Lessons #329 and 330
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Death of some Israelites in the desert (1 Cor 10:5-13)
…. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
The primary message of 1 Corinthians 10:5-13 that we have been considering for some time is: Enjoyment of God’s blessing under a good spiritual leader will not shield you from His judgment if you displease Him. Recall we stated that there are three primary reasons for presenting the message of this section the way we did. The first is that the Holy Spirit conveyed to us through Apostle Paul that the death of majority of the Israelites in the desert was because of God’s displeasure with them. A second reason is that the death in the desert of most of the Israelites that left Egypt is to dissuade believers from evil desires that we indicated is the concern of 1 Corinthian 10:6-10. The third reason is because Israel’s experience in the desert is written down for us as examples and warning. We examined the statement of this fact of Israel’s example in verse 11. In our last study, we examined the warning or exhortation given in verse 12 that cautions against self-confidence that may lead to failure in the spiritual life. We spent time considering the subject of spiritual vigilance as the manner to guard against failing spiritually in a way that would be disastrous to the believer that can even lead to death. The possibility of death is because of the examples of the Israelites in the desert and the death of some Corinthians that abused the Lord’s Supper. So, we continue with the third reason of the message we presented by considering the last element of the third reason. The last element of the third reason is concerned with the subject of temptation/trial in verse 13 presented in form of three facts the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthians and so all believers to know.
We presented the first fact the Holy Spirit wants us to know using the word “temptation” or “trial” since our English versions are divided in their translation of the Greek of 1 Corinthians 10:13. Some English versions such as the NET or the REB used the word “trial” while others such as the TEV used the word “test.” The differences in the translation of our verse in the English versions is because the word “temptation” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (peirasmos) that may mean an attempt to learn the nature or character of something by submitting it to an examination hence means “trial, test, examination” as Apostle Peter used it regarding the sufferings of Christians in 1 Peter 4:12:
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
The word may mean an attempt to make one do something wrong and so means “temptation, enticement to sin” as Apostle Paul used it to describe what those who are eager to get rich at any cost may face in 1 Timothy 6:9:
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
The question is, which of these two meanings of the Greek word used captures what the apostle intended in our passage? Truly, it is difficult to decide because the two meanings are related in that there is the common element of examination involved. A person could argue that the best meaning in our passage is “trial” first because of the context and because the verbs used “seized” and “bear” in the NIV are more applicable to trial than to temptation. It is true that the verbs used are similar to words used with our Greek noun when it has the meaning “trial.” For example, when the verb “endure” or “persevere” is used our word is translated “trial” as in James 1:12:
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
This is not a strong argument since a Greek verb (peripiptō) that may mean “to fall into” is used with our Greek noun when it is translated “trial” in James 1:2:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
The verbal phrase face trials of many kinds is literally fall into trials of many kinds. But another Greek verb (empiptō) that may mean “to fall into” is also used with our Greek noun with the meaning “sin” in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Timothy 6:9:
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
Thus, the fact that the verbs used in 1 Corinthians 10:13 are similar to words used when our Greek noun is translated “trial” is a weak argument to support our Greek noun being given the meaning “trial” in our verse. This notwithstanding, it is with the meaning “temptation” in the sense of “an examination to learn the nature/character of a person or to cause the person to do something wrong” that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:13. We are saying that our Greek word should be translated “examination” in our context or “temptation” in the sense of “an examination to learn the nature/character of a person or to cause the person to do something wrong.” There are at least four reasons for adopting this meaning.
First, the meaning “temptation,” according to the experts, is a more general meaning to capture the biblical sense of the Greek word used than the meaning “trial” or “test.” The New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 1161) states “The biblical idea of temptation is not primarily of seduction, as in modern usage, but of making trial of a person, or putting him to the test; which may be done for the benevolent purpose of proving or improving his quality, as well as with the malicious aim of showing up his weaknesses or trapping him into wrong action.” The Theological lexicon of the New Testament (Vol. 3, p.82) implies that temptation and trial are inseparable because temptation is explained using the word “trial” in the sentence “Hence the religious and moral meaning, “temptation,” which is a trial of virtue by means of affliction or adversity, or even by Satan’s intervention.”
