Lesson 6: The Wicked Angels

 •  7 min. read  •  grade level: 4
 
WHEN did God begin to live in heaven?
God always lived in heaven.1
Once there was no such little child as you, but there always was God. Once there was no sun, but there always was God. Once there were no angels, 2but there always was God.
No one made God; God was before all things, and God made everything. A very long time ago God made the angels. How many angels did he make?
No one can tell how many. There were more than could be counted. 3They were all good and happy.
But some of the angels grew bad. They stopped loving God, and grew proud and disobedient.
Would God let them stay in heaven after they were bad?
No; He cast them out, and put them in chains and darkness. 4
One of these bad angels was called Satan. He is the chief, or prince, of the bad angels. He is also called the Devil. 5The Devil is very wicked, 6and hates God. He can never go back to heaven again, 7but he comes here where we live, 8and he brings the other devils with him. 9
We cannot see Satan, because he is a spirit, but he is always walking about, and trying to make people bad. 10Satan loves doing harm to people; he does not wish to be good. It pleases Satan to see people in pain and in tears; 11but it pleases him best to see them wicked, because then he thinks that they will come and live with him in his dark place. He hopes there will be very many people in hell, so he tries to make us do wicked things and to keep us from praying to God.12
I cannot tell you how very bad Satan is. He is very cruel, for he likes to give pain.13 He is a liar, and teaches people to tell lies.14 He is proud, 15and wishes people to think more of him than of God. He is jealous, and cannot bear to see people happy forever.16
The devil hopes very much that you will come and live with him when you die. He knows that, if you are bad like him, you will live with him in hell. So he tries to make you like himself. When you are angry, you are like the devil. When you say, ‘I don’t care,’ you are like the devil. When you think yourself good, you are proud like the devil.
Can God keep you from listening to the devil?
Yes, he can; for God is a great deal stronger than Satan. 17
Besides this, God is always near you, for God is everywhere. Now Satan cannot be everywhere at the same time. It is true that Satan has a great many angels who go where he tells them; and that Satan and his angels come near you very often. But God is always with you; He is in front of you and behind you and on every side of you; He is about your bed when you sleep, and about your path when you walk. 18Therefore you do not need to be afraid of Satan; only ask God to help you, and He will do so.
Satan is much stronger than you are; 19but God is stronger than everyone. If anybody were to come to hurt you when you were alone, you would be frightened; but if you saw your father coming, you would run to him and you would not be frightened any more. Now God is stronger than your father; He can keep Satan from hurting you. Pray to Him, and say, ‘O Lord, keep me from being wicked like the devil, and from going to hell.’ 20
(To Teachers. A very young child would not understand the rest of this chapter, except the last sentence. Therefore, it would be better to miss out this passage when the pupil is very young.)
God lives on high beyond the sky
And angels bright all clothed in white,
The praises sing of heaven’s King.
This God can see both you and me;
Can see at night as in the light;
And all we do remembers too.
‘Tis He bestows my food and clothes,
And my soft bed to rest my head,
And home so neat and mother sweet.
And should not I—or ever try
To do what He has ordered me,
And dearly love this Friend above?
I always should be very good:
At home should mind my parents kind;
At school obey what teachers say.
Now if I fight and scratch, and bite,
In passions fall and bad names call,
Full well I know where I shall go.
Satan is glad when I am bad,
And I have not done what I ought;
I am not fit with God to sit,
And angels bright all clothed in white.
I will confess my wickedness,
And will entreat for mercy sweet.
O Lord, forgive and let me live.
My body must be turned to dust.
Then let me fly beyond the sky,
And see Thy face in that sweet place.
And hopes that I with him shall lie
In fire and chains and dreadful pains.
All liars dwell with him in hell,
And many more who cursed and swore,
And all who did what God forbid.
Questions
Did the angels always live in heaven?
Who has lived always?
Why did God cast some of the angels out of heaven?
What is the name of the prince of the bad angels?
Why does Satan walk about here?
Can you keep yourselves from Satan?
God punished the wicked angels.
A verse from the Bible for you to learn:
God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness. 2 Peter 2:4.
 
1. ‘From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.’ Psa. 90:2.
2. ‘By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible.’
Col. 1:16.
3. ‘An innumerable company of angels.’ Heb. 12:22.
4. ‘The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’ Jude 6.
5. “The old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ Rev. 12:9. ‘The prince of the power of the air.’ Eph. 2:2.
6. ‘The devil sinneth from the beginning.’ 1 John 3:8.
7. ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate... he hath reserved in everlasting chains.’ Jude 6.
8. ‘Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’ Job 1:7
9. Satan ‘was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’ Rev. 12:9.
10. ‘The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.’ Eph. 2:2.
11. ‘In mine adversity they rejoiced.’ Psa. 35:15. ‘Thou lovest evil more than good.’ Psa. 52:3. ‘He loved cursing.’ Psa. 109:17. All that is said of the wicked applies in a higher degree to Satan as the author of sin, for Christ said to the wicked. ‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.’ John 8:44.
12. ‘Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.’ Luke 22:31. ‘But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.’ 2 Cor. 4:3,4.
13. Satan is called ‘a roaring lion.’ 1 Peter 5:8. His ‘fiery darts’ are spoken of in Eph. 6:16.
14. ‘He is a liar, and the father of it.’ John 8:44.
15. All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’ Matt. 4:9.
16. This is proved by Satan having ruined man, and by his continuing to tempt him.
17. ‘O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee?’ Psa. 89:8.
18. ‘Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.... Thou hast beset me behind and before.’ Psa. 139:3, 5.
19. ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.’ Eph. 6:12.
20. ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’ James 4:7.