Why did Satan quote Psalm 91 to Jesus?



If you read your whole Old Testament, you never see a demon being cast out of anyone. Ever. How in the world when Jesus shows up and he starts doing that? Did people automatically in their heads think: “Well, this is what the Messiah is supposed to do! This is a sign of Messiahship.”

Where does that come from? Psalm 91. Which, you know, in recent days, you’ve heard this quoted a lot: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty… he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge… You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,    nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness.” In the corona environment, this passage gets quoted a lot.  

And unfortunately, in some cases deeply out of context to suggest that well, you know, Christians can do whatever they want here because God will protect us and we won’t get sick and. Okay, that is not what the passage is about. The passage is much cooler than that. It’s more sinister too.  

Psalm 91 is a psalm that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in a jar with four other Psalms that are not in the Hebrew Bible. There are extra Psalms among the dead sea scrolls, we have 150 in the Hebrew Bible,   

But this one that is in the Hebrew Bible, obviously, was put in this jar with four other ones. All four of those other ones are exorcism Psalm. So well, why would they lump Psalm 91 in there? That doesn’t look like an exorcism to me,

I’m, you read the whole thing and there’s no like casting devils out or anything like that. Well, if you read it in Hebrew, and you were a literate Israelite, you would know that words like pestilence (Deber). Okay,  there’s pestilence there. Deber down here, Qeteb (destruction), “the arrow that flies by day.” Okay, right here.

This whole motif of the arrow flying by day and the tear of the night. Right here; Pahad. These are names and titles and epithets of Canaanite deities, all of them.   To an Israelite, a Canaanite deity was a demonic, a sinister and evil spirit,  you know, a power of darkness. That’s why Psalm 91 was lumped into that

Because this is a prayer of protection and thwarting of powers of darkness   in ancient Jewish thought. What else is interesting is this psalm in the Hebrew Bible,   you notice there’s no superscription. There’s a psalm of whoever. In the Septuagint, it’s a psalm of David. Okay, also in the Septuagint, there are certain different wordings,

The Septuagint would have been based on a Hebrew text. Is a translation of Hebrew, that don’t always align with a traditional Hebrew text. But in the Septuagint, where it’s a psalm of David, there are a couple of psalms that use specific words for the Psalms, and the hymns and the,  

I want to use the word spell, because that’s what it means, or can mean, of David and Solomon. Okay, that in the poetry, the literature, they produced,   some of that stuff uses vocabulary that you will find in exorcistic material   in the Second Temple period. And so this answers an important question.   

And here’s the question. And maybe you’ve wondered this. If you read your whole Old Testament, you never see a demon being cast out of anyone. Ever. There’s actually only two references in English Bibles to demons;   Shedim is usually translated demon, which isn’t the greatest translation,  

But we’ll run with it for the sake of the illustration, Deuteronomy 32. And then there’s a Psalm.   Okay, but you never see a demon or a hostile evil spirit cast out of anyone.   How in the world, when Jesus shows up, and he starts doing that, did people

Automatically in their heads think: “well, this is what the Messiah is supposed to do! This is a sign of Messiahship.” Where does that come from? It comes from what I just described. It comes from certain Psalms   being associated with David, and a few with Solomon. In the Second Temple Period  

There was the belief that David and Solomon had power over evil spirits. And so if the Messiah is a descendant, he is The David, The Son of David, he should be able to do that too.   So this is something that we wouldn’t get because we’re not living in the culture.  

And we’re not familiar with how Psalm 91 in particular was viewed.   But when Jesus shows up and starts doing this, the bells and whistles are going off in people’s heads. This is an important thing he does to convince them that he’s the Messiah. And Isn’t it odd that Satan would choose Psalm 91  

To quote to Jesus, in a temptation, and he quotes the part, down here, “he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” So what’s really going on here is Satan is fishing for information.

He’s got Jesus in front of him, he knows who he is, he knows why he’s there.  His silly Kingdom of God stuff, okay. But he doesn’t know what the plan is. So he’s there to tempt Jesus. Try to shortcut the thing. And you know, the last one is the worst because it’s idolatry.

It’s just kind of a terrible attempt. But this one’s interesting because let’s say that Jesus looks at Satan and says, “Yeah, that’s a good quotation. Yep. Yep,  you know, that’s a, that’s an exorcistic psalm. And I’m the son of David,    and I’m supposed to be able to cast out demons.

And if that’s true, then the rest of the stuff in the song must be true too. So go ahead, it’ll take me up to the top here, I’m going to throw myself off.”   What happens? Okay, let’s say the angels catch him. What is Satan learned? He can’t kill him,  

So we’ll take killing the Messiah off the strategy plan.   But Jesus knows, that’s exactly what needs to happen. “So I’m not going to demonstrate   anything for you. You’re not going to learn anything in this conversation.”   He just tells him that you hit the road, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

And that could be a reference to himself. But it could also be another way of saying;   “You shall not try to convince me to let God show you the hand that he’s going to play.”   He has to die. He must die. Again, it’s an interesting tit for tat conversation

between these two. And again, my take on it is that Satan actually was fishing for information. It’s not a worthless conversation. And the fact that he quotes Psalm 91 I find really interesting because of its nature. You know, the servant (Israel) out in the wilderness. I mean, let’s think of Jesus

Now as the representative of the corporate nation.   Did Israel in the Old Testament pass the test of being God’s servant? Well, yes, and no.   You know, they get to the promised land? Sure, after they fail, and then they wander   around for 40 years. So there’s that checkered past. They don’t really complete the conquest.  