Second, the word “temptation” is not the same as sin. In other words, there is nothing in the NT that implies the word “temptation” is in and of itself “a sin.” We know that the word “temptation” is not equivalent to sin because the Lord Jesus was tempted by Satan, but He was declared to be without sin in Hebrews 4:15:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
James tells us that temptation is an enticement to sin but does not become sin until a person yields to it as we read James 1:13–15:
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Third, our Greek word that we adopted the meaning “temptation” or “examination” is translated “trial” or “test” only when there is suffering. This, we can note first with the fact that the word “temptation” does not appear in the OT Scripture although the Authorized Version used it but that is not the correct translation as we will note shortly. The Septuagint used our Greek word three times in Deuteronomy to translate a Hebrew word (mǎssāh) that means “trial” or “test”, that is, that which is a proving or examination with a focus of getting a response, possibly implying a hardship in the process. The Greek word is used in the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 4:34:
Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
The phrase by testings is translated in the KJV as by temptations. It is difficult to understand what “temptations” mean in this context. However, the “testing” or “trials” in Deuteronomy refers to the various sufferings the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians to cause them to release Israel from slavery. It is because of this interpretation that the TEV instead of the word “testings” used the word “plagues.” The other two usages of our Greek word in Deuteronomy (7:13; 29:2) reflect the same meaning of “suffering” the Lord brought on the Egyptians. The same limited meaning of our Greek word to reflect suffering is evident in the way our Greek word is translated in the NIV. It is in the sense of suffering and difficulties that the word is used in the Lord Jesus’ statement to His disciples as He was about to go to the cross as recorded in Luke 22:28:
You are those who have stood by me in my trials.
It is with the meaning of “suffering” that our Greek word is used in the Holy Spirit’s encouragement of believers through Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:6:
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
It is with this meaning of suffering that our Greek word is used in the promise of our Lord to the local church in Philadelphia as we read in Revelation 3:10:
Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
Anyway, the point is that our Greek word is translated “trial” or “test” mostly in the context of suffering and so it is limiting when our word is translated “trial” or “test.”
Fourth, the meaning “temptation” or “examination” allows for a broader interpretation and application of what is given in 1 Corinthians 10:13. If we adopt the meaning “trial” or “testing,” this implies that only suffering is implied in the verse. This is not necessarily the case since there is also the context that indicates that the subject of sin is involved in the statement of 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
Be that as it may, our use of the meaning “examination” or “temptation” in the sense of “an examination to learn the nature/character of a person or to cause the person to do something wrong” enables us to recognize that the examination we face in our spiritual life can be friendly or hostile. Friendly examination is always from God with the purpose of proving our faithfulness to Him and so has nothing to do with sin in a moral sense as we understand it today. To use word that most of us is familiar, we will use the word “test” or “testing” to describe the friendly examination we are concerned. Such friendly examination may involve painful experience, but its goal is not sin but to test faithfulness. The classical example of this kind of examination to prove one’s faithfulness to the Lord is that of Abraham when God commanded him to sacrifice his unique son, Isaac, as recorded in Genesis 22:1–2:
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
God was not being hostile to Abraham as it might appear because He commanded him to sacrifice his unique son, Isaac, but He was examining or testing him in a friendly way to prove his faithfulness to Him. This is confirmed by what God said about Abraham after he passed his examination as we read in Genesis 22:12:
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
The clause Now I know that you fear God means that God is saying that now He has tested or confirmed that Abraham is a person who is totally devoted to Him in matter of obedience and honoring Him. Hence, we can say that the Lord tested or examined Abraham in a friendly manner although He required of him something difficult, but Abraham came through to confirm to both angelic observers and humans that he is faithful to his God.
