Often times our caricatures of the devil involve a pitchfork
wielding red imp, or some scary monster from a horror film wreaking havoc on
his prey. To be fair, he is characterized as a roaring lion seeking his next
victim, but the lion is only one simile associated with the devil. It should
not be overlooked that he is also depicted as a cunning serpent.
We might conjure up images of the devil hating God’s Word
and seeking to destroy the Bible, but there are at least two instances in
Scripture when he attempted to use it to his own advantage. Yes, Satan quoted
God’s Word. These accounts are found in Genesis 3 and Matthew 4.
In the Genesis account, Satan, in the form of a serpent,
tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. We could rightly call this an example of
misquoting rather than quoting because the snake changed God’s command. He
turned “You shall surely die” into “You shall not surely die.” Adding a single word to God’s settled word has
brought disastrous consequences for the last 6,000 years.
In the Matthew account Satan is tempting Jesus after His
forty-day fast. In verse six Lucifer quotes Psalm 91:11-12 verbatim (“He shall
give His angels charge over you…in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you
dash your foot against a stone.”). He doesn’t add or subtract a word; in fact,
his use of the perfect Greek tense in “it is written” rightly indicates that
God’s Word will stand forever. However, he took the verse out of context, using
it to do something that God’s Word forbade, namely tempting the Lord (Matthew
4:7, Deuteronomy 6:16).
Satan no doubt hates the Bible, but he is not afraid to
quote it. He will tweak it or take it out of context, but he will certainly use
it. Just because someone may be quoting the Bible, their doctrine may still be
corrupt. We must be careful to rightly divide the word of truth so that we can
be on guard against Satan’s oldest trick.
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