[John 8:32] You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. In the Biblical Hebrew the term "Satan" (STN) appears quite often. The word is derived from the original Hebrew verb "stn" which means, "to oppose." The early Christian church used the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew texts. The translators for some inexplicable reason translated "Satan" as (Greek 'diabolos") or "diabolic." The English equivalent of the term is "devil."
Few examples: 1Samuel 29:4: The Philistines were distrustful of David calling him their 'satan' (translated as adversary) ...do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. [2Samuel 19:22] David then said, "What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be a 'satan' (adversary) to me? [1Kings 5:4] "But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither 'satan' (adversary) nor misfortune. [1Kings 11:14] Then the LORD raised up 'satan' (adversary) to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the royal line in Edom. Clearly, from these verses and many other Hebrew references, a Satan theology has been derived and subsequently developed, but for what purpose is not quite clear. The same verses that mention Satan or the devil can be read with a clearer understanding and without superstitious, irrational and traditional pagan beliefs.
In Numbers 22:22-32 God appeared to Balaam in a dream. God permitted the seer to go with the princes of Moab in order to meet Balak who hired Balaam the son of Beor for the purpose of cursing Israel. When Balaam actually sets out to meet Balak; God's wrath expressed through an angel crosses the seer's path. The angel first speaks through the mouth of the donkey and then appears with a drawn out sword in hand. Apparently, the donkey saw the angel first. At that moment the angel was still invisible to Balaam, who then struck the animal three times because it veered off course. [Numbers 22:28] And the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" The donkey asked Balaam why did he beat it. Balaam does not realize that he is actually talking to an animal. At that point the angel of the Lord appears to the seer who was set out to curse the entire nation of Israel and God saw the true intent of his heart. The angel of the Lord (not an angel under Satan as the present day theology might make us believe) explains the reasons behind his mission. He is sent as 'satan' in to order to stop Balaam in his folly of trying to curse what God had perpetually blessed.
We conclude therefore that God's eternal blessing shields the blessed of the Lord so that even an influential human being can't break
through that protective armor. On the blessed of the Lord no curse can ever work. Again, as in many other instances, the translators took their liberty to translate words of the angel as an adversary and not as Satan. This is done quite frequently because of the prevailing theology that Satan is a separate evil angel therefore having nothing to do with God. It also suggests to us that Satan fulfills God's displeasure upon the sons of disobedience—and not as it has been turned around—upon those calling themselves God's children.
[Numbers 22:32] The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was contrary to ME. (Me – God's.) From this and many other references we draw conclusions that this angel must be a member of God's inner council, a type of God's chief prosecutor. Later books, like the Book of Job affirms this to be so.
The classical examples of biblical discrepancy, within the translated biblical texts, are those books compiled during the pre Babylonian exilic periods and the post-Babylonian/Persian. The same account of David's census of Israel in 2Samuel 24:1 (pre-Babylonian period circa 560 BCE) is also found in 1Chronicles 21:1 (post-Babylonian / Persian periods c. 400 BCE).
One must take into account 70 years of Israel's captivity as prophesied by Jeremiah. [2Chronicles 36:20-21] Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.
Please, examine the next two almost identical texts and see God's wrath or displeasure, which has something to do with Satan used as the expression of God's wrath. [2Samuel 24:1] Now again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and it (the anger itself) incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah." [1Chronicles 21:1] Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.
Now, a question arises as to which one is which? If we understand the All-Powerful and All-Knowing God as having absolute authority over all of His angels, which He Himself created, then what we believe today would make no sense. But if we accept God's absolute sovereignty then we must deal with perhaps the faulty and widely embraced theology and then must correct it? Right here we see the utter necessity for reformation.
