The World and the Word

                                   The Devil's Dilemma

From the time that God became born as the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, the Devil sought to murder Him. The Devil immediately influenced king Herod to send soldiers to murder all of the children under two years old in Bethlehem in his attempt to murder Jesus. Matthew 2:16-18.

At that time, the Devil had learned from reading scripture that God would send a Messiah to the world to save humanity from sin and evil. But the Devil did not know exactly what this Messiah would do to accomplish His mission. The Devil learned that His mission had something to do with suffering and death, but he did not know exactly what that would entail. Isaiah 53:1-12; Psalm 22:1-31.

God had planned that His Son would suffer and die on a cross and be resurrected to save humanity from sin and evil "from the foundation of the world." Revelation 13:8. But the Devil, being limited to the passage of time as he dwelt on the earth, did not know this truth because it would only be revealed in the New Testament which had not as yet been written. The Devil did not know the future, so he had to decide what he would do about Jesus as time passed. The Devil did hear Jesus prophesy that He would suffer and die and be resurrected, but he did not know that God had planned it that way before He created humanity. Had he known that, he could have surmised that God's plan would defeat him, and therefore, he would have prevented the death of Jesus. I Corinthians 2:7-8. The Devil did know that Christ would do something very special in order to save humanity. The Devil reasoned that if he could cause a quick and easy death of a baby Jesus, then that would not be special, and he would succeed in preventing the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53. If the Devil could influence wicked people to throw Jesus off of a cliff, then that also would not be a special death as prophesied. Luke 4:23-30. If the Devil could entice wicked people to stone Jesus to death, then that also would not be special and would not fit the prophecy. John 10:31. The Devil sought to murder Jesus but avoid the fulfillment of prophecy when he did it.

The New Testament reveals that the Devil suffered a great dilemma as he thought about what he would do about Jesus. At times, the Devil reasoned that he would influence humans to spare the life of Jesus entirely and thus prevent the fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus would suffer and die in a special way. The Lord rebuked Peter for being influenced by the Devil when Peter rebuked the Lord for predicting that He would suffer and die and be resurrected. Matthew 16:21-23. The Devil influenced Pontius Pilate to almost let Jesus go because Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. John 19:4; John 19:12.