041. Why did God create Satan, or the Devil?

Why did God create Satan, or the Devil?

Because God is love. God created him whom we now call Satan as a being of very exalted glory. A hint of what Satan was as originally created we get in Ezekiel 28:12-15, R.V.:

“Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone wast they covering . . . The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee; in the day that thou wast created they were prepared. Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so, so that thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till unrighteousness was found in thee.”

Because he was a being of such exalted glory he was a moral being, that is, a being with the power of choosing good or evil. He seems to have been the one that led the worship of the universe. But ambition entered his heart. He seems to have tried to direct to himself what properly belonged to God, and thus he fell. Falling from such a height he fell to the deepest depths and became that appalling being that he now is. The Devil of Scripture is not a hideous-looking being with horns and hoofs, but a being of very lofty intelligence who has turned his mighty powers to wrong and has thus become the great enemy of God and man.