Bible Teaching on Temptation
NEARLY 100 years ago these lines were written (by an unknown author) to accompany a drawing of "His Satanic Majesty":

"This is he, with horns and hoof,
The parsons call the devil;
They tell us he lives in a sultry place
Where ghosts and imps all revel.
They say that he wears a great long tail,
And carries a three-pronged fork,
That he sometimes leaves his sultry home,
And through the earth doth walk.
They say he can assume with ease
The garb of an angel bright,
And then, for a change, he takes the form
Of a roaring lion at night:
That he's power to act and do as he likes,
Be in fifty places at once;
And that to fulfil his evil designs,
Can be as wise as a sage, or a dunce."

Today most people no longer think of the devil like that. But there are still many people who believe that the devil exists, that he wields immense power for evil (some say he is a fallen angel) and is constantly trying to destroy the work of God among men and women. They think it is the devil that secretly whispers in your ear and tempts you to evil.

Of course there are real difficulties about accepting such an idea. If the devil was a real angel to begin with, how ever did he come to revolt against God? And why does God allow a supernatural being to destroy His work in the earth? Where is the devil now, anyway? And how can he really work?

Where to find out?
One thing is clear: this is a religious question. So if we are to settle it, we must refer to the Bible, the great source of all that we know about God and Jesus Christ. Where else would you go for a serious answer on a question like this?

Now the Bible certainly does contain a number of allusions to the devil and Satan. And so to the Bible we turn. But let us get one thing clear right at the beginning: we must make every effort to understand what the Bible writers themselves meant by "devil" and "Satan". It is very easy for us, as we read Bible verses, to give to the terms devil and Satan the meaning which we prefer. And if that meaning is not the same as the Bible writer intended, then we are changing the true sense!

Many of us have had the experience of discussing the devil and Satan with others and have found that the discussion does not seem to get anywhere. And the reason is obvious: when Bible passages are read, devil and Satan are being understood by different readers in different senses. The conclusion is clear: if we are to arrive at the truth about the devil and Satan, we must find out what the Bible writers meant when they used those terms. It is no good relying upon our own understanding or other people's. We must know what the inspired writers of the Word of God understood about this important subject.

In a short work like this we cannot examine all the verses in the Bible which refer to the devil and Satan. But what we really need is a key-a basic understanding of what these terms mean. Armed with this, we should be able to unlock quite a lot of Bible passages.

First, Satan . . .
To find the vital key it is important to begin with the Old Testament, and not with the New. To modern ears this may sound strange, but remember that the Old Testament was written first, many centuries before the New. And since they both really form one revelation from God, the New Testament writers knew the Old Testament very well indeed. They quoted from it and they used its terms; and among the terms they used is Satan. (In fact the term "devil" occurs rarely in the Old Testament and is used differently there from the way it is used in the New.)

So we begin with Satan, the Old Testament term. What does the word "Satan" mean? It is not hard to find out. Take the case of Balaam who lived in the days when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. He was a prophet who had been told by God not to go on a certain hired mission to curse the Israelites. But he wanted the money offered him as a reward, so he went. Riding upon an ass, he soon found his way blocked by an angel: "The angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary" (or enemy) (Numbers 22:22, RSV).

Adversary or Enemy
The word for "adversary" is Satan (from which we get our "Satan") and that is just what it means. Notice two things: Satan here is an ordinary word meaning adversary or enemy, and not the name of a person. The word occurs again only 10 verses later: the angel said to Balaam, "Behold, I am come forth to withstand you" (verse 32), literally "to be an adversary to you".

This is the first time the word Satan appears in the Hebrew record. Notice that this Satan is a good angel, "the angel of the Lord", who is doing what God wants, and not an evil one! If we look up in a Bible concordance the way the word Satan is used in the Old Testament, we shall find that it means an adversary and an enemy. For example: "Why," cried David, "should you (Joab and his brothers) be adversaries (satans) unto me?" (2 Samuel 19:22). And so in half a dozen other cases, where the allusion is usually to men.

Here we have one of the most frequently quoted cases in all the Bible. The first few verses of chapter one describe Job as living in the land of Uz, a God-fearing man who had many possessions. Then, verse 6:

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them."

Satan in the Book of Job
"There you are", some people say, "Satan was in heaven among the angels! He must be a supernatural being!" But let us remember our vital rule: we must understand Bible terms in a Bible sense. "Sons of God", for instance: it is true that once in Job (38:7) this term is used of the angels; but in the Bible as a whole it is often used of men and women who really worship God as contrasted with those who do not. God used it of Israel through the prophet Isaiah:

"Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name . . ." (Isaiah 43:6-7)

So in the New Testament the apostle John, referring to believers in Christ, wrote: "Beloved, we are God's children now" (1 John 3:2). So the "sons of God" among whom "Satan" came (in Job chapter 1) need not be angels in heaven; they could be people on the earth.

But how could they "present themselves before the Lord" if they were not in heaven? Again the Bible itself gives us the answer. Moses and Joshua were once told to "present themselves" in the "tent of meeting", where God would appoint Joshua as the next leader of Israel (Deuteronomy 31:14-1 5). Many years later Joshua called together all the elders of the tribes of Israel to Shechem, where "they presented themselves before God" (Joshua 24:1). Later still, Samuel in his turn told Israel: "Present yourselves before the LORD . . ." (1 Samuel 10:19).

In the New Testament it is said that Mary, the mother of Jesus, shortly after the birth of her son, came to the temple in Jerusalem "to present him to the Lord . . . and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord" (Luke 2:22-24). The "sons of God" in Job, then, who came to "present themselves before the Lord", had come together to worship God in the appointed place, and, of course, in the presence of the appointed priest at that time. This is a scene of worship upon the earth, not in heaven.

But what of "Satan" who came among them? Here the English translators have not really played fair with us, for all the Hebrew says is "the adversary". The capital S in Satan is the translators' own invention, for Hebrew makes no distinction between capital letters and others. Even in the margin the Authorized and Revised Version translators have printed "the Adversary", suggesting by their capital A (for which they have no evidence) that this is that special Adversary, Satan. All that the Hebrew justifies us in saying is "the adversary came among them".

God is All-powerful
But who could this adversary be? If this was a group come together to worship, he would be one of them; in other words he was a man; and he was an enemy to Job, because he was jealous of him and wished him harm. But how then could there follow a conversation between the Lord and the adversary? Again the Bible itself supplies the answer, for in Old Testament times men often received messages from God through the appointed priest at the time. David, for instance, more than once consulted the priest when he wanted to know what God's will for him was, and the priest spoke to him on behalf of God. So this jealous enemy of Job-perhaps one who posed as his friend-said to God through the priest, "Job only serves you for what he can get. Just try bringing some trouble on him and then you will see." And God, because He had a great purpose with Job and desired to see him perfected, allowed the adversary to carry out his envious desire upon Job. But as the book clearly tells us, the power was God's and not the adversary's (Job 2:4-6).

So there is in this episode no need for a supernatural satan and no proof of one. All the expressions are commonly used of men. The Old Testament word Satan means an adversary; but as the example of Job shows us, there develops a natural tendency to use it of an evil adversary.