Q: #626. Did Satan try to murder Jesus, or prevent Him from being murdered (crucified) on the cross?
A: Many, including me, have been taught that when Jesus was crucified, and then died, Satan believed he was victorious! This view was shared in a recent Bible study, and added to it was that when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, Satan realized that he was not victorious, but defeated. The “added” part of this made me question my beliefs anew, in particular, “Was Satan really surprised by the resurrection of Jesus?” I realized I had never spent any time studying this in depth, so off I went!
I went into this believing that Satan’s total goal was to murder Jesus, and if successful, it would mean that he had defeated Jesus. However, as I studied, I was actually shocked to find “much” stronger evidence for Satan trying to “prevent” Jesus from being murdered, and more specifically, to “prevent” Jesus from going to the cross. Let me share how I came to this conclusion.
First, let me lay down this foundation. Satan has been around since the creation of the world and all things by God. He was the one who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, and caused her (and Adam) to sin, bringing sin (and death) into the world (Gen 3:1-7). Immediately after this, God confronted Satan about what he had done, and the consequences that would follow (Gen 3:14-15).
(Gen 3:15) is what is called the “protoevanglium.” This is a fancy word for the first proclamation of the Gospel in the Bible. This verse says, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Most agree that the “enmity” here is between “thy seed” (Satan and his followers) and “her seed” (Jesus Christ, who descended from Eve [and Adam Lk 3:38)])(Also see: Gal 3:16). Satan “bruised his (Jesus’) heel” by his numerous attacks against Jesus. However, through His resurrection, Jesus won the decisive victory, and “bruised the head” of Satan. “Bruising his head” was a fatal blow, meaning that Satan was defeated once and for all. His time on Earth will soon end, and He will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:10).
In (Isa 14:12-17) and (Ezek 28:11-17), we learn that Satan (Lucifer) was a created archangel (I believe one of 3), who was in Heaven with the Lord (and worshipped with Jesus: Job 38:7). Because of pride (wanting to take God’s place), he was cast out of Heaven. I mention this because from the moment he was created, Satan knew Jesus intimately. He knew He was God. When the protoevangelium was declared, he was well aware of who would be “bruising his head” in the future (Also see: Mt 8:29).
Satan saw the many signs and symbols that pointed to Jesus coming (i.e. animal sacrifices, shed blood, atonement for sin, ceremonial cleansing laws, the Passover Lamb, etc…).
He was present when the many prophetic verses were spoken and written that Jesus (the Messiah) was going to come (Isa 7:14)(Isa 9:6-7)(Isa 11:1-10)(Isa 40:3-5)(Isa 53:1-3)(Ps 22:6-8)(2 Sam 7:12-13)(Mic 5:2)(Zech 9:9). That He was coming to pay for the sins of the world (Isa 53:4-6)(Isa 43:7)(Num 21:9). That He was going to give His life (shed His blood) to do this (Ps 22:14-18)(Isa 53:7-12)(Zech 13:7). And, that afterwards, He would rise from the dead (Ps 16:10)(Hos 6:2). These would lead to his destruction (Gen 3:15)(Ps 110:1).
Therefore, when Jesus was born, Satan knew who He was, and why He had come. He personally heard Jesus say that He had come to pay for the sins of the world (Mt 20:28)(Mt 26:28)(Jn 8:24)(Also see: John the Baptist – Jn 1:29). He heard Jesus prophesy His death and resurrection at least 8 times: (Mt 16:21)(Mt 17:9)(Mt 17:22-23)(Mt 20:18-19)(Mt 26:31-32)(Jn 2:18-22)(Jn 10:17-18)(Jn 16:16-22), and that His death would be on a cross (Jn 3:14 – pictured in Num 21:5-9)(Jn 8:28)(Jn 12:32-34). And, he heard Jesus say that these things would defeat Him (Jn 12:31-32)(Jn 16:11). (Other NT verses telling us this: Heb 2:14, Col 2:15, 1 Jn 3:8.)
SO… if you were Satan, how would YOU try to derail this plan?? I believe the clearest evidence points to him trying to do EVERYTHING he could to stop the crucifixion of Jesus, and therefore His resurrection!
How? I believe the “first” way he tried goes all the way back to the beginning of time in early Genesis, when he tried to destroy the “seed” that would lead to the birth of Jesus. First, we see Satan moving in Adam and Eve’s firstborn son Cain to kill his younger brother Abel (Gen 4:1-8), thus removing both of them from being the “seed.” However, God “appointed another seed for (Eve) instead of Abel” named Seth (Gen 4:25)(Gen 5:3), who we find in the lineage of Jesus (Lk 3:38).
Then, we see Satan try to destroy Seth’s lineage in (Gen 6:2-4) when the “sons of God” (fallen angels “or” the lineage of Seth) take wives for themselves from the daughters of men, have sex with them, and produce corrupt children.
Satanic attacks to destroy the “seed” that led to Jesus continued for centuries against people such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.
However, we know from the New Testament (the Gospels), and the lineages of Jesus found in (Mt 1:1-17) and (Lk 3:23-38) that Satan’s attempts to destroy the “seed” failed, as Jesus was born! However, Satan did not stop in his effort to keep Jesus from going to the cross. After Jesus was born, he changed his strategy, and focused his attempts directly on Jesus instead of His descendants. Let’s look at these attempts.
First, we will look at 3 attempts which “clearly” show that Satan was behind them. Then, we will look at 2 more “possible” attempts.
