.

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 of humanity to sin? Not really. He’s a bit of a rebel, maybe, because he’s not willing to take God’s word that Job is righteous. But he does ask God for permission and does exactly what God allows him to do.

      In the next chapter there is a second discussion in heaven. Satan wants to make life more challenging for Job. Again he gets God’s permission, this time to hurt Job, as long as he does not kill him. The rest of the book of Job discusses Job’s pain and struggles and how, no matter what, Job stayed faithful to God.

      Let’s draw some conclusions about Satan’s role. And don’t forget to put everything you know about Satan out of your head. My conclusion is that Satan tests Job and thus proves that Job truly believes. In other words, Satan vindicates Job.

      That’s a different conclusion to what we might have expected. And, let’s be honest, maybe God is just using Satan to achieve a goal that Satan does not want at all. But, if we take this narrative as the introduction to the book of Job, we clearly see that it is Satan who provides the evidence that Job is—without any doubt—a good person.

      A Very Different Satan

      This role for Satan is rather different to what we are used to from the New Testament. It is also very different to what you often hear in church or from theologians. Nevertheless, if we read more of the Old Testament, we actually see a similar role for Satan in Zechariah. In Zechariah 3, as an introduction to a baffling vision about Joshua and the Messiah, we see this passage:

      Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:1–2)

      I imagine this as a court scene. We have the defendant, Joshua, we have an angel of the Lord, and we have Satan. Satan is standing at God’s right hand to accuse the defendant. That seems very similar to what the public prosecutor does. Satan is not a tempter or the source of all evil. He’s there to show the Lord what mistakes Joshua has made.

      This is quite similar to Job. In Zechariah, a man who is righteous is proven righteous in a court case. Satan, as the prosecutor, attempts to show that Joshua is evil, but in the end Joshua is vindicated.

      Apparently, the image of Satan as an evil tempter has not stuck among the Bible authors. Satan is an accuser, not a tempter. This is not very strange, because Satan is actually just a Hebrew word. It means accuser. In a wonderful tautology, Zechariah 3:1 literally reads “Satan standing at his right hand as satan.” And, now that we have started with Hebrew, there is more to learn about Satan—or more precisely, satan.

      In the narrative of Balaam we also run into Satan, just not in English. The story of Balaam is very entertaining to read; do that by all means. Start in Numbers 22; I will only discuss it very briefly. Balaam sets out to do something that God does not want him to do. Balaam knows that very well. He’s riding along on his donkey and fleeing from God’s will. That can never end well.

      Suddenly the donkey starts acting up. It does not want to move forward. Balaam gets agitated and hits the donkey, to no avail. Eventually the donkey speaks and tells Balaam what is happening, and then Balaam realizes what is going on:

      God’s anger was kindled because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. (Numbers 22:22)

      That is the English, but the Hebrew is very different. A literal translation could be “The