Our assertion that when God said to Abraham Now I know that you fear God that He meant He had confirmed Abraham’s faithfulness, enables us to make two deductions about friendly testing. Friendly testing is usually directly from God to an individual or group without His using a hostile intermediate agent such as Satan although He could use a prophet to deliver his message of testing to an individual or group. Another deduction is that the outcome of God’s friendly examination is assured whether negatively or positively. God had in His plan that Abraham would pass the examination of test of offering his son. Thus, God confirmed what He had in His plan about Abraham. Negatively, the failure of some of the Israelites when God tested them regarding obedience to His instruction was also assured. The Lord tested Israel as we read in Exodus 16:4:
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
Some Israelites failed the test of an instruction about the manna that the Lord gave to them through His servant Moses as we read in Exodus 16:19–20:
19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
Job’s testing although involved painful experiences is in a sense a friendly examination. We say this because it was God who suggested his testing as we read in Job 1:6–8:
6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” 8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
We say that God suggested the testing of Job because He called attention to Job’s spiritual character in the question to Satan of verse 8 Have you considered my servant Job? God asked Satan if he had paid attention and thought of Job. It is this question that led to Satan’s claim that Job was devoted to the Lord because of His goodness to him but that if Job was examined by the Lord through painful experiences, he would not be faithful to Him as that is the implication of what Satan said in Job 1:9–11:
9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
God gave Satan permission to test Job. After the first round of tests by Satan, Job proved faithful as we may gather from Job 1:22:
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Consequently, God continued to commend Job for his faithfulness as we read in Job 2:3:
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
God’s response to Satan led to the second round of tests but despite the tests he still maintained his devotion to the Lord. Based on the deductive principle we stated, that is, that the outcome of God’s friendly examination is assured whether negatively or positively, we assert that God knew as part of His pland that Job would pass the examination of Satan and so we can say that the test of Satan on Job although painful was in a sense a friendly examination suggested by God to Satan. We should not doubt that the outcome of Satan’s testing of Job was assured of positive outcome because of the nature of God that indicates He has the knowledge of the outcome of an event before it even begins since the event is part of His plan as implied in the Lord’s declaration recorded in Isaiah 46:10:
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
The point is that a friendly examination by God has a decided outcome whether positive or negative. Anyway, it is our assertion that the meaning “examination” or “temptation” of our Greek word in the sense of “an examination to learn the nature/character of a person or to cause the person to do something wrong” enables us to recognize that the examination we face in our spiritual life can be friendly or hostile. We have considered the friendly aspect of our examination, so we turn our attention to hostile examination that we encounter in our spiritual life.
Hostile examination that a believer faces may or may not involve suffering, but its goal is to cause a believer to sin. By the way, we will use the word “tempt” in describing hostile examination. We have referenced the examination of Job under friendly examination because God was directly behind it. His examination or tests involved painful experiences or suffering but Satan’s goal was so that Job would sin against God as that is what he meant in the passage we cited previously, specifically Job 1:11:
But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
To curse God means “to speak evil words” against Him. Speaking evil words against God is a sin that the Lord indicated that its punishment is death as indicated in Leviticus 24:16:
anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.
It is this instruction that Jezebel used to cause the death of Naboth as we read in 1 Kings 21:10:
But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”
The point is that to curse God is to sin against Him, so Satan’s goal in inflicting various sufferings on Job was so he would sin against God. Suffering as an examination to cause someone to sin is part of what the Lord told the local church in Smyrna that Satan would do by imprisoning some of them to cause them to deny their faith as we read in Revelation 2:10:
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
By the way, there are those who think that suffering of some in Smyrna through imprisonment should be understood both as hostile and friendly examinations in that while Satan has the goal to cause the believers in Smyrna to deny their faith that God would use the examination in a positive way to demonstrate how faithful these believers were. All the same, it is not always the case that Satan would examine a believer by causing sufferings but often he uses words or suggestions to get a believer to sin. The first recorded examination of Satan of any human being that its goal was clearly to sin against God was that of Eve. His examination of Eve involved a question that was to cause the woman to doubt God and so to rebel against His word as we read in Genesis 3:1–5:
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’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
David’s examination that led to his sin of adultery and murder did not involve any suffering but presentation of a situation to see a naked woman taking a bath as we read in 2 Samuel 11:2–4:
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
Although it is not explicitly stated that Satan was behind the examination of David, we should not doubt that he was, because he wanted David to sin probably to see if God’s promise to David of having an everlasting dynasty would be nullified. It is interesting to observe that this failure of David took place after the Lord had promised him an everlasting dynasty, followed by military victories. Thus, it seems that Satan wanted to destroy David in a sense because after this sin all that is recorded in the rest of life of David had to do with his domestic problems that involved the rape of Tamar, the deaths of his sons, and rebellion against him. Anyhow, Satan was behind the examination of David to cause him to sin through adultery and murder. This statement leads us to the next fact we should be aware about the hostile examination of believers either to cause them to suffer or to sin.
