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Did Jesus mean what He said – Part 3
In part two we ended up with an important question. “If Jesus knew and made it very clear that God was NOT responsible for any evil why did the Old Testament writers think He was? The answer is found in the fact that not only did Jesus reveal the Fathers true nature He also exposed Satan for who he was.
Each of the following questions lead us towards a staggering truth that tradition does not want you to know.
• Acts 26:17-18 Tells us the whole world is under the power of Satan – when did this happen?
• Heb 2:14 – 15 Tells us Satan had the power of death, not God – when did he get this power?
• John 10:10 Tells us Satan is the one stealing, killing and destroying – when did he start doing this?
• 2 Corinthians 4:4 Tells us Satan is the god of this world – when did he become the god of this world?
• Ephesians 2:2 Tells us Satan is the prince of the power of the air – when did he acquire this position?
• 1 Peter 5:8 Tells us Satan is an Adversary – when did Satan become mans adversary?
• Matthew 4:3 Tells us Satan is the tempter – when did Satan start tempting?
• John 8:44 Tells us Satan is the liar and the father of lies – when did Satan start lying?
• Acts 10:38 Tells us Satan is the oppressor – when did Satan start oppressing?
• John 8:44 Tells us Satan is the murderer – when did he start murdering?
If this is all true, If Satan is the one who kills, if Satan had the power of death, if he is the god of this world, our adversary and like a roaring lion seeks to devour, if he is the tempter, the liar, the prince of the air, the one who oppresses and Jesus himself said this was so, (from the very beginning). If this is all true, then why is Satan mentioned less than 25 times in all the Old Testament?
Why do we see the serpent as a main character in the fall of man, but after the garden he is scantly talked about? Depending on the theologian and what they use as terms and names for Satan, he is mentioned somewhere between 14 and 25 times in the all Old Testament, 12 of them in the first two chapters of Job. If we use the book of Job as one mention, Satan becomes an almost non-existent entity as far as the Old Testament is concerned. The New Testament mentions him over 150 times and is 2/3 shorter than the Old. Common sense demands we ask one simple question. What was Satan doing for four thousand years? Or another way to ask the same questions is; what was Satan doing from his lie in the garden until the time of Jesus?
To help us find the answer we must ask other questions; did the Old Testament writers see Satan differently than Jesus? Did Jesus and the New Testament reveal things about Satan that Old Testament writers did not know? Yes!
Any respectable Jewish historian, Bible commentary, theologian or even a Jewish dictionary will tell us basically the same thing. The Jewish religion is pure monotheism. This means God has no real enemies and in fact the concept of Satan existing as a distinct being that can act from his own volition was unknown. The Old Testament writers did NOT see Satan as Jesus revealed him to us. They saw Satan as an angel of God, the death angel, an attribute of God or simply something God put in their own nature to test them. It is extremely important to understand that the Old Testament writers (did not) have the revelation that came from Jesus. Below I have listed some resources.
“In the biblical Hebrew, the term Satan signifies adversary. It is derived from a verb meaning to oppose, to resist, to hinder…. He(Satan) is also identified with the angel of death. He leads astray, then he brings accusations against man, whom he slays eventually. His chief functions are those of temptation, accusation and punishment. Under the control of God, he acts solely with the divine permission to carry out his plots.” - Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWISH CONCEPTS by Philip Birnbaum, Sanhedrin Press
“Satan” in Hebrew means “adversary”. The Jewish satan is an angel. Not a “fallen” angel, just an ordinary angel and totally under the control of God. In Judaism Satan acts rather like a prosecuting attorney but there is nothing “demonic” about him. And as Judaism is pure monotheism there can be no figure that rivals God for power – Source: Jewish answers to Christian questions
“Judaism has no devil or embodiment of evil who tempts mankind. The Hebrew word satan means an adversary or accuser.” – Source: beitemet.com
“Satan is the angel who tempts us, and the angel who prosecutes us in Heaven. He is also the Angel of Death.” – Source: Being Jewish
“Theologians often talk about “progressive revelation” regarding the unfolding of truth in scripture. Those living during OT times didn’t know exactly how God was going to provide salvation for his people through the sacrifice of His Son, but they did understand the concept of blood sacrifice and the need for atonement. Those living under the law had small glimpses of Satan’s work, but it took the added information of revelation in the NT to give a more complete picture.” - Source: Don Clossin probe.org.
There are many more resources to sight but I think you get the picture. The Old Testament writers did NOT see Satan as we do. Jesus clearly reveals Satan for who he is an enemy to us and to God. Jesus removed the veil and specifically tells us Satan is Gods enemy, they are NOT on the same team. God does NOT control what Satan does. This is a monotheistic view of God and comes from Old Testament writers (whom Jesus himself said DID NOT KNOW GOD). James 4:7 tells us to submit to (God) and resist the (Devil). If God controls what Satan does, who are we actually resisting? The Old Testament writers did not have this revelation and whatever name or position they gave Satan he was just tool used by God to tempt us. The New Testament clears this up; God does not have anything to do with tempting us with evil.
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted (Greek = tested, proved or tried), I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil (Greek = Bad, harm, troublesome or injurious) neither tempteth he any man:
The original Greek makes it very clear; NO ONE should say God is testing, proving or trying them with anything bad, harmful, troublesome or injurious. This glorious truth leaves us with the peace that God will NEVER use Satan to test, prove or try us.
Jesus came to take away the veil! He came to show us who God really is. The Truth had arrived to expose the confusion that the Old Testament saints were in. To show us the mysteries no one could see before Jesus and to open the eyes of the blind. In doing so Jesus also exposed Satan for who he was. Brothers and sisters I must say it again;
“If we give as much weight to what the Old Testament writers said as we do to the words of Jesus we become one of those that Jesus said DID NOT KNOW THE FATHER!"
Are you sure that if Jesus showed up today He would not say the same thing to you as He said to the Pharisee’s when He said “your father is the devil? Are you positive you are always worshiping the right god?
2 Samuel 24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
Let’s look at the way another writer of the Old Testament sees this same situation. This is the exact same incident, same David, same story, same result, different writer.
1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
The writer of 2 Samuel tells us it was God’s (anger) that moved David to number Israel. The writer of 1 Chronicles tells us it was (Satan) who provoked David. These verses confirm what we learned earlier about what the Old Testament writers knew and didn’t know about Satan. It also leaves us with a staggering truth. The Old Testament writers saw God’s anger and Satan AS THE EXACT SAME THING!
This information SHOULD NOT be swept under a rug. The Old Testament writers themselves just confirmed that they DID NOT know the difference between Gods anger and Satan. As far as they were concerned Gods anger and Satan are interchangeable and we also learned by very respectable sources that Jews believed Satan IS the angel of death.
Unless we want to remain in a tradition-induced trance this information leads us to yet another question: If all this is true, and it is, where does that leave us with other verses that use the words God’s wrath, anger or the angel of death?
By Tim Cooper
