Lucifer's Fall (Written for Children)
Marlise has written a bunch of children's story versions of events of Bible History. She had already written this, but wrote it again thinking she hadn't. So I thought I could post it here as a taste of what is in that series of books:
- Lucifer’s Fall
He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4 (NKJV)
Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Luke 4:5-6; 10:18; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Revelation 12:7-9, John 1:1,2; Proverbs 8:22-30; Hebrews 1.
Patriarchs and Prophets chapter 1
Back in eternity, before time began, God had a Son. God’s Son shared in all of His Father’s thoughts and ideas, and received all knowledge from Him. He gladly worked with His Father to fulfill His plans. God, through His Son, created heaven, the angels, the worlds and everything in them.
God and His Son lived with the angels in heaven. Heaven was such a joyful place! All of the angels loved each other, and they loved God and His Son. They were grateful for everything they had, and for all that they did. God had given each of them talents, and the angels enjoyed using their talents to serve the rest of the angels. Everything that the angels did brought joy to them and to the rest of the angels, too. There was no selfishness or meanness among them; each angel looked out for the happiness of the others. This is how God had planned it: there was no sadness, death, pain or selfishness in His plan. The angels enjoyed their heavenly home so much, that they were constantly singing songs of praise to God and His Son.
But then something unexpected happened. One of the angels began to have different thoughts. His name was Lucifer. He was an angel of light, full of beauty and talent. He was the head angel, and all the angels obeyed him. God had created Lucifer perfect, talented and wise. But Lucifer began to forget that all his beauty and wisdom came from God. He began to focus on himself, and he started to think that he had achieved all of this on his own. He became filled with pride.
Now that Lucifer felt so proud, he was not satisfied with only being the leader of the angels. He wanted more! He began to feel jealous of God’s Son, because God’s Son was higher up in authority. He began to wish that he could take the place of God’s Son. How could this happen, if God had created him perfect? It is a mystery how Lucifer, who had everything and was created perfect, could begin to have such evil thoughts. But God gives freedom to His creatures, and Lucifer used this freedom to think thoughts against God’s Son.
Now the harmony and peace in heaven were broken. Lucifer began to feel so unhappy that God’s Son was above him, that he began to think, “God is not really fair. He should have placed me in charge, not His Son. I would do a better job than Him!” God and His Son pleaded with Lucifer to change the way he was thinking. They showed him how much they loved him. They explained that they had created him and given him a position that was perfect for him and for the rest of the angels. But Lucifer refused to change his mind. The more he thought about it, the more jealous he felt of God’s Son. He wished God’s Son would disappear!
God’s Son had never asked the angels to worship Him. He had never tried to be more important than them. But now, because of Lucifer’s thoughts, God knew that the angels would soon be confused. It was necessary to remind them who God’s Son was and how necessary His role was for everything to work correctly. He called all of the angels together and announced, “It is important for you to understand my relationship to my Son. I told Him all my plans, and then He is the One who created you. All life flows from me through Him to you; that is why my Son is worthy of being worshiped, just like you worship me.”
Lucifer heard this announcement, and he worshiped God’s Son together with the angels. But in his mind, he was unhappy. He no longer loved God’s Son as the other angels did. He was jealous because he wanted the angels to worship him, not God’s Son. Soon he began to speak to the angels. He began to make them doubt what God had said about His Son. “We shouldn’t have to worship God’s Son; He is not giving us enough freedom! We have life in ourselves; we are just as holy as He is,” Lucifer lied to the angels.
Some of the angels began to feel confused. They loved God, they loved God’s Son, and they loved Lucifer. Could Lucifer be right? Was it fair for them to worship God’s Son? Soon there was a new feeling among the angels: unhappiness. Some of the angels were worried when they heard what Lucifer was saying, and they defended God’s Son. Other angels thought that Lucifer was right, and they began to hate God’s Son. The angels would not agree, and this made them very unhappy.
God was patient with Lucifer. God is the God of life, love and forgiveness. He doesn’t force. He would allow each of the angels to make their own decision, and He would not stop loving them and giving them life. Lucifer sometimes thought, “I’m actually wrong; I’m telling lies;” but he was too proud to repent. It would be too shameful now to admit he had been wrong. God was willing to freely forgive him, but Lucifer’s ideas about God had changed so much, that he believed that God would not forgive. He refused God’s offer of forgiveness, and he refused to repent. He hardened his heart and held on to his wrong ideas.
The Bible says that then there was “war in heaven”. This war was not with swords or guns; it was a war of ideas. Lucifer fought by sharing his lies about God and His Son, and God and His Son responded by giving their love and life to all their created creatures. The war became so great that half of the angels took Lucifer’s side. Yet God and His Son did not give up; they continued treating them all with love and patience.
The angels who were loyal to God and His Son begged Lucifer and his angels to repent. “Don’t listen to Lucifer! Return to God and His Son!” they pleaded. This is how the war in heaven continued: with arguments and conversations.
Some of the angels that had taken Lucifer’s side eventually decided to return to God, and God lovingly accepted them back. But one-third of the angels remained with Lucifer. Lucifer didn’t want any more of his angels to repent, so he used his most powerful lie to convince them to stay with him: “I know God better than you all. He says He will forgive, but I know He actually won’t. We’ve gone too far; it’s too late to turn back!” This was not true!
God would not use lies; He continued treating His creation with love and gentleness. He continued saying the truth. But the minds of Lucifer and his angels had changed so much, that the truth, love and gentleness in heaven bothered them. They finally became so uncomfortable in the atmosphere of heaven, and in the presence of God’s Son, that they decided to leave. Their discomfort cast them out of heaven; they did not want to live there anymore.
Now Lucifer was not Lucifer anymore. “Lucifer” means “bringing light”. But Lucifer was no longer bringing light; he was only bringing darkness. His new name became Satan, which means “enemy”. He became the enemy of God and His Son. He is also known as the Dragon or the Serpent.
How would God deal with His enemy now? Satan had separated himself from God, and God is the one who gives life. If you cut yourself off from the source of life, then the natural result is death! But if God let Satan die, then the angels and the rest of the universe would always think that God had killed Satan, and they would be confused. They would always wonder, “Was Lucifer right? Maybe God is unfair, after all!”
The angels and the rest of the universe could not yet imagine how much harm Satan’s ideas could do. The only way was for God to give freedom to all His creatures to choose either Satan’s ideas or God’s ways, and wait for everyone to see the results of each choice. This is the only way that the whole universe would be sure that Satan is the enemy, the father of death, and that God is love and life.
The stories in this book, and in the rest of the books of this series, are all about what happened when the people on this earth chose God’s ways, and what happened when people chose Satan’s ways. When sin entered our earth, the whole universe watched. With everything that happened, they finally understood that Satan had been wrong all along, and that God had always been fair, just and loving. As we read these stories, we will also learn how loving and just God has been all along. Do you believe that God is righteous, fair and loving? Ask Him to help you see Him this way, and thank Him for His loving patience.
