:15 would yet find fulfillment after the new beginning recorded in Genesis 6.

Not long after this God worked with one the bible calls Abraham to develop a people allegiant to the will of God. Genesis 12 begins this account. The special relationship with Israel came out of this. Satan watched as this new relationship developed. He stepped up his campaign against God and put even greater pressure upon the human race. That which he introduced at this point in history because he was nervous about this special relationship with Abraham and Israel, has not subsided to this very day. Anti-Semitism was born out of Satan’s fear that this promised Redeemer would soon arrive through the lineage of Abraham. Today’s feelings of anti-Semitism are not accidental as Satan concentrated upon destroying the purposes of God through destroying the people of God called to be His. It is important to understand that because God worked with this group of people in a special way does not mean they are better than or of greater value than any others.

Somewhere in this line of people there would come a redeemer that would crush and destroy the power of Satan. He would vindicate and exonerate God. Because Satan did not know exactly when this Redeemer would arrive he intensified his charges against God and especially through Israel’s relationship with God. He worked from both the inside and outside bringing pressure points. He tried desperately to break the covenant relationship that God set up. Had tried to break them as a nation and a people as several times the were in subjection to other nations. He would do anything to sidetrack them from preparing for the Redeemer. He led the people to follow false gods, sparking one of the greatest tragedies for Israel -- the captivity of God’s people by an oppressive power. The book of Daniel reflects this tragedy. Idolatry and revolt including a dividing of the very nation of Israel itself were other problems with which the had to contend. The ten tribes of the north (Israel) and the two tribes of the south (Judah) became scattered and dispersed people. This would better serve Satan’s purposes for it would isolate them from their central purposes. They would no longer be one people with one objection. A fight for survival would occupy their attention and this hope-for redeemer would not be able to get that necessary foothold. Perhaps Satan had a chance. The Old testament is really the story of how Satan has infiltrated this nation which God has called to be in special relationship with Himself. Not because the nation is itself top-notch but because it was the nation through which God promised the Redeemer. That is the central focus of attention in reading the Bible.

At a couple points in history Satan was within almost a single person of exterminating this people through whom the restorer of fellowship and the redeemer of His people would come. The book of Esther should be read this light. His plan for wiping out this nation was so successful that it was only a miracle of God which saved this people at this time. And then Jesus the Christ was born and battle zone number 3 was created.

(3) An attack upon the Redeemer Himself. When Jesus was born Satan’s hatred reached a new zenith. His anger was white-heat. The entire human life of Christ is Satan’s attempt to murder him and keep Him from being the deliverer of His people. If the plan of Christ succeeds Satan fails. A lot was at stake in the life and ministry of Christ. King Herod became an instrument of Satan to murder all children two years of age an younger -- in an attempt to get Christ in this mass murder. This plan was foiled. At the first public manifestation of Jesus’ ministry Satan personally undertook the task of causing Jesus to fail. Matthew 4 is that account of this grueling ordeal for Jesus. The focal point of the temptations of Satan was to get Jesus to turn from the will of the Father an exercise independence -- the same cause of sin in the first place, both with Lucifer (Satan) in heaven an Adam and Eve on this planet. If Satan could get Jesus to exercise an independent will the covenant with God the Father would be broken and all hope for lost mankind would disappear. Simply stated, Jesus was a success and Satan a failure. Failing in this direct approach upon Jesus, Satan changed his guise. He worked through the self-centered religious leaders and infiltrated the church itself. So it wasn’t going to work to get rid of Christ, then he would make sure that church itself would be reduced to rituals, liturgy and rules. The heart and spirit of church would be crushed out . It would be okay for people to attend, as long as there was no gospel being taught there. The first four gospels of the Bible -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- reveal the struggle between Jesus and the church itself. Satan had indeed captured the minds of the church leaders, so that they themselves plotted the murder of Christ. But even Calvary, which they thought was the accomplishment of this devilish plot was a victory for God. Jesus was not killed, He gave His life as a ransom for the world.