The main point of this pericope is that Jesus changes His teaching style and starts using parables to hide truth about the kingdom from those who were negative to Him, and to reveal new truth about the kingdom to those who are positive to Him. The use of parables allowed Jesus to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9-10 concerning the leadership and people of Israel who rejected Him (Matt 13:14-15).

At the moment of salvation, God the Father “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13), and “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). This transference is permanent and cannot be undone. Once this happens, we are hated by those who remain in Satan’s kingdom of darkness. For this reason, Jesus said to His disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:18-19; cf. John 16:33; 1 John 3:13). Love and hate in this context should be understood as accept or reject, which can be mild or severe in expression. When praying to the Father, Jesus said, “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14b), and went on to say, “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). It is not God’s will that we be immediately removed from this world at the moment of salvation, but left here to serve as His representatives to the lost, that we “may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). We are not to participate in worldly affairs that exclude God, but are to “walk as children of Light” (Eph 5:8), manifesting the fruit of the Light “in all goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph 5:9-10), and we are told, “do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them” (Eph 5:11).

Though Satan has attacked some people directly, he mainly operates as commander of an unseen realm of demons, through a worldwide system of philosophies and values he’s created, through unbelievers whom he energizes to do his will, and through the sinful inclinations of our fallen nature. These all help advance his agenda in which he attacks God and His people. Paul, when writing to Christians in Ephesus, discusses the reality of these things.

The Bible reveals Satan was originally created a holy angel of the class of cherubim; however, because of pride (Ezek 28:11-18), he rebelled against God (Isa 14:12-14), and convinced many angels to follow him (Rev 12:4, 7). The name Satan is derived from the Hebrew שָׂטָן Satan which means “adversary, opponent…accuser, opposing party…[or] the one who hinders a purpose” The Greek Σατανᾶς Satanas carries the same meaning and is used “in a very special sense of the enemy of God and all of those who belong to God.” Other names for Satan include the shining one, or Lucifer (Isa 14:12), the evil one (1 John 5:19), the tempter (1 Thess 3:5), the devil (Matt 4:1), the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the serpent (Rev 12:9), and the great red dragon (Rev 12:3). Further, Satan is a murderer and liar (John 8:44), is compared to a lion that prowls about, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8), and one who disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).

Genesis 6:1-4 records an event that has puzzled scholars for millennia. Scholarly views vary concerning the meaning of the phrase “sons of God” in verses 2 and 4. There are three major views concerning this passage. In the first view, the “sons of God” are understood to refer to the godly line of Seth which intermarried with the ungodly line of Cain. Warren Wiersbe states, “What was Satan’s plan for defeating God’s people in Noah’s day? To entice the godly line of Seth (“the sons of God”) to mix with the ungodly line of Cain (“the daughters of men”) and thus abandon their devotion to the Lord.” Thomas Constable agrees with Wiersbe. A second view is that demon possessed men married women. Concerning this view, Allen P. Ross states, “They [the sons of God] were probably powerful rulers who were controlled (indwelt) by fallen angels. It may be that fallen angels left their habitation and inhabited bodies of human despots and warriors, the mighty ones of the earth.” Henry Morris agrees, saying, “these fallen angelic ‘sons of God’ accomplished their purposes by something equivalent to demon possession, indwelling the bodies of human men, and then also taking (or “possessing”) the bodies of the women as well.” A third view is that the “sons of God” refers to fallen angels who took human form and cohabited with women to produce a genetically mixed race of beings. This view finds linguistic support, for the Hebrew phrase, בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים bene ha-Elohim is used only a few times in Scripture, and in each occurrence, it clearly refers to angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). The argument for why these fallen angels would do this was to prevent God from fulfilling His word to Eve, that a “seed” would come from her body that would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15).

According to Scripture, demons are classified as either free or in prison. In his first letter, Peter mentions fallen angels who are “now in prison” (1 Pet 3:19). In his second letter he wrote, “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Tartarus and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Pet 2:4). And Jude wrote about fallen angels that God has kept in “bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). It appears many of these fallen angels that are currently incarcerated will be released at a future time (Rev 9:1-11), four of which are exceptionally bad (Rev 9:13-15). Apparently, demons have some freedom and are permitted to defy God, albeit in a limited way. Clearly Satan operates by the boundaries God establishes (Job 1:6-21).

All angels, whether good or bad, are organized for service and effectiveness. Michael is called an archangel (Jude 1:9), a chief prince (Dan 10:13), and is assigned the task of guarding Israel (Dan 12:1). Gabriel is a messenger angel who was sent to deliver important messages to God’s people (Dan 8:16; 9:21-22; Luke 1:19; 26-38). Both Michael and Gabriel are recorded in Scripture as battling fallen angels who appear as commanders of regions of the world (Dan 10:12-13, 21). One fallen angel is called “the prince of Persia” and the other “the prince of Greece” (Dan 10:20). These no doubt function as Satan’s emissaries to promote his purposes, and are part of a larger group that Paul called the forces of darkness (Eph 6:12).