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There was a wicked angel in hell,
named Satan. Once he had been a bright and happy angel in heaven;
but he was disobedient, and God drove him down into hell, and many other
wicked angels with him. Sin cannot be in heaven; all must be holy
there. "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down into hell." 2 Peter 2:4.
Satan hated Adam and Eve, because
they were holy and happy, and he was wicked and miserable; and he went
into the garden, and appeared like a serpent, and spoke to Eve, and
tempted her to eat the fruit which God had forbidden. But Eve said,
"God commanded us, saying, Ye shall not eat of it, lest ye
die." Then Satan told a lie, for "he is a liar, and the
father of it," John 8:44, and said, "You shall not surely
die." And Eve was tempted to believe Satan, and she took the
fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and ate, and gave to
Adam, and he ate. God saw all this, and He was very angry.
Adam and Eve were sinners now, their holiness and happiness were gone, and
God would punish them for their sin. "They heard the voice of
the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and
his wife hid themselves." Why did they fear? Because they
knew they had sinned; they knew that God was angry with them: they were
not glad now to hear His voice; they could not now sing His praises, and
talk happily to Him. But Adam and Eve could not hide themselves from
God, for He can see everywhere. "The eyes of the Lord are in
every place, beholding the evil and the good." Proverbs 15:3.
God called Adam, and said to him,
"Hast thou eaten of the fruit of which I commanded thee not to
eat?" and Adam did not humbly confess his sin, but answered,
"The woman gave it to me, and I ate." Then God said to
Eve, "What is this that thou hast done?" and she answered,
"The serpent tempted me, and I did eat." Then God told
Adam and Eve that they had sinned, and therefore they must die.
Thorns and thistles would now grow in the beautiful world; they must
labor, and suffer pain and sorrow all the days they lived, and then
"die, and return to the dust." Their bodies must die; but
where must their souls go? They could not die, because they
were immortal: and they could not go to heaven, because they were
sinful. Hell was the place for the wicked, where Satan and the
wicked angels were. Must the souls of Adam and Eve, and all their
children, go there? No—God did not wish his sinful creatures to
perish. He said, "Deliver their souls from going down into the
pit; I have found a ransom." Job 33:24.
God said, that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head. What did this mean?
Satan was the serpent; Jesus Christ was the Seed of the woman. In
due time, Jesus would come into the world, and subdue Satan, and deliver
all who should believe, from Satan's power, from sin and hell. If
we, like Adam and Eve, have faith in Jesus, we shall be saved as they
were, and made eternally happy when we die.
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