Conversations with the Devil

Then there is the disappearing devil of hymnody. The devil has been largely excised from our own hymnal, remaining in but one hymn: "A Mighty Fortress!" (Hymnal: A Worship Book, #s 165 and 329)

An Unlikely but Busy Conversationalist

Whichever version of the devil you prefer – the devil that disappeared, the fool, the debonair cosmopolitan, the heroic figure, or a mysterious being almost rivalling God in power – what strikes me as a common thread through the ages is that the devil is an accomplished conversationalist. Chatting with Lucifer is not my idea of an evening well spent! My prayer is: Lord, lead us not into conversation with the devil. Conversing with Satan strikes me as an unlikely event, for I think of the devil as someone who might favour a less direct approach – something sneaky and underhanded.

The devil seems an unlikely conversationalist, but he has been a busy one, and a rather high-profile conversationalist! By the time the devil and our Lord sat down to chat, the devil was an experienced conversationalist, having chatted with some big names in the biblical world. And so when Jesus and the devil conversed in the wilderness, it went much better, for example, than the conversation between Jesus and the lawyer to whom Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The lawyer committed one of the basic mistakes of the art of conversation – nitpicking! He wasn't interested in learning anything about Jesus; he preferred to stall on a nitpicking detail, "And who exactly is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:29) "Can you define just exactly what you mean with that term?" (my paraphrase)

There are many mistakes to be made in conversation: Trying to shame the person you're chatting with is a no-no. Acting superior – saying, for example, "Your problem is that you're thinking in a linear manner" – does not a good conversation make. Taking a cheap shot, like asking, "What was it your ex-wife used to say?" does not make for a smooth exchange.

A Couple's Casual Conversation with the Devil

The devil, in biblical experience, can banter with the best of us, but then he was chatting up people right from the get-go! The devil makes his debut in Genesis, chapter 3, when he appears to the first couple as a serpent (Genesis 3:1) who asked a vexing question about God. The serpent was "crafty," we are told. On the surface of things his question to them seemed innocent enough, but it was designed to discredit God, to raise doubts in the couple's minds, and to entrap them. "Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?'" (3:1) Did God really say that? I'm only asking." A little bit of misdirection on the devil's part. It turns out the couple could eat from every tree in the garden except one! And when the devil downplayed the downside of eating from that tree and pointed out its positive aspects, the couple concluded that the fruit of that tree was indeed very tasty, that "it was a delight to the eyes," and that there was wisdom to be gained in partaking of it. (3:6)

Smooth-talking devil, I tell you! A disingenuous devil! There's no nitpicking here. No introduction of shame. No acting superior, no condescension, no cheap shots. We could, in fact, learn a lot about talking to each other by studying this exchange. But, oh, the destructive effects: enmity, or hostility, between God and the human race (Genesis 3:10); hostility between male and female (3:15); hostility within families. (4:1-24)

Adam and Eve are placed in a garden with everything they need – a paradise, complete with instructions – but they blow it! Eden is spoiled, and ever after humanity is destined to try to find a way back. To give the devil his due, not a bad return for a brief conversation! The devil is a cunning creature, a devious devil who in ordinary conversation can tempt us to use evil in the service of good, blithely overlooking evil's corruptive effects.

The Devil's Conversation Concerning Job

The devil has cameo appearances of one sort or another throughout Scripture, but his next big conversation concerns a righteous man, a morally scrupulous man. In the mists of the heavens and eternity a meeting was called, during the course of which God pointed to this righteous man with some satisfaction, saying, "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." (Job 1:8)

Enter the devil, though it puzzles me that he would be allowed anywhere near the heavenly councils! Flush with pride from his conversation in the Garden of Eden, the devil pulled out another of his innocent questions. "Would Job worship you if he got nothing out of it? You have always protected him and his family and everything he owns. You bless everything he does, and you have given him enough cattle to fill the whole country." (Job 1:9-10, TEV) "Suppose, God," the devil seems to be saying, "What if You were to take away everything he has? Would Job continue to worship You? I'm only asking." (1:11, my paraphrase) The inference is that Job is a fair-weather friend.

God called the devil's bluff, however, and said, "Go ahead, test your theory!" The devil does so, but his diabolical assignment is considerably more challenging this time around. Job is not easily distracted from his faith in God. Neither death nor disease nor all manner of destruction can persuade Job to blame or abandon God. (Job 1:22; 2:10) Job's servants and livestock were taken away (1:14-17), and Job's children were taken away, killed by a freak storm (1:18-19), but Job continued to worship and praise God! (1:20-21)

Job's torment continued, but Job remained steadfast. Unsolicited "advice" from "friends" only increased Job's distress, but Job endured and persisted in faith – "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25), he said, even after all this adversity.