The intermediate primary source of hostile examination that a believer faces that may or may not involve suffering is Satan. That Satan is the primary intermediate source of temptation for us can be traced to the fall of humankind into sin in the garden of Eden as we read in the passage we cited previously, that is, 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’?”
There is another passage in the OT Scripture that implies that Satan is a source of hostile action that leads to sin. It is 1 Chronicles 21:1–2:
1Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
There is problem of how to understand the word Satan so that the Hebrew word (śāṭān) is understood as the proper name of the archenemy of God, the Devil, or an unspecified adversary that is either heavenly or human. The difficulty of understanding how to interpret the Hebrew word is because the event reported here is assigned to God in 2 Samuel 24:1–2:
1Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”
This passage clearly indicates that God was the One that incited David into action. Therefore, many have problem with the fact that the passage implies that God was indirectly responsible for David’s action. For this reason, they adopt the position that the Hebrew word in 1 Chronicles should be taken as a human adversary, probably the ruler of a nearby country that was responsible for David’s action or that took a stand against Israel. Such interpretation does not seem to solve the problem since God is clearly stated as being the One that incited David to action in the record of 2 Samuel 24. I see no problem with the fact that God is said to have incited David to act the way He did. It seems to me that the most plausible explanation is that God is the ultimate source of David’s action, but Satan was an intermediate agent of God to cause David to act. To think that Satan acted on his own would make him equal to God as the comparison of the two passages suggests, but such a thing is unthinkable since he is a created being of God. Those who have problem with our explanation must have difficulty explaining other passages where God would, for example, use an evil spirit to accomplish His purpose as we read in 1 Kings 22:19–23:
19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’
“One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. “‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ 23 “So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”
Anyway, we are not particularly concerned with various passages that imply that God incited actions that are considered evil since we have treated this matter in our study of the Sovereign Plan of God but simply to recognize that Satan could not be the ultimate source of anything even temptation as such. We are only saying that as far as hostile examination that leads to sin, Satan is its intermediate primary source.
Our assertion that Satan is the intermediate primary source of hostile examination that has its goal as sin, is evident in his temptation of Jesus Christ. Take for example, Satan examined Jesus to prove that He is the Son of God Matthew 4:3–4:
3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
It is true that this test is often taken as a test “to misconstrue divine sonship as the power to do miracles” but it is an examination by devil to see if Jesus would obey him since he probably did not doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I say this because demons knew of Jesus’ identity as we read, for example, in Luke 4:41:
Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
Thus, if demons knew that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, certainly the devil knew that He is the Son of God so included in his examination or test of Jesus Christ is simply the desire to obey him, which will be a sin in the sense of doing what Satan wants. That aside, the temptation of Jesus Christ by the devil indicates that he is the intermediate primary source of hostile examination.
Satan is no doubt the intermediate primary source of hostile examination that leads to sin but there are other intermediate secondary sources with the same goal, so to say. Our sinful nature examines us with evil desires to cause us to sin. It is this fact that the Holy Spirit conveyed in a passage we cited previously, specifically James 1:14:
but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
James did not mention Satan in this passage as the source of hostile examination but the evil impulse in a person in the phrase evil desire. This evil desire is part of our sinful nature as implied in Ephesians 2:3:
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
The phrase the cravings of our sinful nature is literally the desires of our flesh. The literal phrase may be interpreted as desires that characterize the flesh, that is, “fleshly desires” or desires that originate from the flesh, that is, “desires from the flesh.” There is no significant difference in the two interpretations, but it is more likely that the emphasis on the phrase is to indicate that the flesh is the source of desires. “Flesh” here is used as a seat of sin and rebellion against God so that those under its control could not possibly please God, as the Holy Spirit through the apostle states in Romans 8:8:
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
This seat of sin puts out desires and impulses that are contrary to the will of God so that flesh, often described as the sinful nature, is the source of the desires that tempt us to sin. Another secondary intermediate source of hostile examination of believers is the world, as indicated in 1 John 2:16:
For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
The world is the system of all that is opposed to God. The world system contains many things that are intended to cause a believer to sin as Apostle John listed in this verse. Thus, we can say that the world system is a secondary intermediate source of hostile examination of believers with the goal of causing us to sin against our God.