#1. The first is found in (Mt 4:1-11), when Satan “tempted” Jesus 3 times in the wilderness. I truly believe that each of these temptations were offered to keep Jesus from going to the cross, and if Jesus had “given into” any of the temptations, Satan would have been successful.
#2. The second is found in (Mt 16:21-23). In these verses, Jesus tells His disciples that He “must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things…, be killed, and be raised the third day. Afterwards, Peter rebukes Jesus, saying, “Far be it from You Lord; this shall not happen to you.” And, Jesus replies “Get behind Me, Satan. You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Jesus clearly recognizes that Satan was using Peter to try and stop His death and resurrection.
#3. The third is connected to Judas Iscariot. Judas was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples (Mt 10:2-4)(Mk 3:16-19)(Lk 6:14-16), but he is also called a “devil” (Jn 6:70-71), a “thief” (Jn 12:6), the “son of perdition” (Jn 17:12), and Jesus said that it would have been better if he had never been born (Mt 26:24)(Mk 14:21).
However, I (and many others) believe that in spite of this, Judas did indeed believe that Jesus was the Messiah (just as Satan knew). Most of the Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah because He did not (in their minds) fulfill some of the prophecies that they believed the Messiah should have fulfilled. Prominent among those being that the Messiah would overthrow those who ruled over them (in Jesus’ time, the Romans). In contrast, while Judas did recognize Jesus as the Messiah, he agreed with the Jews that Jesus was failing to step into the role as “overthrower” of Rome. By betraying Jesus, which led to His arrest, I believe he was attempting to force Jesus to step into His role as “overthrower.”
This seemed like a good plan to Satan too, and he “entered into Judas” (demonically possessed him), to push him to do it (Lk 22:3)(Jn 13:2,26-27). I think (Mt 27:3-5) makes it clear that Judas did not believe his betrayal would “lead” to Jesus death and resurrection, and when he saw that it would, he was “remorseful,” returned the money he was given to betray Jesus, and hanged himself. In contrast, while not “remorseful” as Judas was, I believe that Satan was discouraged that this plan did not “prevent” Jesus’ death and resurrection. This led to “possibly” (we aren’t told this “clearly“) another attempt by Satan.
#4. When Satan saw that Jesus was headed to the cross, he made one last attempt to “make” Jesus use His power to stop His crucifixion by inducing those who were torturing Jesus to make it as painful as possible. Jesus foresaw the torture that was coming in (Mt 26:39-44)(Lk 22:41-44), and He prayed 3 times, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Moments after this, Jesus confirmed that He did indeed have the power to stop His torture, death and resurrection in an instant, saying in (Mt 26:53) “do you think I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than 12 legions of angels?” (One “legion” was abut 6000.) (Also see: Jn 10:17-18) Of course, we know that Jesus never used this power, therefore, Satan’s final attempt failed.
Finally, I want to look at one more “possible” attempt by Satan (chronologically, this would fit after #3). I admit this might be a stretch, but I find it intriguing. It is tied to the “dream of Pilate’s wife” that is found in (Mt 27:19).
(Mt 27:19)(NKJV) “While he (Pilate) was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.””
I have always been fascinated with this “dream.” As I studied it again in relation to this study, I asked myself the question: “Who was the source of this dream?” I have always believed it was the Lord. But, was it?
Clearly, God would not have given the dream to stop Jesus from going to the cross. (Plus, in His omniscience, the Lord already knew Pilate would not listen to his wife’s warning.) Therefore, the only other reason I can think of for a “divine” origin for the dream would be so that on judgment day, Pilate would not able to say, “Lord, I didn’t know!” BUT (a big BUT), what if the “origin” of this dream was “demonic?” Could it make more sense to say it’s purpose was to get Pilate to declare Jesus innocent, and therefore stop Jesus from going to the cross.
Bolstering this “conjecture,” in (Mt 27:13-14)(Mk 15:3-5) we see that Pilate “marveled” that Jesus did not respond to the charges that the chief priests leveled against Him, and was amazed that Jesus refused to speak to him, saying, “Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” (Jn 19:10). Jesus did not question that Pilate had that power (but said it was “given from above: Jn 19:11), but I absolutely believe Jesus knew that if He spoke to defend Himself, and Pilate found His defense credible, Pilate would have used his power to prevent Him from going to the cross.
So, I believe that based upon the above, the evidence is very strong that Satan tried to prevent Jesus from being murdered (crucified) on the cross. On the other hand, I see virtually no evidence that Satan tried to murder Jesus. In closing, I want to refute 3 sections of Scripture that are used for proof by those who believe Satan tried to murder Jesus.
#1. The first is found in (Mt 2:16-18) when King Herod issued a decree to “put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under.” I would argue that this was not an attempt by Satan to murder Jesus, because we are told in (Mt 2:13-15) that before this occurred, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had fled to Egypt, being warned by “an angel of the Lord” ahead of time that they needed to go there to save Jesus’ life from Herod’s murderous decree. Satan obviously would have known they were in Egypt, so he knew Herod’s decree would not kill Jesus.
#2. The Jews attempted to throw Jesus off of a cliff, but He “passed through the midst of them,” and walked away unharmed (Lk 4:16-30).
#3. The Jews “took up stones to throw at Him (Jesus); but Jesus him Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them’ (Jn 8:48-59).
For #2. & #3., was Satan working through the Jews to stop Jesus from going to the cross? Maybe? But, there is no evidence for this conclusion, and therefore it is total conjecture.