hold fast to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This is a task for each of us. We can’t just make assumptions; we can’t just take other people’s opinions for granted. Theology is a process of searching and researching, questioning and testing. In this book, we will take Paul’s advice. We will discover what is outside of the Bible, and test it.
Trust me, we will see wonderful things.
2. Satan
Grab your Bible, and open it to the New Testament. You don’t have to read very far before you run into Satan. The Devil is introduced right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and he immediately gets the name Satan (Matthew 4:1, 10). Matthew has a good reason for this. There is a strong connection between Jesus’ redemptive work and Satan’s existence.
Now, think about the fact the New Testament is called “new” because there is also an Old Testament. You would expect Satan to be a regular sight there too. Nothing is less true! If you read the Old Testament from cover to cover, all nine hundred pages in my Bible, you will run into this evil figure only three times (2 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1–2; Zechariah 3:1–2). That’s once per three hundred pages.
This difference between the Old and New Testaments is intriguing. Satan is a frequent figure in the New Testament. If you read the New Testament cover to cover, only 250 pages, you will run into his name thirty-six times. If you include all the other names for Satan, such as devil, tempter, Beezeboul, Belial, and adversary, you end up with almost 140 times. In 250 pages, that is more than every other page!
Yes, I know that, if we do our best, we can find Satan a few more times in the Old Testament. The snake in Genesis: that has to be Satan. Right? And the prideful Lucifer, that’s Satan too. We can recognize Satan in a few more places in the Old Testament, but we only recognize him because the New Testament has taught us so much about Satan. With Revelation in the back of our mind it suddenly becomes clear that the snake in Eden is Satan. But without the New Testament, we would have never associated the prideful angel Lucifer with Satan.
There is also a big difference between how the Old Testament and the New Testament portray Satan. This difference is significant if you consider the theological role that Satan plays for many people. Satan is not small or unimportant at all for a good deal of Christians. He is the great opponent of God and humanity.
We can attribute this difference to humanity’s growing understanding and to God’s growing revelation. Through the ages people learnt more and more about reality and God revealed more and more to them. This could be why Satan’s role is so small in the Old Testament and suddenly so much larger in the New Testament. Maybe people in the time of Abraham were not ready to learn all about the great enemy, or maybe they had just not realized it yet. Maybe by the time the New Testament rolled around, they were ready to understand the nature of evil.
We could conclude that there has always been progress in how humanity understood God’s grace and mercy, and salvation. That same progress can be seen with how humanity understood Satan. But, if we are honest, there seems to be quite a large gap between Satan of the Old and New Testament. Larger than for other topics. In fact, the gap is not just in how often we read about him, but also in what he does.
Do you feel exploration calling? Are you intrigued? Be patient, for just a little longer. We can’t leave the path yet. Let’s first look at the great tempter in more detail. What do we know about him?
Satan, Who Was That Again?
It is not hard to make a list of Satan’s characteristics. We needn’t even open the Bible. Satan is evil. He’s a rebel. He used to be an angel, but he has fallen. He didn’t want to listen to God because he was prideful and so he was thrown out of heaven. Disguised as a snake he tempted Eve, and thus sin was introduced into the world. He’s still around and tempts each one of us.
We could say more, but this is a good general picture. Most Christians believe in this description, and most people who know anything about Satan will give you these—or very similar—details. It shouldn’t be hard to find Bible verses that show us these characteristics, but if we look at the Old Testament we only see some parts of this image of Satan. Other parts are wholly missing. Let’s look for Satan in the Old Testament.
Job is probably the oldest passage from the Bible discussing Satan. Job is an intriguing book that raises—at least for me—many questions. Job begins with a sort of United Nations in heaven. Satan is apparently the delegate from Earth. There, during a break in the meetings, he has a conversation with God. As regularly happens when you speak to someone from a different country, God asks: “Hey, Satan, you’re from Earth, do you know Job?” And Satan does know him. Read what happens next:
The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. (Job 1:8–12)
Quite a strange discussion. So strange in fact, that we sometimes don’t see all the nuances. What happens exactly?
“Job is a good man,” says God. “The best of the best. No one on earth is as righteous as he is. He is a true Believer, with a capital B. And best of all, he honors me above everything. He respects me. He loves me.”
“Obviously!” Satan answers. “Look at what you have given him. You protect him. You protect his family and even his cattle! You bless everything he does. He just keeps getting richer and richer. No wonder he likes you!”
“Job doesn’t believe because he is a good person,” Satan continues. “Job believes because you make it worth his while. I bet you that he won’t be faithful if you don’t bless him anymore.”
Now, God must know Job better than that, but he gives Satan the chance to test his theory. Job’s children, his servants, and his cattle all die. But Job stays faithful to God.
Careful Examination
If we want to understand this narrative properly, we need to give it some careful examination. That means we must look at it as the original audience would have looked, using only this narrative as our reference. We can’t include books written later, like Chronicles or the New Testament. We can’t include our theology or what we have read in other books. That is a challenge, but let’s try.
In this narrative, we see that God and Satan are talking to each other. Satan has not been banished from God’s sight. He is allowed to enter heaven, to enter God’s presence, and to talk to God. God says that Job is a good person, but Satan has his doubts. If we are honest, these doubts are not very hard to understand: if God gives you everything you desire, you might well believe because you get so much.
So, Satan suggests testing Job’s faith. How? Does he want to tempt Job to do evil, like we would expect Satan to? Not at all. Satan does not want to tempt Job, he wants to take away some of Job’s blessings. He wants to remove some things that Job did not necessarily deserve and see what happens to Job’s faith.
Now I am the first to admit that what Satan does is not great. Not great for Job, absolutely not great for Job’s family, servants, and cattle. But, if we are honest, does this passage show us Satan, the big rebel, who was thrown out of heaven? Do you see the Satan who tempts all