Anyway, we have briefly mentioned sources of hostile examination of believers but there is one more fact that we should understand about hostile examination of believers by Satan. It is that the outcome of hostile examination is uncertain. We mean that unlike positive examination where God knows the outcome of it ahead of time Satan does not know the outcome of his examination of a believer. He hopes that the believer would fail the examination so to lead to sin. When he first approached Eve, he was not certain of the outcome; that was a reason he tried to persuade her to rebel against God with the reason he provided as stated in a passage we cited previously, specifically Genesis 3:4–5:
4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
It is because Satan was not sure of the outcome of his hostile examination of the woman that he lied in an emphatic manner to the woman You will not surely die. This lie was a hostile response to God’s word that indicated that when Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they will die as the Lord emphatically conveyed to them in Genesis 2:17:
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
We contend that Satan did not know with certainty that the woman would accept his suggestion, but he hoped that that would be the case so he told the truth regarding the knowledge Adam and Eve would acquire as in the sentence you will be like God, knowing good and evil that was confirmed by God Himself in Genesis 3:22:
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
All the same, Satan was not sure of the outcome although he won over the woman in his hostile examination. The uncertainty of the outcome of hostile examination by Satan is observable in his hostile examination of Job. He hoped that Job will fail the examination so as to curse God as stated in the passage we cited previously, that is, Job 1:11:
But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Satan was hopeful that if he were granted permission to examine Job in a hostile manner that he would fail and so curse God but that did not happen, proving that despite what he said Job would do, he did not know the outcome ahead of time. In effect, his statement he will surely curse you to your face proved to be a lie because he was not certain of the outcome. This uncertainty on the part of Satan regarding his hostile examination of anyone is also evident in his temptation of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt that Satan recognized Jesus Christ as the second Adam since all angelic creation would have recognized Jesus’ entrance into the world as something unique in that they did not know what to make of incarnation, hence the command for them to worship Him, as the human author of Hebrews communicated in Hebrews 1:6:
And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
We contend that the angels were not sure what to make of God taking on human nature that is the reason God commanded them to worship the Lord Jesus in incarnation. Thus, Satan would have considered Jesus Christ as both God and human. This being the case, after the announcement of the birth of Christ with explanation of His function of a Savior, Satan would have recognized Him as being in the same position as first Adam so he would have recognized him as second or last Adam since that is how Jesus Christ is viewed by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul as we may gather from what is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:45:
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
It is probably because Satan recognized Jesus Christ as second Adam that he thought he could conduct a hostile examine toward Jesus Christ with the hope that the result would be the same as with the first Adam, leading to derailing of His mission. If this was not the case, then there would have been no point to Satan’s temptation of Christ as recorded in the gospels. In other words, we are asserting that if Satan were certain that Jesus Christ would not fail the hostile examination, he unleased on Him, he would not have tried. It is because he was uncertain of the outcome of his hostile examination of Jesus Christ that he examined him. The point is that the outcome of the hostile examination by Satan is uncertain. You should understand this point whenever Satan subjects you to hostile examination. He does not know for certain that you will fail his examination; that is why he continues examining believers in hostile way. Even when we have scored perfectly in the hostile examination due to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, Satan continues his hostile examination because he hopes to derail our spiritual life. This knowledge should cause you to strive to ensure that he fails in his hostile examination. We will deal with how this is to be done later in this study.
Be that as it may, a first fact about temptation/trial the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wants Corinthians and so all believers to know is that no believer ever faces a temptation that is not common to fallen humanity as in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. There is more to say about this, but we are out of time so come back next week for more.
07/16//21 [End of Lessons # 329 and 330]