Jesus' Conversation with the Devil

By the time Jesus and the devil sat down to chat, the devil had considerable conversational experience. The encounter with Job had set the devil back a pace or two, so he went back to his tried-and-true Eden method: Use food; use aesthetic appeal, something that delights the eyes; and use the educational angle – promise them wisdom! (Genesis 3:6)

The devil is no fool; he chose temptations that would be attractive to Jesus. "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread," said the devil. (Matthew 4:3) "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (from the pinnacle of the temple)," coaxed the devil. (4:6) It will be an irrefutable sign that you are the Son of God! Then, showing him all the kingdoms of the world – their power and their splendour, the devil said in his most devilish marketing voice, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." (4:9)

The devil knows that the most insidious temptations appeal, not to our weakness, but to our strength." The strength of a temptation is in the attractiveness of its goal (G. B. Caird), and it was Jesus' goals that made the devil's suggestions so enticing. What could be better than to use his messianic power to fill everyone's belly and let God pick up the tab? The elimination of hunger and poverty are certainly in line with the goals of the kingdom of God. There is no shame attached to such a noble purpose, and Jesus did on occasion provide bread for the hungry. (Matthew 14)

Jesus' second temptation, the temptation to be spectacular, seems somewhat crass, but the truth is that during his ministry Jesus provided many signs of his messianic identity and purpose. People often requested signs, and doing the unexpected, with a little entertainment thrown in, would appeal to the public – much as magicians' acts do – and give glory to God! Diving down from the top of the temple without a safety net would hold people's attention. It would not be the first time Jesus relied on God's protection. Later, for example, he said to the disciple who tried to defend him at his arrest, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53)

Jesus' third temptation, the immediate possibility of the kingdom of God on earth, with Jesus at its head, must have been hard to resist. Rule the world. Get your hands on the levers of power. Build your kingdom on sound socio-economic principles. And in fact, in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor chides Jesus for not taking this route, telling him that it took centuries to undo the damage Jesus did and to get back to the programme the devil first suggested in the wilderness!

Jesus, however, found the price of the devil's temptations too high. Like the Legend of Faust suggests, a deal with the devil comes at a steep price. A devil's pact has no great impact on the human heart. The power of love moves the human heart like the love of power can never do. The road to glory, and our love, took Jesus through a wilderness – through opposition, through misunderstanding and denial and betrayal, and suffering and death! The mystery of our faith is that therein lies our salvation.

An Apocryphal Conversation

The devil is a fixture on the biblical stage, and I can imagine another conversation in the heavenly courts eons from now. Sitting on a celestial porch are two old contenders for the human soul. Twenty, thirty, forty centuries or more have elapsed since New Testament times and words flow easily between these old acquaintances. There's no need for a conversation starter or some contrived conversation-piece.

The conversation follows a familiar path. Jesus acknowledges the stubborn power of evil, and with a nod to the devil admits that he wishes there were more Jobs in this world. The devil's hold on things in this world is indeed something to behold!

The devil smiles, knowing he is a worthy contender for the human soul, but he too acknowledges, "I have never quite grown accustomed to or understood the tenacious hold Your love has on Your children. I've tried every which way to sabotage the faith of those who want to be faithful. And I've made some great advances. Affluence has proved a wonderful asset to my diabolical work. Initially I underestimated the help apathy and ennui could be to me. It took Mark Twain to draw that to my attention. Twain cast me in the role of a mysterious stranger, which I liked. Twain concluded that there ‘is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream – a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but (the lonely human being). And (he is) but a thought – a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!' (The Mysterious Stranger, 1916) I have placed that spirit in more people than I can count, and an embarrassing number of those have been clergy!"

"Yes," acknowledged Jesus, "I'm afraid that some of my followers underestimated you. Peter, one of my New Testament writers, rushed his portrayal of you to print, comparing you to a roaring lion: ‘Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.' (1 Peter 5:8) He gave you far too much credit. I think that you've done some of your most effective work disembowelling the human soul of its purpose and passion."

Silence followed – and then the devil sighed and said, "I have had more than modest success, I grant you, but what haunts me is the spectre of Job hovering over the children of light. After I had stripped him of all success, all prosperity, all dignity, and left him in darkness, he still held onto his faith: ‘I know that my redeemer lives!' ‘I know that my redeemer lives!' I don't understand it."

"And I doubt you ever will," said Jesus in reply. As another member of my New Testament staff wrote, ‘The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.'" (1 John 3:8)

And with that reminder, the devil disappeared for a time.