and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel" (Genesis 3:14-15).
The first curse came upon the serpent. We know the serpent was the devil (see Revelation 12:9). That he was cursed to travel on his belly on the earth seems to also be a metaphor of how he was cast out of heaven down to the earth. Of all the regions of the universe, the devil has been restricted to the earth.
Compared to the rest of creation, the earth is like a grain of sand to the oceans of the sea. We are but a speck of dust to the rest of creation. All the evil in the universe is imprisoned on this little planet, while God's righteousness prevails over the billions of galaxies and the heavenly realm that is even more expansive. The devil and all of his evil followers may prevail here for a time, but compared to eternity, it
is like a brief moment. The domain of God is of unfathomable greatness and expanse. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, "The Lord's domain is so great that if all of the evil deeds and thoughts on earth and in hell were combined and hurled into heaven, they probably would not even have the weight to register as a single thought on the least of the creatures there."
To those of us who live here where the devil and his hosts have been cast, it seems that evil prevails over all. Therefore, we must keep things in perspective. He is certainly crawling on his belly, lower than all of the other creatures. The serpent was also told that he would eat dust. Because man was created from the dust, in Scripture this often represents the flesh of man, or his carnal nature. From that time, the devil has fed off the carnal nature of man. Every time we give in to following the flesh instead of the Spirit, we are feeding the evil one. Paul wrote in Romans 8:5-11:
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
Because the devil feeds on the carnal nature of man, when we fall into carnality we are feeding and strengthening his domain in our lives. We must learn to feed our spirits, not our carnal nature. We feed our spirits by keeping what we read, watch, or even think about pure. Our spirits will grow stronger by fellowship, sharing the gospel, and exercising the spiritual gifts that we have been given. We are told in I
John 3:7-8, 10-11:
the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
We cannot partake of Christ and go on living in the ways of the evil one. If we are Christ's, we will pursue righteousness by love. The whole law is fulfilled in the two great commandments, loving God and loving one another. If we pursue the course of love in all we do, we will grow in the nature of the Lord, because God is love.