Recently I read a very interesting book, Satan - A Biography. The author comes up with some really original thinking that will overturn our concept of Satan, anti chirst,sin etc. Satan comes out as not so ghoulish a characcter as we have been made to believe. In fact, he emerges as quite a colourful and enterprising one. Above all he has to be given a place in our thoughts, if not in our prayers , as he is also a creation of God.Of particular interest are his exchanges with Jesus during Jesus's forty day sojourn in the wilderness. There he tempts Jesus with absolute ownership of the world in its entirety the control of which he exercises according to his whim. Who else could give him such unqualified control over the world other than God Himself?
In this context I am reminded of a character in Maugham's " A Razor's Edge" who argues somewhat in the same vein.Here Satan tries to lure Jesus with the three temptations promising him to make him the master of the world if Jesus pays him homage. Jesus resolutely resists all three. Then Satan tells him if he renounces the world and die on a cross he will become the saviour of mankind.That was the fourth temptation ! !