In Job 2:4-8, the adversary "sawtawn" tells God that Job will curse Him if he (Job) becomes stricken with sore boils. After Job becomes deathly ill, verse 9 says his wife told him to "curse God, and die." He has lost everything and is now suffering illness and pain and possibly near death.
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In Matthew 16:22-23, records the event of Jesus rebuking Peter. In verse 23, Jesus replies "Get thee behind me, Satan:..." (satanas). Peter was acting as a flesh and blood human adversary to Jesus. (See also Mark 8:32-33) |
Luke 13:10-17 records the story of Jesus healing a crippled woman on the Sabbath and how the hypocritical synagogue ruler responded. In verse 16 Jesus says to him, "And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom "satan" (satanas) hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?"
It was her infirmity (her adversary) that inflicted her and Jesus healed (loosed) her from it. Here, the adversary was some type of infirmity - not human and not a spirit being. |
Act 5:1-11 recounts the story of Ananias and Sapphira lying about money they kept back. In verse 3, Peter says "Ananias, why hath "satan" (satanas) filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?" In verse 4, Peter tells Ananias "...why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?" Ananias' own evil carnal lust (his adversary) was the culprit. |
Jeremiah 17:9-10 says it is man's heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God identifies the culprit: the heart of man; his sinful carnal nature.
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Let's examine a few more scriptures which will clarify what the devil is that tempts us. In Mark 7:5-12, Jesus was accusing the Scribes and Pharisees of teaching a false doctrine (tradition of the elders), that if you sinned, all you had to do was give a gift to the temple and you were free [a good way to enrich themselves at the expense of others (lust for riches) ]. What they were doing was telling people that a gift to the temple would free them from obeying God. (There are some religions and churches like that today.)
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