Does Satan Ever Tell the Truth?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Hi M____,

Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, and thank you for your question.
You say:

Here are the verses you mention in Dan 4:

Dan 4:17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the lowest of men.
Dan 4:25 that thou shalt be driven from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen, and shalt be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee; till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Dan 4:32 and thou shalt be driven from men; and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen; and seven times shall pass over thee; until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Dan 4:34 And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.

These verses all tell us that it is God who, in the final analysis, is ruling in the kingdoms of men, and is placing over those kingdoms “the basest of men”. I added verse 34 to emphasize that God’s dominion is from generation to generation and has never stopped to this very day.
Does that make Satan’s claim untrue?

Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Luk 4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

No, the fact that Dan 4 tells us that God rules in the kingdoms of men, does not contradict the fact that God has made Satan to be the god of this world, or Satan’s claim to that title when tempting our Lord. If there were no truth in Satan’s words “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it”, then there would have been no real temptation at all, because Christ would have know it to be a lie. But Christ knew that His Father had given Satan to be the god of this world and that He uses Satan to install the basest of men into positions of leadership and power in this world.
Just as we are told that Joseph was the ruler of Egypt and had all the power of the Pharaoh “except in the throne”, so it is with Satan in this age, and with Christ in the ages to come when He and His christ will be the rulers over the kingdoms of this world:

Gen 41:39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
Gen 41:40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

The Pharaoh turned his kingdom over to Joseph and told him “… according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.”
Pharaoh did not relinquish ultimate authority, but he did use Joseph to do everything for him. That is exactly what God has done with “this present evil world”.

Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

As the first two chapters of Job graphically demonstrate, Satan is God’s instrument for making “the present… world… [ an] evil [ world]”.
So Satan was not lying when he said “for that [“all the kingdoms of the world”] is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.”
Job chapters one and two demonstrate in a very graphic way that Satan’s ideas are really “from the Lord”, just as are our own ideas are, and he does them as Joseph’s brothers and we do. We all think “the preparations of our hearts” are our own ideas.
But this is the actual truth of how God “rules in the kingdoms of men”:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself [ including Satan]: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

You pointed out that Christ tells us that Satan was “a liar from the beginning”. That is true, of course. But does that mean that Satan’s every word is a lie? No, not at all. An inveterate liar is not all that effective in deceiving the masses. A person who tells the truth much of the time, and then inserts a lie here and there is much more effective for that purpose.
Notice that God Himself tells us that Satan told Adam and Eve the truth when Satan told them that they would “be as Gods knowing good and evil”:

Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

I hope this helps you to see that being a liar from the beginning doe not mean that Satan cannot mix truth with his lies, and that when he told Adam and Eve that they would be as gods knowing good and evil, he was telling the truth, and when he told Christ “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it”, he was telling the Truth.

Luk 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

Yet God has retained the power of the throne even as He has delivered the kingdoms of this present evil world over to that old serpent the devil and Satan, who is also called ‘a great red dragon’.
Here is the extent of Satan’s dominion which God has given him:

Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Other related posts