1 Corinthians 2:7-8 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” The princes of the world this is talking about are the invisible rulers of darkness, who were also operating in people. Scriptures calls satan the prince of the power of the air. Ephesians 2:2

I’m kind of amazed the devil couldn’t figure this out. Let’s think about it. In Genesis, when God started handing out the consequences for Adam and Eve’s sin, we see God announcing “I’m gonna send Someone.” (my paraphrase)

Speaking to the devil in Genesis 3:15, God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” One would think the devil knew God well enough to know He meant what He said.

In Isaiah 7:14, God again gave a clue: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” So a good detective on the trail of a mystery would have seen that and been looking for that event. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention. Maybe he had a day off! Maybe he was sleeping. There were other clues in the Old Testament that point to the One Who would bruise satan’s head.

I think we see the devil missing it in Daniel 9 when Daniel was praying and the angel was able to get the answer to Daniel immediately. That revelation is a totally awesome bit of prophetic information of what would happen in the end times. But in Daniel 10, we see Daniel again praying, but this time the angel was opposed for three weeks before he could get the answer to the prophet. I think the devil woke up after seeing what happened in Daniel 9 and realized he had to stop Daniel’s answers to prayer.

For 4000 years, the devil watched man use blood sacrifices to cover sin as God had instructed them. Four thousand years! You would think he might have figured it out. The pattern was clearly laid out. For over four thousand years, satan had control and free rein over man in the earth. He was the ruler. He was the king basically over men, except where men had faith in God and a covenant which afforded them protection from the works of darkness. But God had said, I’m gonna send Someone who will bruise your head. The devil is stupid and should have believed God. But arrogance deceives…

God kept that promise. The blood sacrifices to cover sin continued for over 4000 years….until Jesus, an innocent man came and died for our sins. The devil still didn’t have it figured out. In his arrogance and madness, perhaps even insanity, he overplayed his hand and killed an innocent man Who was the Son of God and could not be held by death. The devil illegally claimed the life of an innocent Man. God’s plan always had been for Jesus to come, live a sinless life, demonstrate what the kingdom of God was like, and then die; this would take all the devil’s power from him and give authority over the earth back to God’s regenerated humans. This was God’s original plan from the foundation of the world.

It’s hard to believe the devil couldn’t figure that out…he is way dumber than we think. His power has been stripped from him. God is WAY smarter than he is. Remember that.

Colossians 2:14-15 “…having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.“