Lesson 3: No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy

Things do not go to the Lord’s plan in the Garden of Eden, and in his creation as a result. Certain of those in the more Calvinist camp would bristle at this statement. Still, I go where the text leads me, and nowhere does Genesis suggest that God caused the “serpent” to deceive Eve or make her specifically to be deceived for the drama of mankind’s fall to play out. Why give the decree to multiply, fill the creation, and subdue it to the Lord’s will if the plan was to have us fall from grace before we could even begin?

God made his intentions known, and that clearly did not include mankind, his chosen created instruments and image bearers on Earth, to be deceived into rebelling against his Kingdom. Personally, the ability for the Snake, or as most scholars and normal folks like us agree is Satan the primordial rebel, to hide his actions from the most powerful being of the universe has the most terrifying of implications and proof of his motives. God is unaware of the betrayal until Adam and Eve fess up to their sin, and then the punishments flow.

Now I want to clarify that Satan did not pull off his ruse. He was called to account. God found out the rebel’s guilt, and most importantly of all readapted his plan for creation and humanity, his image bearing colonists. As we see in God’s declaration before passing judgment on Adam and his descendants for being deceived:

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

This verse gives us a few core truths to unpack while reading the Bible that will change our perspective on how the Biblical narrative plays out. The fact the Lord was ignorant of man’s deception by the serpent till the damage was complete shouldn’t be ignored (Genesis 3:9-11). We could even postulate that the Devil had already rebelled at this point, or was in the process of beginning his full revolt (Rev. 12:7-9). 

I say this because of how we see the enemy able to hide his movements, however briefly, from the Almighty. If he was capable of doing this, why then enact a plan that would ensure his rebellion was found out? He had to have known the first thing Adam was going to do was blame Eve, and thus Eve would blame the “serpent” leading God to the culprit of the crime. If he was still in the process of setting up his rebellion then secrecy would’ve been a priority. It’s almost as if the twisted freak wanted his previous master to know who had ruined, or mostly ruined, the Almighty’s plans on Earth. If he had already fallen from grace that explains why the Devil didn’t care if the Lord found out his transgression since God already knew the serpent, that old red dragon, had fallen from grace. The enemy wanted God to feel that betrayal.

For those of you who have read the Bible, and know enough about the Devil, this spiteful attack seems to fit the dragon boy’s gamma MO. He wants you to know that he is the one ruining everything, or at least trying to. Still, we can also make a few more speculations with future passages in the Bible in mind. The Devil coveted God’s creation the Earth.

We could assume that there was nothing more but spiteful malice in Satan’s actions. A Churchian would say so, and dig no further. But you’re not in your grandma’s Bible School. We are going to dig deeper. Why attack humanity? Or rather turn man against God? Why was this the attack the Devil chose?

Let’s say you are a general in Germany in the spring of 1944, and you know the Allies are preparing an invasion. You know they’re coming, they know they’re coming, but they aren’t ready yet. What would you give to sabotage those efforts to prepare the invasion force for their inevitable attack? Of course you would, and that’s what the Devil was doing. Satan wanted the Earth, and as proof of this I point to the fact that after the events in Genesis he did claim the Earth.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4

The Bible calls our adversary the god of this world. It’s why Christ tells us to be in the world, but not of the world. It’s why when the Devil offered the nations of the world he wasn’t bluffing. He had the ability to give the world to Jesus which is why the temptations in the desert were temptations at all (Luke 4:3-8).

We’re trained to view the Earth as just another rock like a billion other rocks out there. Rare to support life, but not supremely unique in its ability to do so. The Bible disagrees. God declares this creation good, and his enemies have been trying to claim the physical realm for themselves ever since he created this majestic world. Little wonder they work overtime in their propaganda to convince us this “rock” isn’t worth fighting for. To think only of the next life, or to disconnect from the physical realm like in Buddhist concepts.

We were targeted because we were the colonists sent to take possession of our inheritance, the Earth, and bring it into the Heavenly Kingdom in God’s name. They attacked the invasion in its infancy, and then claimed the world for their own, turning the Almighty’s servants against him at every turn.

But here we see the important aspect of this passage that will be a theme throughout the Bible. Even if the Devil messes with God’s will The Almighty has a say in the counterattack, and is not idle.

Notice that God goes right back to using mankind for his plans making a prophecy that the offspring of Eve would be in conflict with the Serpent, and if we stretch just a tad, the sons of the Devil as Jesus called the Pharisees (John 8:44). The Devil’s punishment would be enacted by a descendant of Adam and Eve, and as we see through later prophecies would bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth (2 Samuel 7:12-17). Bam, nice try Devil. The plans are only delayed, not destroyed and man through Jesus Christ is linked to this grand strategy despite the dragon’s attempt to break us from our creator.

Here we come to the third, and one of the more fascinating observations. Not the Devil, nor even the angels, or any man or any principality of power knows how God’s will will play out exactly. Part of this is deliberate. As we see in the previous lessons God declared his will in no uncertain terms to his entire assembly of Heaven, and even how that will should be carried out. Creation would be conquered and subdued by the children of God bearing his image in human form via propagation, taking dominion over all the plants and animals, and by taking dominion over the land itself (Genesis 1:28-30). A pretty solid plan, and The Almighty’s enemies thought so too. Their first move to counter the Lord was to attack the weak point in the strategy. The colonists and crusaders themselves who were still young and gullible.

We will get into how the enemies of God emulated his stratagem with their own twisted abomination children in future lessons, but for now we can see why God changed his strategy. No more was he going to declare in detail how his plans would be accomplished so his enemies could counter him with ease. Now the enemy was going to be in the dark till Christ himself came down to Hades and Hell to break their power with blazing eyes and a sword coming out of his mouth.

For example, we know that the offspring of Eve that will crush the Devil’s head is Jesus Christ our savior, but no heavenly being or even the Devil knew that at the time when the prophecy was made. They only knew God intended to still use humanity to take dominion of the earth through the ultimate savior figure, and not only was that savior going to conquer creation he was also going to crush the rebellion's head in the process. Big promises and curses, but not much detail on how the savior would do the crushing. Thus was God’s updated plan far more difficult to frustrate.

This will be another theme throughout the Old Testament. God makes a move, the Devil counters, God counters and changes the game, the Devil counters and corrupts, and God changes the game again till finally Christ breaks the chess board after a triple four D chess checkmate move literally thousands of years in the making. This is going to be good, but alas we can’t read about all of God’s vengeance and brilliance in one lesson. So let’s end this one with a reminder that God’s plans can only be delayed, not denied, God is set on using mankind no matter the cost, and no one but God knows exactly how this is going to end. Remember these truths as we go through our future lessons.

Question 1: Can you think of a verse in the Bible that confused you? What was it, and can you guess a reason why God might have hidden the meaning of the verse from his enemies?

Question 2: With the Fall of man we are no longer capable of fulfilling God’s original commandment to take dominion of the Earth from the primordial chaos. Only through Christ can this be accomplished. Does that mean we shouldn’t try to better the world around us and be fruitful and multiply since we cannot complete our task till the Lord’s return?

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