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If Satan was an actor being paid for his appearances then he would have a tough time living off the royalties earned from his role in the Christian Bible. He is oft mentioned, but only has an appearance in six out of the sixty-six books in the Bible. His appearance in Job as the protagonist is strategic. Satan is a thread that links Genesis, the wisdom literature, the prophets and the gospels. Since my previous articles have focused on the New Testament, I propose to begin Job by first examining this linkage. In previous articles I described states of being and the vectors that generate movement in a pattern that I refer to as a dance. The interesting difference in nearly all of the conversations with Satan and in the discussions found within Job is that there is very little movement. I previously linked the different states of being and the vectors to a concept called a “state transition diagram”. In the conversations with Satan and we are predominately dealing with states of being with few transitions.
Matthew 4:1 to 11 Matthew, Luke and Mark all describe an encounter between Jesus and Satan known as the “Temptations”. Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist and then goes into the dessert wilderness. There are four roles in these dramas—Jesus, Satan, the narrator and the Old Testament prophets. The Old Testament prophets are quoted by the actors. I believe that those quotations are thus part of the text that belongs to the actor who utters those sayings and I will treat them as such in this analysis. The narrator opens the drama and uses the word “led”. In my analysis of the negotiations with Pilate I interpreted “led” to imply captivity and thus linked it with conflict. The question is whether “led” here means that Jesus was taken—as if against his will—or called—as if in response to God’s will. I believe we have a clue to the correct interpretation when we look in verse 2 and see that Jesus has been fasting. Fasting is either a denial and a conflict with self-will. Or fasting is a gift given to honor a cause that is greater than oneself in order to gain understanding. Fasting is either subjugation or alignment. Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychologist who was taken captive by the Nazis and spent time in brutal internment. (Viktor Frankl; Man’s Search for Meaning; Beacon Press; 2006; ISBN 080701429X.) Out of that Frankl came to realize that each action is subject to interpretation. While the guards and the other prisoners expected their actions to dominate and thus subjugate the prisoners, Frankl learned to find meaning in his existence that surpassed those expectations. “Led” can mean force or “led” can mean an encounter with the unexpected. “Hunger” can mean deprivation or “hunger” can mean an opportunity to search one’s soul for meaning. Both answers are true. And thus, the correct interpretation of Matthew 4:1 and 4:2 is both that Satan acted to “lead” Jesus into temptation and that Jesus was “called” through his alignment with God’s will to go through the temptation process. Verses 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are text attributed to Satan. Verses 4, 7 and 10 are attributed to Jesus. When I plot those words in the following word fields I find an interesting pattern. The pattern I found in Jesus’ expressions fits my expectation. Note that the one troubling phrase is “Away with you”. I will come back to that phrase in a moment. My initial expectation was that I would find Jesus’ words in the upper left part of this table and Satan’s words in the lower right part of this table. Instead I find that Satan deserves his reputation as the great deceiver in that he continually switches positions. In verse 3 he combines dissonance and conflict to create chaos. In verse 9 he combines gifts and dissonance to try to create alignment. In between he mixes a variety of concepts. Rather like Pilate, Satan has no position of his own to hold fast. Instead, also like Pilate, Satan switches positions and directions in order to take advantage of any opening. Note that the narrator concludes this drama with concepts that seem high in dissonance and love. After all, if you believe in encounters with angels then you must agree that those encounters are rare. And if you do not believe in encounters with angels then you must agree that a description of such is quite unusual. Dissonance is high and the acts of those angels is loving. Thus the narrator ends with alignment. Now, there is one troubling phrase in verse 10. Jesus says “Away with you Satan!” This phrase requires interpretation. If Jesus is commanding Satan to leave then my whole premise that Jesus only acts with love and dissonance is defeated and my writings lose value. On the other hand, consider the words of a mother sending her children off to school. “Hurry up!” Are those words spoken with love or anger? It all depends. The only clues that help us understand the meaning that mother implies is the context surrounding that utterance. The context we see surrounding Jesus’ remark to Satan is that both Jesus and the narrator are in alignment. Thus, I tentatively postulate that Jesus is informing Satan that the test is over and now he, meaning Jesus, has other tasks that require his attention.