They ask for a king to replace God as the one who fights for them.   And then three kings later they go off and start worshipping other gods and end up in exile. So probably no, they really don’t pass the test of being God’s representative son and his servant, but Jesus does.  

He passes the test. And now it’s Game on. His ministry begins.

#Satan #quote #Psalm #Jesus

Leviticus 16 | The Day of Atonement | Bible Study



This is Spoken Gospel. We’re dedicated to seeing Jesus in all of scripture. In each episode, we see what’s happening in a Biblical text and how it sheds light on Jesus and his gospel. Let’s jump in. In most English literature, the climax of a story comes near the end.

But in Hebrew literature, which is what the Old Testament is, the main point often comes in the middle. The middle point of Leviticus is the Day of Atonement. And since Leviticus is the middle book of the Torah, this chapter is the middle of the middle.

The Day of Atonement is so important because that is the day a human got to go into God’s presence in the Holy of Holies. This is the center of the tabernacle, behind the innermost veil, where God’s actual presence was. There are two main sacrifices made on this day.

The first is a bull for the priest’s sins and the cleansing of the tabernacle. Its blood is brought into the Holy of Holies behind the veil and put on the mercy seat, which is like God’s kingly footstool. The second sacrifice involves two goats.

One goat is a sin offering for all the people. Its blood is also brought into the Holy of Holies to cleanse it on behalf of all the people’s sins. The second goat was brought in front of the tent where the high priest

Would lay his hands on it and confess the sins of all the people. The goat was then taken outside the city and released into the wilderness, never to return. The picture is a powerful one for the people of Israel. Their sin has literally been taken away from them.

As Christians, we have an even better Day of Atonement because Jesus is our new high priest. What the High Priest had to do every year, Jesus was able to do once for all. Now, we only need one Day of Atonement: The day Jesus died on the cross.

The Day of Atonement brought one priest behind that curtain once a year. But after Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. Jesus’ sacrifice gives eternal access to all who believe. Israel had to be constantly reminded of their

Never-ending problem of sin by this and other rituals. But because Jesus has offered the last and final sacrifice, we can be sure that our sin has been dealt with permanently. That is why we no longer have to practice any sacrifices. It is finished!

So why is this in the middle of Leviticus and in the middle of the Torah? Because one of the Bible’s main points is God’s desire to live with his people. And the Day of Atonement shows us how he makes this possible.

It also tells us that, in Jesus, the cross now sits at the middle of everything we do. I pray that the Holy Spirit would show you the God who makes a way to dwell with us and forgive us. And that he does this finally and fully through

Jesus dying for us on the cross – our once-for-all Day of Atonement.

#Leviticus #Day #Atonement #Bible #Study

A brief history of the devil – Brian A. Pavlac



Satan, the beast crunching sinners’ bones in his subterranean lair. Lucifer, the fallen angel raging against the established order. Mephistopheles, the trickster striking deals with unsuspecting humans. These three divergent devils are all based on Satan of the Old Testament,

An angelic member of God’s court who torments Job in the Book of Job. But unlike any of these literary devils, the Satan of the Bible was a relatively minor character, with scant information about his deeds or appearance.

So how did he become the ultimate antagonist, with so many different forms? In the New Testament, Satan saw a little more action: tempting Jesus, using demons to possess people, and finally appearing as a giant dragon who is cast into hell. This last image particularly inspired medieval artists and writers,

Who depicted a scaled, shaggy-furred creature with overgrown toenails. In Michael Pacher’s painting of St. Augustine and the Devil, the devil appears as an upright lizard— with a second miniature face glinting on his rear and. The epitome of these monster Satans appeared in Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno.”

Encased in the ninth circle of hell, Dante’s Satan is a three-headed, bat-winged behemoth who feasts on sinners. But he’s also an object of pity: powerless as the panicked beating of his wings only encases him further in ice. The poem’s protagonist escapes from hell by clambering over Satan’s body,

And feels both disgust and sympathy for the trapped beast— prompting the reader to consider the pain of doing evil. By the Renaissance, the devil started to assume a more human form. Artists painted him as a man with cloven hooves and curling horns inspired by Pan, the Greek god of the wild.

In his 1667 masterpiece “Paradise Lost,” English poet John Milton depicted the devil as Lucifer, an angel who started a rebellion on the grounds that God is too powerful. Kicked out of heaven, this charismatic rebel becomes Satan, and declares that he’d rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.

Milton’s take inspired numerous depictions of Lucifer as an ambiguous figure, rather than a purely evil one. Milton’s Lucifer later became an iconic character for the Romantics of the 1800s, who saw him as a hero who defied higher power in pursuit of essential truths, with tragic consequences.

Meanwhile, in the German legend of Doctor Faust, which dates to the 16th century, we get a look at what happens when the devil comes to Earth. Faust, a dissatisfied scholar, pledges his soul to the devil in exchange for bottomless pleasure. With the help of the devil’s messenger Mephistopheles,

Faust quickly seizes women, power, and money— only to fall into the eternal fires of hell. Later versions of the story show Mephistopheles in different lights. In Christopher Marlowe’s account, a cynical Doctor Faustus is happy to strike a deal with Mephistopheles. In Johann Wolfgang van Goethe’s version,

Mephistopheles tricks Faust into a grisly deal. Today, a Faustian bargain refers to a trade that sacrifices integrity for short-term gains. In stagings of Goethe’s play, Mephistopheles appeared in red tights and cape. This version of the devil was often played as a charming trickster— one that eventually paraded through comic books,

Advertising, and film in his red suit. These three takes on the devil are just the tip of the iceberg: the devil continues to stalk the public imagination to this day, tempting artists of all kinds to render him according to new and fantastical visions.

#history #devil #Brian #Pavlac