“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,” (Rev. 20:7) The question is not why release Satan for a season after the thousand years, the question is why make him at all. If the Lord God had not made Lucifer, if He had not created him in the first place, would existence be any different, as pertaining to man at least. Eve would have had no one to tempt her, and Adam, well, that is the question, what would Adam have done, would he still, given enough time, rebelled against the one commandment that he was given.
If all it took was listening to the old serpent speaking to his wife, and then her handing him the fruit, which he ate, (Gen. 3:6) then his ability to discern was not very efficient, so I do not believe that to be the case. Was it the desire of his wife, the only other human being on the entire planet that caused him to react, if so, then Adam was easily persuaded, why not speak to him then instead of the woman if you are Satan? Was Satan necessary in the equation to cause the fall of man, or would we have done that in time on our own, would Adam sooner or later have taken of the fruit of the tree of his own accord and disobeyed the one commandment set before him.
These are not questions that any born-again believer should just lay aside, should refuse to contemplate at length and instead simply fall into the trap of “that’s just the way it is.” Although I would not suggest a lifelong study of it, for some things belong to God, and he has every right to say to us the same as He said to Job, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job 38:4) The entire subject revolves around one very important question, where and why did the Lord see sin against Him as a necessary part of His creation.
The matter of free will must of course be brought into the equation, in fact, it may be the most important part of it, for without free will no one can love anyone else, not God, not your neighbor, not anything or anyone, love cannot be forced. When the man asked the Lord Jesus what the greatest of the commandments were, this is the answer He gave, that we are to love. (Matt. 22:37) That we have been commanded to love, in a sense, spoken as if we have no choice in the matter if we are saved, and therefore, all connotation of emotion must thus be taken out of the equation, unless the Lord was saying that we are to modify our emotional states, the way we feel personally towards not only God Almighty, but towards every single human being, then the commandment is to be obeyed in action and deed, in things that require no emotional context.
The nature of sin, it’s very beginning in fact, when contemplated, will give us insight into why we sin, why we rebel, not just when Lucifer said, “I will,” but the exact moment and reason for the iniquity that was found in him, (Eze. 28:15) it will lead us to the thoughts of Adam in that very instant before he took the bite, and in that moment died, but I do not believe that it will show us the mind of God the moment that He decided to create souls that would be capable of denying Him, or the sorrow that the next few thousand years would bring. Some things the Sovereign Lord of all creation keeps for Himself.
“That’s just the way it is,” is not good enough for some of us, you might as well try to say to us, “Because I say so,” we refuse to leave the field until all the rocks are gone, we cannot quit because it is difficult, we refuse to stop until we are satisfied with the answer, and if the answer never arrives, then the journey does not stop. I cannot serve well unless I know the reason why I am not serving.
To say that Lucifer had placed within himself something that was not of God Almighty, is to say that God is not Sovereign, and I know Him to be so, so then the ability to sin is placed within every living soul, to rebel against He who made all things, the choice to serve or not serve is the free will that was given to us by God, and so the opening statements remain, and probably always will remain a mystery to us, why is Satan necessary if man, if Adam, had placed within him by the Lord the same ability to rebel as Lucifer had within himself, would he have rebelled, would he have taken of the fruit eventually of his own free will.
Lucifer was perfect, until iniquity was found in him, the way it represented itself is the question, was it those first thoughts against the will of the Almighty that caused this iniquity, or was it the action of the words he voiced, those recorded for us in Isaiah 14:14. We are tempted the same every day in the same way that Eve was, yet unless we succumb to that temptation, there is no sin, this was proven perfectly by the Lord Jesus. (1 Peter 2:22) Adam was not tempted, nor was Lucifer, their sin was calculated, it was carefully thought out, it was intentional, and even with all the known facts, they still made the decision of their own free will to disobey the commandments given to them.
Untold numbers of words by billions of men have been written on this subject, and not one of us knows the answer as to why, as I said, the Almighty has reserved certain things for Himself alone. Those of us who are searching for righteousness here will never find it, but that does not mean we will stop, as long as we draw breath, it is His face that we will seek. (Prov. 8:17)
