Does The Devil Really Know The Bible?

Does the devil know scripture? You bet he does! And in this article, we'll examine a few of the many passages in the Bible that will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Satan knows the Bible like the back of his hand.

The first passage that we'll look at is Genesis 3:1. But before we do, let me point out that though the devil acts like a serpent, he wasn't really a serpent; it's just an analogy. When someone calls someone else a serpent or snake, it just means that the person is a low down, sneaky, thieving, conniving, snake in the grass. Most of us use snake as a derogatory nickname to refer to our ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, or even ex-spouses. Therefore, the devil wasn’t really an animal when he spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Wondering how I arrived at that conclusion? Take a look at Deuteronomy 32:33, Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 12:14. Also, if a talking snake had really tried to converse with Eve about God's Word, I highly doubt that Eve would have participated in the conversation. Rather, she probably would have either run away screaming or assumed that she was losing her mind.

And, because God walked in the midst of the garden and He spoke with Adam and Eve face-to-face, then it makes sense to conclude that Adam and Eve were familiar with God and His angels. Since Satan is an angel who can transform himself into an angel of light, or an angel of God (2 Corinthians 11:14) it stands to reason that having a conversation with Satan wouldn’t have been much different than speaking with any of the other angels.

Another thing that bears mentioning: Because Genesis 49:22, Isaiah 3:10 and Luke 6:44 tell us that people are known by the fruit they produce, it should be assumed that the word “tree” and “fruit” were also used figuratively to describe the devil and his actions. Because the fruit of that tree in particular—the devil—was pure evil, when God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from that tree, He was forbidding them from listening to the devil's lies.

Anyhow… back to the subject. When we read Genesis 3:1, we discover that the serpent (the devil) posed a question to Eve: ““Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”” That question alone proves that the devil knows God's Word intimately. What Satan did to Eve is something that he would continue to do to an uncountable number of people since that day: He caused multitudes of people to question God's Word.

By asking that simple question, "Did God really say..." -- emphasis mine, the devil caused Eve to wonder if she had heard God correctly. Eve, being only human, is no different from the rest of us. A question like that would cause anyone to second-guess what he or she knows to be true. When one begins to second-guess anything at all, even what he or she witnessed during an accident, that person will almost instantly become confused—even if he or she was certain about what he or she saw and heard only moments before.

Now, Satan didn’t ask her that question because he didn’t know what God had said. He knew exactly what God had told her and Adam; he was just looking for an angle to cause Eve to slip up.

And she does. She falls for it by adding her own words to what God told her and Adam by saying: “Neither shall ye touch it.” Now, we all know that what God really said was that they could eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16). He never mentioned anything about touching that particular tree.

Now that the devil had the proof that Eve was a little shaky on her facts, he had a foothold into her mind. He had a way to cause her to sin against God by questioning His Word.

In case you haven’t noticed, the devil is an expert on human behavior. He’s been around for a very long time, watching us, monitoring our behaviors—both good and bad—and he knows us very well. He knows that not only are we humans curious, but we’re control freaks to boot. And, if we humans have a chance at knowing everything, we’ll go for it! Why? So we’ll have the power to choose our own destiny, even if it brings us to destruction. Rather than wait on God to reveal to us what He wants us to know when He wants us to know it, we try everything in our power to know everything right now, and the devil uses this against us to bring us to destruction. Don’t believe me? Look at all the Tarot card readers, the Ouija boards, and all the other divination tools out there. Where do you think all of that came from? The devil and his cronies, that’s who!

Using Eve's own desires and lusts against her, the devil moves in for the kill by telling her just enough of the truth to cause her to turn away from God and jump to the wrong conclusion: He tells her that she won’t die if she eats from the tree.

Well, yeah. That's partially the truth. She wouldn't physically die from eating the fruit of the tree, but what the devil failed to mention, something that he knew full well would happen to her was that she would die spiritually. He knew that she would experience separation from God, just like he did when he questioned God's authority. She would no longer be able to have daily communion with the Lord. She would never again be able to sit down, talk to the Lord face to face like a friend, and hear His advice if she believed the devil’s lies.

Then the devil tells her: "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Eureka! That was all that the devil needed to tell her. That simple line—which was the truth (Genesis 3:22), was all that the devil needed to say to her in order to hit pay dirt. By causing Eve to question God's motives, she began to wonder what else God might have been withholding from her or possibly lying to her about.

The devil didn’t need to be omniscient right then. Given the look on Eve’s face, the devil could practically hear the inner dialogue that began to take place inside her head. As he stood there waiting for a response from Eve, the different expressions on her face told it all: “Could it be true?” Eve wondered. “And if it is, then what else is God lying to me about “Well, forget that! I don’t want some liar to control of my life! I want to be in control!”

