The Greatest Scripture Twister of All Time

On December 26 I started going through a “read the Bible in a year” plan. The schedule I am using had you begin by reading Genesis and Matthew alongside each other, completing a couple chapters each day. As I read the stories of the fall of man (Genesis 3) and the temptation of Christ (Matthew 4:1-11) I could not help but notice a few similarities in Satan’s tactics.

Let’s begin with the fall. Genesis 3 opens with Satan (the serpent) talking to Eve: “Indeed has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Satan is referencing Genesis 2:16, where God said, “From any tree in the garden you may eat freely,; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Do you notice a slight difference between what God actually said, and how Satan portrayed His words? I notice a blatant twist, misrepresentation, and fabrication. God said, “From any tree in the garden you may eat freely [but one],” and Satan implies that God said man cannot eat from any tree in the garden.

Note this: Satan’s first recorded interaction with a human being is twisting God’s words. Eve corrects him in verse three and says that God told her eating from the tree would result in death. The serpent’s response? “You surely will not die!” He then promises her plentiful blessings for eating the fruit. Eve complies and sin enters the world, bringing death, disease, and separation from God with it.

Now let’s fast forward a few thousand years to the time of Christ. We are told that Jesus has not eaten for forty days (Matthew 4:2). Satan comes to Him in the desert and tempts His flesh (verse three). Christ responds by having the scriptures written on His heart, and Satan slings another temptation. Quoting the Old Testament, Satan says, “If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down for it is written, ‘He will not command his angels concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

The second set of verses comes from Psalm 91:11-12, “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against stone.” Do you notice a difference between Satan’s quote and the true Scriptures? He left out a key phrase: “to guard you in all your ways.” I will allow the writers of the Bible Knowledge Commentary to explain this key phrase:

According to the psalmist, a person is protected only when he is following the Lord’s will. For Jesus to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in some dramatic display to accommodate Himself to the people’s thinking would not have been God’s will.

Can you imagine this? Satan is misquoting the Word of God to God Himself!

Scripture twisting.

From the Garden of Eden, to Jesus, to today, it is one of Satan’s greatest tricks and is absolutely rampant today. Keep an eye out Christian. Satan has predictably used this tactic time and time again (and has captured many a soul doing it). Do not fall prey to his temptations! Follow Jesus’ example and have the Word embedded on your heart. The key to knowing somebody is misusing God’s Word is by knowing what God’s Word actually says. Do you?