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Chapter 3
11
then for a certainty that unless he could overcome Christ, from
thenceforth there would be a limit to his power. He understood that
this communication from the throne of God signified that heaven
was now more directly accessible to man than it had been, and the
most intense hatred was aroused in his breast.
When Satan led man to sin, he hoped that God’s abhorrence of
sin would forever separate Him from man, and break the connecting
link between heaven and earth. When from the opening heavens
he heard the voice of God addressing His Son, it was to him as the
sound of a death knell. It told him that now God was about to unite
man more closely to Himself, and give moral power to overcome
temptation, and to escape from the entanglements of satanic devices.
Satan well knew the position which Christ had held in heaven as the
Son of God, the Beloved of the Father; and that Christ should leave
the joy and honor of heaven, and come to this world as a man, filled
him with apprehension. He knew that this condescension on the part
of the Son of God boded no good to him....
[1079]
The time had now come when Satan’s empire over the world
was to be contested, his right disputed, and he feared that his power
would be broken. He knew, through prophecy, that a Saviour was
predicted, and that His kingdom would not be established in earthly
triumph and with worldly honor and display. He knew that the
prophecies foretold a kingdom to be established by the Prince of
heaven upon the earth which he claimed as his dominion. This
kingdom would embrace all the kingdoms of the world, and then
the power and glory of Satan would cease, and he would receive
his retribution for the sins he had introduced into the world, and
for the misery he had brought upon the human race. He knew that
everything which concerned his prosperity was depending upon his
success or failure in overcoming Christ with his temptations; and
he brought to bear on the Saviour every artifice at his command to
allure Him from His integrity (
The Signs of the Times, August 4,
1887
).
16, 17 (
Ephesians 1:6
. See
EGW comment on Matthew 4:1-
11
). A Pledge of Love and Light
—In our behalf the Saviour laid
hold of the power of Omnipotence, and as we pray to God, we may
know that Christ’s prayer has ascended before, and that God has
heard and answered it. With all our sins and weaknesses we are not