If Satan Speaks of His Own
Hi,
As I was reading the scriptures, I stumbled upon this, so I need your help.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
And another verse:
Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
My question in verse 44 above Christ says: When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Satan speaks of his own? Verse 30 Christ says “I can of mine own self do nothing.” If Christ says “of mine own self I can do nothing” then how can Satan speak of his own?
YBIC,
T____
Hi T____,
Thank you for this question. I am sure many others will also wondering what the answer to that question is.
It is not really that hard to explain when we are given to see that God created the crooked serpent for the purpose of being an adversary:
Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Job 26:14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?
This “serpent”, we are told, is the devil and Satan and the great red dragon of scripture:
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.
Notice how we are made to understand “how little portion is heard of Him… [ and] the thunder of His power who can understand?”
It is very few indeed who even notice that God, right here in this book of Job, brings Satan into Job’s life to try Job and to expose to Job and through Job to us, just how incapable of saving ourselves from our own sins we are. In teaching us this lesson we are also taught that when Satan speaks of God placing His hand upon Job to curse Job, Satan is actually speaking of God using Satan to bring all these curses upon Job.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
So now we are made to know that Satan is actually in God’s hand, and even when the scriptures tells us that when he lies “he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it”, that statement is not denying that God sends Satan and his angels to tell those lies and to be the father of those lies.
1Ki 22:20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.
So God is indeed sovereign over all things just as He assures us He is:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
So it is indeed true that Satan “speaks [ lies] of his own, because he is a liar and the father of [ lies]” in the same sense that Joseph’s brothers sold him into Egypt, and in the same sense that we all choose to sin. We choose to sin because we were created as sinners, and Satan tells lies because he too was created to be a liar and to be God’s adversary.
Joseph twice confirms that his brothers chose to sell him into Egypt, but then he informs us that their choice was not really their choice at all, it was really nothing more that what “[ God’s] hand and [ God’s] foreknowledge determined before to be done”.
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.
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
What does this have to do with Satan? We are told that the invisible things of the spirit are understood by the things that are made:
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Since Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph into Egypt because God sent him there, and since we all sin because God has placed sin in our members, then we can now understand the invisible things of the spirit and know that Satan’s own lies are told because God formed the crooked serpent with his forked tongue, to be a crooked serpent with a forked tongue, to be “the father of liars”.
I hope these verses of scripture help you to see how God can say that Satan is “a liar and the father of it”, and still say that it is He who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”.
Your brother and fellow student,
Mike
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