The changing role of satan [lowercase]

[tonychanyt]

The evolving role of satan [lowercase]

Was evil present in the Garden of Eden?

With hindsight, I think so. Jesus spoke to the antagonistic Jews in John 8:

44 "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

The devil lied and killed Adam and Eve's spiritual consciences.

The idea of a tester/tempter was first introduced in Genesis 3:

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

That was the first sign that there was a creature who questioned the word of God.

This beginning of an evil force was later portrayed by the satan (the accuser, the adversary) against the upright Job. God allowed the satan to test him, Job 1:

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God [ben elohim] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan [the satan H7854] also came among them.

Using a definite article means that satan was not a proper personal name. With the definite article, the satan sounds like a job title. Further, the same H7854-satan appears in (ESV) 1 Samuel 29:

4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him [David]. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary [satan H7854] to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here?

Here, satan refers to David. Elsewhere, the concept of satan was tied closely to God himself in the Balaam incident in the Aramaic Bible in Plain English Numbers 22:

22 And the wrath of God was provoked against him because he went, and the Angel of LORD JEHOVAH stood in the road to be Satan an adversary to him, and he rode on his donkey and his two young men with him.

Later, Satan appeared in 1 Chronicle 21:

1 Satan [satan, LXX G1228 διάβολος] rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

There is a parallel account in 2 Samuel 24:

1 Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

The LORD used satan to accomplish his will against David!

Later still, the good prophet Micaiah saw the Lord permitting a spirit to lie in the mouths of Ahab's bad prophets to deceive Ahab. Micaiah said in 1 Kings 22:

23 “So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

By the time of the exile, something had changed fundamentally in Daniel 10:

12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me,

This was angel against angel. It was an open rebellion. This satan/adversary opposition force opposed not only humans,

because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

There were angelic forces for and against Daniel. These were two distinct wills. Only one was for God.

In the NT, the satan concept became the person Satan, the devil, Matthew 4:

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Demons became rampant, Luke 8:

30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him.

Satan lost his position in heaven, Luke 10:

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

After Jesus' Cross, Satan who accused us day and night before our God was thrown down to the earth (Rev 12:9-11). Jesus now is our Advocate-Paraclete before God (1 John 2:1, Romans 8:34). Satan no longer had access to God.

Hebrews 2:

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil

Over time in human history, we can see that the role of satan gets more and more independent from God. Even the concept of testing/tempting has evolved. In the OT, God tested/tempted Abraham. After Satan went rogue, God tested people, and Satan tempted people. Right now, Satan is the ruler of this world.

Paul used Satan in 1 Timothy 1:

20b Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I [Paul] have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Satan is the dragon in Revelation 20:

1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

In the end, Revelation 20:

10 the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The word שָׂטָן (H7854 satan) appears only 27 times. It could be used as a noun, an adjective, or a verb. There is a more common word צָר (H6862 tsar) that often is translated as adversary. H6862 appears 111 times.

In hindsight, Jesus told us that satan was a bad guy right from the beginning when he did the temptation (dirty) works for God.

 

[Veni]

So you saying, Our Lord bound Satan when he defeat death?

 

[tonychanyt]

So you saying, Our Lord bound Satan when he defeat death?

Well, not exactly. See Is Satan the ruler of this world? and follow up there.

 

[byword]

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.

You mentioned job title… yes.
There’s a lot to this. The serpent didn’t just happen to be at that tree- it was its assignment to be there. It was supposed to test, (as a guardian over their actions), but went with temptation, disobeying God’s directive for it. But, even though it betrayed its purpose, it still had a duty to report to God with a ‘status report.’

He was in charge of teaching, to humans, God’s knowledge, but dispensed it before the humans were given the spirit of God, which would have enabled them to have control over how they used it.

The adversary, since then, was given the task of receiving the sins of the people, (scapegoat in the wilderness).
The more ancient texts speak of a ‘man’ who is in the wilderness to receive the goat on which the priest used to place the peoples’ sins.

When refining silver, the dross must be exposed, gathered, and discarded. Cleansing us of sin by putting it on the adversary is how God disposes of the dross that resulted from establishing life on a lifeless planet.