Humanity and its earthly habitat, which God called “very good” soon got off track in Eden due to men’s and women’s lack of experience with a crafty low-life character who had been exiled from holy Heaven to this new earthly realm….seemingly with a long enough leash to still do serious damage everywhere he goes…….enough to get the first couple exiled from their Paradise, too. But God knew satan had only so much leash and that God had the wisdom and power to anticipate satan’s every move…… not needing to prevent satan’s schemes, but having the sovereignty and goodness to redeem the earth and everything in it from satan’s worst efforts ….again and again and again. (Where do you think Cartoon World got the concept for Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner??)
And the cunning, satan-wanna-be-god has, for generations plied his stock-in-trade tactics to trip up God’s people…… and God keeps coming through with redeeming act after redeeming act and giving humankind another chance, sometimes even employing supernatural spiritual-realm-miracles. After a while, after fighting battles in the heavenlies, satan got cocky enough to think he could force God’s hand and began to craft the destruction of The Prophesied One of God and satan began watching and waiting for The One. When satan thought he had zeroed in on The One, based on his own careful reading of God’s Word, he set his sites on The One, Jesus’ destruction. He was going to do it this time. He had put up with God constraints, the leash, and being thwarted long enough. He was going to set The One up in a way that would be the ultimate defeat of God and God’s people…… and satan would do it in such a way he’d never have to lay a finger on Him. satan knew the nature of human beings well enough to play them for fools and get them to do all the dirty work for him. And when it was over, satan would have WON IT ALL! However, satan did not count on the mystery of the ages……. something only God alone knew…. that God Himself was going to step out of Holy Heaven and come to the earth where God had exiled the devil, all the while planning for God’s people to grow in number (through a promise to Abraham), and to always be with them and provide a physical land for them (through a promise to Moses and Joshua), and in wisdom (through a promise to Solomon) and in stature (through providing Ruth and Naomi with the promise of a kinsman redeemer), and in favor with God (through giving those who delight in and obey Him a heart of worship like David), and in favor with men (through guiding them to live into the promise that they could have an abundant life with the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that Jesus Himself showed to them and promised to send them with the Holy Spirit.)
And when satan perceived that his plan had worked, the The Promised One had been defeated, he believed that it was the beginning of the end for all mankind….. that he could now rule with wanton abandon across the earth as he had been attempting to do since being cast out of Holy Heaven. But his happy victory dance didn’t last long when the word began to spread that Jesus had risen from the dead… and not only that, but that Jesus had found a way to give His believers a power from within that, like Jesus Himself, could withstand satan’s temptations and walk fearlessly, confidently, and transcendently even through firey furnaces, stormy seas, and the worst kind of threats satan could hurl at them, even the threat of death. This was the signal to satan that his days of havoc in the earth would be coming to an end. One God-equipped human was an easy target but millions of them walking the earth victoriously, without fear, would be too much. It would set him to frantically spinning in circles and watching his own back, knowing that God was onto him and had marked him the same way he had marked Jesus , the Christ. And now millions were on his trail and destined to bring his range and rule to ruin. And satan knew it was the beginning of the end for him and only the end of the beginning for God’s plan for his very good creation.