The Devil's knowledge of scripture

interesting question

The most crucial thing is to so completely listen as we read and read through fully, waiting and trusting to learn. So that it that it slows us down, and to also be quiet in our minds, so to listen. As you read in the gospels -- crucial for any Christian is to take in Christ's words, so we should read through the gospels -- you will see over and over that Christ withdrew, for instance often to pray, alone. So, for Him to withdraw alone itself is already in accord to His repeated example for us.

Next, this was a very special time when the spirit had descended on Him powerfully upon coming out of the water from being baptized, giving us an example, ahead of time, of how the spirit is to come upon us. This withdrawal into the wilderness is so perfectly in accord with what we should expect on some lessor scale in our own selves -- that we spend time alone with the spirit, withdrawing from the world. (along with special times of longer withdrawal, we can also later do this even for minutes, alone in a room, for example) Next, Christ was in a human body we can see in the gospels also (among other reasons) to experience (like to our own experience) mortal flesh and it's weaknesses to temptation. You see why better as you read more fully in the gospels. As we read in this passage, the 3 temptations were food in the face of deep hunger (an amplified instance of the desire of the flesh to eat), for raw power for power's own sake (over the kingdoms of the world even), and finally to try to manipulate God in a non-humble, egoistic even way, by casting himself down intentionally from a high place in order to force angels to save him from physical harm. In answering/resisting these temptations he sets an example to us, but additionally he has our own travails in the body. Remember that He is given the authority to judge us. See, all the gospel is an integrated whole, and you can't make sense of pieces of it without the whole often, but by trusting, and continuing to read, you learn more and more. It's a good point you point to that if one has a small knowledge of scripture, then the wrong ideas about it can trick a person. Contrast to Christ, Who did know the scripture, and was not tricked therefore. Likewise, you are vulnerable to be tricked until you learn more fully, and this is one more (of several powerful reasons) why we need to fully read through a gospel or all, listening carefully, to take in and fully learn His words to us.

Whenever the Bible uses the term "Spirit" with a capitol S, it's always referring to the holy Spirit. So, yes, Jesus was driven of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. It took place so that Jesus could be tempted like we are in the flesh (Hebrews 4:15), because after the passion of Christ, he was to become our eternal high priest after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 5:8-10), continually making intercession for us as our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). He was tempted in the flesh so as to understand our infirmities, but to succeed where we failed by keeping the whole law of God, that the Law would be fulfilled in him when he died upon the cross. When he died upon the cross, he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), so that we could be made righteous before God. However, God raised Christ from the dead because God cannot forsake the righteous and allow them to perish, and because of Christ's resurrection, we're given complete and utter justification before God forever because of the life of Jesus Christ. When Christ died, he paid for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2), and when he arose from the dead, he made all who believe on him rise after his manner. We are literally given life through his name (John 20:31). And the Disciples knew it probably because he both told them in person, and the Disciples received the holy Spirit by Jesus Christ before he ascended into heaven (John 20:20-22), which gave them all revelation and power to preach the full truth of the Gospel of Christ.

As to the question about the Devil: firstly I'd like to make the point that he's a reprobate. By that I mean that he is not able to understand nor interpret scriptures with what they actually mean, because his mind is blinded due to his reprobation. God does this to those he rejects so that they can never come to know or believe the truth; he withdraws his divine influence so as to allow them to continue in their own folly and condemn themselves. Like God did with Pharaoh, he did with Satan; Satan knows the scriptures better than us in terms of what they say, but he doesn't know what they mean or how they fit together necessarily because he can't know. The only way to understand scripture is by receiving understanding from God through the holy Spirit and since the Devil is the enemy of God, God has blinded his mind to be able to understand. That's why Satan can never prevent prophecy from being fulfilled or thwart God's plans, because he's not playing with a full deck.

Lilly54 said:

Reading the Gospel of Mathew, chapter 4.
Two things i want to know more about please.
Firstly, is Jesus led by the Holy Spirit to face temptation? It just says Spirit. Why did this take place and how did it come to be known about? Did Jesus tell his disciples all about it after he returned after 40 days?

Secondly, are we to assume that the Devil knows ALL the scriptures? He says 'it is written'. Thus this shows his power to fight for our souls by using our knowledge against us?

I am not clever, not well versed in scripture, but i want to learn. Explain in terms i can understand and give me further reading i can do please.

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Yes, I believe the Lord was led by the Holy Spirit. I don't know why Satan wouldn't know all the Scripture.

These are excellent questions!