Luke 4:1-14 The encounter between Jesus and Satan in Luke uses much of the same wording as does the encounter in Matthew, but the sequence is altered. The narrator mirrors Matthew in verses 1 and 2. Like Matthew, the narrator also ends with Jesus departing the encounter in alignment. In my interpretation verse 13 reflects the chaos associated with Satan through the explanation of a postponed conflict. The one word that puzzled me about this encounter is the word “authority” used in verse 6 where Satan says he will give Jesus “authority” over the kingdoms. I believe the concept here is “command” which would link with conflict. However, it is possible that the offer is for subjugation or dominance which is a mixture of force with a disregard for the suffering of those affected.
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Zechariah 3:1-10
Mark only uses one verse to describe the temptation process and has no dialogue in that verse. John does not mention the forty-days of temptation. There is, however, another place where Satan appears as the accuser and that is Zechariah 3.
In the first verse the narrator tells us that Satan is there to accuse Joshua. As an Old Testament prophecy there are two interpretations possible. Joshua was the general who led the Israelites into the promised land. Joshua is also the Jewish name that was translated into Greek to become Jesus. The Joshua that appears in Zechariah is named as the high priest who will rule heaven. Thus the general consensus is that the Joshua here in this text is a prophetic vision of Jesus.
Satan does not have a speaking line in this cameo appearance.
Instead the speech in this chapter is from the narrator, an angel and from the Lord God. The narrator and the angel use concepts of redemption, gifts, compassion, service, assurance and alignment.
The speech from the Lord to Satan repeats the word “rebuke”. There are two possible interpretations for that word. If God is angry with Satan then God is criticizing Satan. On the other hand, it is possible to rebuke someone while still acting with love. It is the context that must help us interpret the intent.
Unfortunately, there is little in the way of context surrounding this repetition of admonishment. In my opinion, the lack of context is going to need to speak to us.
First, let me make sure you understand the situation. Joshua and Satan are standing in front of God. Satan is there to accuse Joshua. The angel tells us that Joshua is covered in sin and must be given new clothes. In Christian theology Jesus was sinless and only took on sin when he was crucified. So to fit this prophecy into a consistent framework of Christian theology it is necessary to assume that this encounter describes Jesus when he rose from the grave and before he received his glory as the King of Heaven.
What God is rebuking Satan about is the appearance of Joshua. Now if this is Jesus, then some consternation is in order. Jesus was flogged severely, crucified, died, pierced by a spear and laid in a tomb for three days. Any one who underwent any of those ordeals would be quite unkempt.
Imagine your daughter goes out on a date with a young man and when she comes home her clothing is gone, she has blood all over her body and she rather looks like death warmed over. Imagine your likely response to the young man who dropped her off on your doorstep. And yet, no such retribution appears in this text. As one famous song says “He could have called ten thousand angels.” But there is nothing here to indicate any attempt or desire to attempt revenge. There is nothing here to break my hypothesis that God is infinite love, infinite dissonance, infinite energy and infinite time. There is nothing here to indicate that God acted in any way towards Satan that was not appropriate to one calling all of the lost into alignment.
Satan as a motivator of behaviors
There are numerous other references to Satan throughout the four gospels. For example, it is said that Satan entered into Judas’ heart when he decided to betray Jesus. Elsewhere in the New Testament Satan is blamed as the reason for various behaviors. This theme has continuity with the Old Testament. For example, in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it is said that Satan incited King David to conduct a census which then resulted in calamities befalling Israel. In these usages Satan is a social construct—a concept, a vocabulary term. Satan is not encountered directly, but when bad things happen Satan is blamed.
In order to find another encounter where Satan testifies on his own behalf we need to go back to Genesis.
Chapter 1 and 2 of Genesis tell about the creation of the earth. Note that there are two separate stories here bridged together. In verse 1:27 we read that God created male and female humans. In the version of this story told in chapter 2 God only creates a male human and then subsequently creates a female. Perhaps the second chapter is intended to clarify the concepts introduced in the first chapter. Perhaps, like the four gospels, it was necessary to have two versions of this story to add perspective. I do not know.
What I do know is that there is a potential problem identified in verses 2:15 to 2:17. First, God commands Adam to obey. Then God tells Adam that if he eats from the Tree of Knowledge he will die. I will come back to these two points in a bit. For now, if we focus on all of the text in chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis and temporarily omit verses 2:15 to 2:17, then we have an immense display of love and dissonance. God created the entire universe and gave it to Adam as a gift. God is in alignment even if we cannot yet tell what to make of Adam and Eve.
Chapter 3 begins with a talking snake that is traditionally taken to represent Satan. I am content with that assignment of roles and count this chapter along with the temptations in Matthew and Luke and the prophecy in Zechariah as four appearances by Satan. I will get to the other two appearances by Satan later in this article.