The Bible says that Adam and Eve ate the “fruit” from the tree after that. As they sinned against God by gobbling up even more of the devil’s deception, their eyes were opened and they learned evil.

Now let’s take a look at Mathew 4:1-11 where Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. In verse 6, the devil quotes a verse from Psalm 91:11-12, which says: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Because Jesus knew the scriptures, and didn’t second-guess Himself, He shut the devil down and sent him packing.

Revelation 12:12 tells us that the devil is enraged after he is cast out of heaven because he knows his time is short. How else could the devil possibly know that his time is short if he didn’t know the Word of God? The reason why he’s so furious is because he knows the prophecies like the back of his hand and he knows what’s going to happen to him. Put another way: If we can deduce that the devil only has 3 ½ years left before he’s locked up for a thousand years just from reading verses Revelation 12:6 and 12:14, then there’s no reason to think that the devil can’t figure it out too.

Go back to Genesis 3:15 with me where it says: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Right then and there, the devil knew that God would be sending a Savior for mankind. The only thing he didn’t know was when. From the instant that God uttered those words, the devil did everything imaginable to destroy God’s creation and ruin His plan of Salvation for us.

No doubt, the devil messed with both Cain and Abel, but in Genesis 4:3-5, we can see that only Cain would listen to the lies that surely must have went like this: “God loves Abel more than you, Cain.” Even though God reached out to Cain and tried to bring him back to righteousness (v. 6-7), Cain was so full of jealousy, that he wouldn’t listen to God; he would only listen to the lies of the devil. He refused to believe that God loved him as much as he loved his brother, Abel.

After the devil tried to ruin our bloodlines by sending his unholy angels to mate with human women, which resulted in the Nephilim (Genesis 6:1-4 and Numbers 13:33), God decided to eradicate the human race because they were evil—all except for one man: Noah, who was righteous and feared the Lord. Along with Noah, God spared his family. From this, I’m willing to venture a guess that Noah’s ancestors didn’t breed with demons, but with other humans, making Noah and his family one hundred percent human.

Not only did the devil tempt the Lord in Matthew 4:1-11, but he tempted Him many other times as well. For instance, the devil tried again in Matthew 8:29 where a demon asked: “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” Even the demons know the scriptures well enough to know what’s going to happen to them after the tribulation is finished! Had Jesus tortured the demons before the predetermined time, and sinned by giving in to temptation, there would have been no point in Him dying on the cross. On top of that, Hebrews 4:15 proclaims that Jesus was tempted in every way, yet He still remained sinless.

In Matthew 27:42, the devil used people to try to get Jesus to save Himself while He hung on the cross. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can't save himself!” If Jesus had saved Himself, God’s plan of Salvation would have been thwarted. Then the devil, knowing that the kingship of Israel—and the rest of the world—would be given to Jesus much later, appealed to Jesus’ pride by shouting: “He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”

Several times in the New Testament, the devil tried to stir up even more of a stink for Jesus when he shouted that He was the Son of God (Mark 3:11-12 and Luke 4:41). By shouting out Jesus’ true identity, not only was the devil trying to appeal to the Lord’s vanity, but Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:22 tell us that he was trying to undermine God’s plan by revealing who He really was to people that He had chosen not to reveal Himself to.

Something discovered is always more valuable when it’s discovered on your own and Salvation is no different. Had the Lord decided to proclaim Himself as God from the very beginning, and performed signs and wonders for the people who demanded them so that they would believe in Him, people would have worshipped Him, but would the acts of worship have been obligatory or willing? My guess is obligatory. God doesn’t want a bunch of mindless robots to worship Him; He wants people to love Him freely.

What can we learn from this? The Bible teaches us that the devil is the most cunning of all the wild animals that God made. And now that we know that he knows scripture like the back of his hand, he can cause any one of us to slip up by injecting just enough truth to make what he says sound good while adding just enough untruth to lead us astray. Knowing this, the only way to stay on the righteous path is to refuse to eat the fruit of the devil. Spit it out like it’s poison because that’s what it is.

Another way that we can refuse to ingest the lies of the devil is by studying and knowing God’s Word intimately. Until then, we can discern the truth from a lie by opening our Bibles and double-checking everything we hear against God's Holy Word, which is fail-safe.

When the devil begins to whisper his lies into your ears, follow the advice in 2 Corinthians 10:5 and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Then call out praises to God and that should get your mind off of the lies.

If that doesn’t help, pray, pray and pray again... listen for God's voice, listen to the voice that speaks nothing but the truth. Follow God’s voice that will lead you out of the stormy sea of thoughts that can swirl around in your head when the devil begins to whisper his lies into your ears.

* Several Bible verses were taken from the New International Version of the Bible, while others came from the King James Version. Copyright 2008 Sandra Purdue. You may swipe anything I write as long as you leave the byline intact.