1) Yes it was probably the Holy Spirit, and that's how pretty much all Bibles are going to use it (the capital S is a dead giveaway, although it doesn't always do to make assumptions). The word "Spirit" in the verse you mention is the same as the word "Spirit" that gets used in a bunch of places, including Matthew 1:18, 1:20, 3:11 and 3:16. It doesn't have "Holy" in front of it because the word that often appears in other verses isn't in the text in that particular spot.

Bear in mind here that we've only just heard the phrase "Spirit of God" a couple of verses ago, so just saying "the Spirit" isn't too strange if you think of it like that (like saying "John Smith" and then referring to "him"). You are right to ask though - because the same word doesn't always mean the same thing.

2) "Why" is always a hard question, and many people offer speculation to answers about "why". Be careful with this.

However, as others have said already, Hebrews gives good insight into "why" it happened, and is worth taking a look at as you consider the temptation of Jesus.

3) Remember the enemy's first appearance in Genesis? "Did God REALLY say...?". He's been doing the same thing ever since, and this is no exception.

If you're after an assumption, then you might as well assume that satan knows scripture inside out and back to front - at least, the text. Is this true? I don't know and while it's an interesting question I'm not sure it matters too much beyond this: not everyone who can quote scripture is with the Lord, and not every attempted use of scripture is of God. Despite that, the word of God remains the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17) and we do well to dwell upon it.

I hope that is a little helpful. Continue to pray and meditate on scripture as you read, as I'm sure you have been doing.

Best,
Chris

Lilly54 said:

Firstly, is Jesus led by the Holy Spirit to face temptation? It just says Spirit. Why did this take place and how did it come to be known about? Did Jesus tell his disciples all about it after he returned after 40 days?

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Yes, it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus to be tempted as Jesus would not have been led by the devil.
Also, it was necessary that Jesus be tempted because of Hebrews 4:15.
Whether or not He told His disciples about it? Who knows, everything Jesus said and did is not recorded.

Lilly54 said:

Secondly, are we to assume that the Devil knows ALL the scriptures? He says 'it is written'. Thus this shows his power to fight for our souls by using our knowledge against us?

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I assume he knows all the Scriptures as he has had thousands of years to read it.
The devil can be smart sometimes and I can't believe he wouldn't want to take advantage of every weapon he could.
And Scripture can be used as a weapon to hurt others.
But, as said above, he isn't playing with a full deck. And Jesus gave him a PHD (Permanent Head Damage).

Lilly54 said:

Reading the Gospel of Mathew, chapter 4.
Two things i want to know more about please.
Firstly, is Jesus led by the Holy Spirit to face temptation? It just says Spirit. Why did this take place and how did it come to be known about? Did Jesus tell his disciples all about it after he returned after 40 days?

Secondly, are we to assume that the Devil knows ALL the scriptures? He says 'it is written'. Thus this shows his power to fight for our souls by using our knowledge against us?

I am not clever, not well versed in scripture, but i want to learn. Explain in terms i can understand and give me further reading i can do please.

Click to expand...

Lilly54 said:

Reading the Gospel of Mathew, chapter 4.
Two things i want to know more about please.
Firstly, is Jesus led by the Holy Spirit to face temptation? It just says Spirit. Why did this take place and how did it come to be known about? Did Jesus tell his disciples all about it after he returned after 40 days?

Secondly, are we to assume that the Devil knows ALL the scriptures? He says 'it is written'. Thus this shows his power to fight for our souls by using our knowledge against us?

I am not clever, not well versed in scripture, but i want to learn. Explain in terms i can understand and give me further reading i can do please.

Click to expand...

Hi

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and placed in the worm of a woman so he wasn’t born from contaminated seed from the tree of knowledge which contaminated all humanity, and then as a human was able to resist temptation and overcome sin.

Jesus was baptised and then the received the Holy Spirit and led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, like Adam and Eve were deceived but they gave into the dialogue with the devil and did eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Jesus defeated the devil’s words by using Gods word as truth to correct the devil’s words as an example for his people to follow and as a result overcame the devil and began to preach repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The devil’s knowledge of the word of God is irrelevant to believers, because we are the ones that are supposed to be well versed in the word and when confronted by the enemy, temptations, situations, and circumstances etc.

We Use the promises, teachings, and word of God against these deceptions, situations, and circumstances and confront and overcome them with this truth.

The victory has already been won and the outcome and future of the enemy, the world, and the nonbelievers, and believers has already been written in the bible, for all to read and rejoice in.

We have to walk by faith in that victory and enforce Gods word when situations and circumstances challenge or resist Gods word.

Peace.