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Satan — A Keen Observer Of The Human Condition

Sometimes we give Satan more credit than he deserves for knowing exactly how to tempt us — when, and with what devices. No passage of Scripture suggests to us that Satan can read our minds or know what is in our hearts. Only God has such insight (cf. Psalm 44:21; Psalm 51:6; Psalm 90:8; Psalm 139:1-4; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Hebrews 4:13).

For example, (1) Satan misjudged the faith of Job, thinking that righteous man would curse God if robbed of his substance and health (Job 1:9-11; Job 2:4-5) — yet Job remained faithful (Job 2:10; Job 13:15); (2) He believed Jesus could be tempted to sin by the desires of His human form and by carnal pride, but Jesus successfully overcame all the temptations Satan presented Him by correctly making application of the inspired Scriptures (Matthew 4:1-11).

Satan is definitely not telepathic, but he is a keen observer of the human condition — of human frailty and weakness. Over thousands of years, he has had innumerable chances to test various temptations on people, and he’s learned all too well what works and what doesn’t work. For example, Satan knows what will work on me because he’s encountered millions of other people like me, and he recalls what temptation got them to succumb. Satan is a master of the scientific method — he forms a hypothesis about what will tempt a certain individual. He then creates an experiment designed to test that hypothesis. Then he carries out the test and records the result. If something works, rest assured he’ll utilize it again and again and again. And if something fails, he’ll try something different.

There’s a positive side to Satan — he’s extremely tenacious — he never gives up! Note that even when Jesus staunchly resisted his wiles, the devil only “departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). He left Jesus alone for a brief while, but he was right back after Him when he thought there might be an opening.

Satan counts on our normalcy. He depends upon us being exactly like all the other people he’s met over the millennia that he’s been “going to and fro on the earth, and walking back and forth on it” (Job 1:7; Job 2:2). That’s why he has no temptation “except such as is common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13). He doesn’t have the power to devise some trial “especially” for you and for me. All he has to work with is what he’s used before — and is using on everyone else. Like the fisherman, who tries one kind of bait or lure after another until the fish finally start biting, Satan will hurl everything in his bag of tricks at us until something finally persuades us to sin. Then he’ll use that over and over again to keep us enslaved.

Brethren, let’s not be “normal” because that’s exactly what the devil anticipates. Instead, let’s do what he doesn’t expect — “resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world” (1 Peter 5:9; cf. Ephesians 6:10-18) — that’s exactly what our Savior did (Matthew 4:1-11).