Satan begins this encounter with an inquiry. Eve responds in verse 3:2 with information. In verse 3:3 Eve repeats the warning given by God in verses 2:15 to 2:17. Satan in 3:4 and 3:5 reveals information, offers a gift and asks Eve to align with him. In verses 3:6 and 3:7 Eve and then Adam align with Satan and are subsequently transformed. There are several subtle problems with this.
First, if we look carefully at the warning from God in 2:15 to 2:17 we see that God warns that Adam will die if he eats from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam does eat from the Tree of Knowledge and does not die. Thus, God lied. What makes this even more complicated is that Satan was the one who told the truth. Satan is the one who told Eve that she would not die and Satan was right.
The second problem is the process of moving from alignment to transformation. Every instance of the transition between those states that I have found goes in the other direction. God calls us to alignment. God is unmovable and already aligned. We need to transform ourselves so that we can align. The same applies to business organizations. The market changes. We need to transform our business in response to that change and then we can regain our alignment with our customers. The same applies to colleges. The professor presents the lecture material and gives the reading assignments. The students need to transform themselves to acquire this knowledge so that they can be aligned with the professor when it is time for the test.
I can tell you my answer to that second problem is that the correct way to do this is to transform first and then align. I have tried to illustrate that process in my other writings and will continue to demonstrate that pattern in my subsequent writings. And thus I conclude from this illustration in Genesis chapter 3 that when we align first and then experience transformation then something is amiss. Anything that we can align with without first transforming ourselves is an illusion. The only thing we can possibly align with without transformation is a reflection of our own desires.
Satan gave Eve an illusion of what it was that Eve, and Adam, wanted. Satan deceived Eve in creating a false sense of alignment. Satan seduced Eve. But Eve, and Adam, would not have aligned without transformation unless what they aligned with was what they already wanted. And then they blame Satan.
Not to defend the snake, but consider the lack of loyalty and commitment that Adam and Eve show for each other when God questions them. They immediately point the finger at each other and at the snake. Then follow along into chapter 4 where Cain murders Abel. Does anyone in this family show any signs of remorse? Is there any evidence of a sense of responsibility for one’s own actions? None.
Now, to unravel this puzzle I need to go back to developmental psychology and social evolution. Think about this from the perspective of a four year old. There are cupcakes on the table. Two are missing. There is icing on the faces of two little cherubs who both seem quite content. You ask why there are two cupcakes missing and the first reaction is disbelief that they could be missing. You inquire again and learn that both of them only ate their cupcake after the other one had already done so. This is an interesting study in probability and statistics as you suspect there is no way that both could be second. But of course you also realize that it really does not matter who ate the cupcake first. The truth is that both succumbed to the temptation of fresh cupcakes within easy reach. Now, if you persist in a pointless pursuit of infinite truth you will soon learn that both cherubs will quickly accuse the other of being the devil who started the whole commotion.
This is all consistent with the mental development of a four year old. Responsibility, as we adults understand that concept, is not comprehensible to a four year old. They understand good and bad, right and wrong, hunger, cupcakes and vast worlds that are wonderful to admire. But an adult sense of blame is not something they can physically comprehend.
The story told in Genesis chapters 1 through 3 is the story of a society living the life of a four year old. Human social structures had not yet evolved to form a sense of partnership or family or community. And so, like a four year old, when asked who is responsible for the missing cupcakes, Adam and Eve shift the blame to someone else.
Given his role as the epitome of evil, Satan gets the blame regarding stolen fruit. Then, still thinking like a four year old, Adam and Eve and the next generations who retell these stories, blame God. In verses 3:14 to 3:19 the woes of humanity are attributed to the whims of a God who sent his children off to their rooms without desert. Think about the four year olds that you know. If two cupcakes are missing and an hour later those wonderful angels are deprived of some treasure do they not blame you and tell you that you are not being fair? Cause and effect are not something they can extend to future time periods.
And thus I conclude this quick study into the role of Satan with the following points:
- We like to blame someone for our problems and are content to blame others, Satan or God.
- We interpret directions that we do not like as commands and then struggle in conflict trying to obey when all we needed to do was align with the intent.
- The stories in the early part of Genesis are faithful and accurate retellings of events as interpreted by a society that did not yet know science and had not yet evolved to form social bonds.
Next, I am going to describe how this tendency to blame was addressed in the theology found in Job.