Satan’s rebellion brought in God’s judgment. God cannot tolerate any rebellion among His creatures. Immediately after Satan’s rebellion, God declared His judgment on him. “Iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy slander [According to the root of the Hebrew word, here ‘merchandise’ can be translated ‘slander’]...thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up...thou hast corrupted thy wisdom...I will cast thee to the ground...Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities...” (Ezek. 28:15-18). “Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:15).
The heavens and the earth surely were defiled by Satan’s rebellion. God rebuked Satan, “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries.” Therefore, the heavens and the earth were also judged by God. Job 9:5-7 says that God overturned the mountain in His anger, shook the earth out of its place, commanded the sun not to rise, and sealed the stars. We cannot find a record of such an event in human history. It must have happened before the Adamic world, at the time God judged the heavens and the earth due to the rebellion of Satan and his followers. Because of God’s judgment, the heavens did not shine. The earth was covered by darkness. God judged the earth by flooding it with water. So, “the earth became waste and empty,” buried under deep water, and covered with darkness (Gen. 1:2).
Isaiah 45:18 says, “God created the earth not a waste” (ASV). Job 38:4-7 also says that God “laid the foundations of the earth,” “laid the measures thereof,” and “stretched the line upon it;” then “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” This means that He created everything in good order. So when the morning stars saw it, they were excited and sang, and when all the angels saw it, they shouted for joy. It must have happened in Genesis 1:1, not in Genesis 1:2. How could the morning stars sing and the angels shout for joy when the earth became waste and empty?
Whenever these two words “waste” and “empty” are used together in the Old Testament, they always denote a result of judgment (Jer. 4:23; Isa. 34:8-11). Whatever has been judged by God becomes waste and empty. The earth became empty and waste because it was judged by God.
The darkness which was upon the surface of the deep was also a sign showing that the universe of that age was judged, because darkness comes from God’s judgment (Exo. 10:21-22; Rev. 16:10).
When God judged Satan and the universe under him, God also must have judged both the angels who followed him and the living beings on the earth during that age who joined him in his rebellion. After being judged, the rebellious angels became the spiritual forces of evil in the air (Eph. 6:12), and the living beings became disembodied spirits, the demons, lodging in the water with which they were judged.
Though Satan, the rebellious angels, and the demons were all judged by God, they are still moving and working today, because the judgment upon them has not yet been executed.
Today, Satan can still go to God to accuse God’s people (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7; Rev. 12:10). He still “walks about” on the earth “seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8), and still works to blind the thoughts of people (2 Cor. 4:4), to deceive them by transfiguring himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). We must not be ignorant of his thoughts (2 Cor. 2:11), neither give place to the Devil (Eph. 4:27). We must withstand him firm in the faith (1 Pet. 5:8-9). We need to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against him (Eph. 6:11-17).
After Satan’s rebellion, God pronounced His judgment upon him immediately. But it takes a long time to execute God’s judgment. The Lord Jesus was manifested in the flesh that He might destroy the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8). This was the execution of God’s judgment. The Lord gave His disciples authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). When the disciples cast out demons, Satan fell from heaven (Luke 10:17-20). Through His death on the cross, He destroyed the Devil (Heb. 2:14). He has bruised the head of the old serpent. Now we, as His Body, must continue this execution, to destroy the tail of the serpent. Through the church’s executing work, the Devil will be cast to the earth, and his angels will be cast out with him (Rev. 12:9). He will later be bound and cast into the abyss (Rev. 20:2-3). Eventually, he will be “cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:10). Then, the execution of God’s judgment upon Satan and his followers will be completed.
Satan was originally the highest of the archangels created by God. He rebelled against God because of pride and became God’s adversary, God’s enemy. The heavens, the earth, and the universe were corrupted because of Satan’s rebellion and fell under God’s judgment. God’s judgment on Satan is being carried out gradually until Christ comes again, when he will be bound and cast into the abyss for one thousand years. At the end of the one thousand years, he will be released from the abyss and will rebel for the last time. Immediately after this rebellion, he will be cast into the lake of fire to be punished for eternity. Thus, God’s judgment on Satan will be completed.