God’s plan for Satan’s defeat is foreshadowed in the book of Joshua. When Israel entered the land after Jericho, their first battle was against the city of Ai. God instructed Joshua how to go about defeating them, and Satan should have paid attention.
Joshua hid 30,000 men behind the city by night. Then at daybreak, Joshua made a frontal attack on the city with a smaller force. When the men of Ai came out against the smaller force, Joshua and his men turned and fled. The Ai warriors chased Israel’s smaller force, leaving no one to protect the city.
Those 30,000 men then took the city with ease and set it on fire. When Ai’s men saw the smoke, they turned back toward the city, but they were now surrounded as the 30,000 men were behind them. Joshua also turned his troops about and Ai was cut off and destroyed.
Just as Israel made themselves look weak with a small attacking force, God made Himself look weak when he took on the form of a man. Men can die – God cannot. Satan went about to take advantage of this weakness, just as the men of Ai did against Joshua. Just as Satan thought he had the victory with the crucifixion of Christ, God gloried over him in victory.
Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto 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.