BIBLE TEACHINGS MADE PLAIN, part 10 – Who is the real serpent?

BIBLE TEACHINGS MADE PLAIN, part 10

Who is the real serpent?

The previous lesson was about what went wrong in the Garden of Eden. Eve is wandering around and stopping at the forbidden tree and being questioned by a serpent hidden in the tree. She is challenged regarding her trust and belief in God who had told not to eat from the tree under pain of loosing her life in death. The serpent tells her that God is holding something back from her she should know and that she surely will not die. She believes the serpent and eats from the fruit and gives her husband, Adam, who also eats.

Now it is logic to ask who is behind this serpent. Who made the serpent talk and who is the real liar? To find the answer to these questions again we have to turn to the beginning. However the beginning this time is not in Genesis but in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ In this Bible book we not only find Jesus Christ revealed but also His arch opponent. It is chapter 12 which will help to reveal what happened in the beginning. This chapter reveals a number of things which have occurred throughout the ages and is not written in chronological order. (For a detailed outline and comment verse by verse of this chapter go to my website www.bereanbiblecorner.com Revelation section part 1V)

We turn to Revelation 12 and use only what we need to answer the question raised in this lesson. We read in 12:7 that there was war in heaven. Michael, that is Christ, and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. The dragon is a symbol for the Devil or Satan, read verse 9. The Devil does not look like a dragon but is given the animal symbol of a dragon. Not all in detail has been revealed about this war, but what is revealed gives us a pretty good picture of what took place. War in heaven also must not be understood as a war with weaponry, but most likely it has been a war with words, rebellion against the government of God, dissatisfaction about God and trying to take the place of God. We also call it a controversy and in this case it is called The Great Controversy, some call it Cosmic Conflict.

The names given do give us a clue as well. Devil is from diabolos which means a slanderer, making false charges or a liar and Satan means to be against or having a grudge against someone, in this case against God.. How can angels in heaven have a grudge against God and become a liar? You will remember from our lesson about angels, that angels like humans are intelligent beings and created with the freedom of choice. In heaven that is in God’s kingdom everything is based on freewill of choice and love. Love is not real love when it does not have the freedom not to love.
When we read in the Bible that the angels praise and honour God they are not programmed to do so like a machine or a computer, but they like it and they love to do. Heaven would not be what it is if everything was done under force. There is no real love and joy and happiness when a society operates under force or dictatorship.
We saw that when we worked in Russia for 15 months after the fall of the soviet empire. The Russian people looked very unhappy and had “frozen” minds; they had lived in a society for 70 years without freedom of speech and even thinking.
Throughout the Bible and the same is for heaven we find that we are challenged to choose, Joshua 24:15 as an example, also Deut.30:19

Because of this principle we find in the Bible that once upon a time one leading angel chose to try to have it his way of thinking. How that came about in his heart and mind, the Bible does not reveal, but it did happen. We find it in two scripture passages. The first one is in Isa.14:12-14. Read this. The question is raised how art thou fallen from heaven, Oh Lucifer. Lucifer means lightbearer name given to a leading angel. We read that this angel became caught in his own pride and self-esteem, thinking himself to be equal with God and is reaching for the place of God. Five times we read in this passage that he uses his I. We may safely conclude from this attitude that he must not have been happy with God and God’s government and thought he could do better.

There is a second scripture passage where we learn more about this rebellion in heaven. We find it in Ezekiel 28: 11-17. The prophet uses the image of the king of Tyrus, but from what we read it is obvious that not the real king of Tyrus is meant, but only used as a symbol or image. The king of Tyrus was not a good one either, that’s why his kingdom has been destroyed. I have seen the ruins when I visited Lebanon. But the real person of this passage in Ezekiel is the same as in Isa.14 the rebellious leading angel in heaven. We give a summing up of what is written about this angel:
Sealing up the sum, which means he was perfect, nothing to be desired.
Full of wisdom and beauty, what more could he ask for.
Has been in the Garden of Eden (disguised as a serpent)
Covered with pleasure stones of value.
Perfect in everything the day he was created.
An anointed cherub, an angel with authority
His place was with God on the Holy Mountain, a privileged position.
Walked up and down amidst stones of fire (symbolic of his status)
Second time about his creation and beauty and perfection
A covering cherub in the midst of stones of fire.
It is clear we are dealing here with an angel of beauty, perfection, highly honoured and having a very close position as near to God as possible, but still not divine, not God.

The angel was all this as described here above untill iniquity was found in him, verse 15. Iniquity equals sin and sin is rebellion against God and His law, 1John 3:4. So this angel stood up against God in rebellion At one time he started to look at himself and his beauty and became filled up with himself which is pride and started to campaign to get the place of God as we read in Isa.14. Read Ez.28:15-17. The last part of verse 17 reads that God would cast him out and he would be destroyed (in verse 16). This is usually the case. when somebody thrives, and wants to be higher, to be more than he is, most likely he ends up to be lower than what he was.

We return to Revelation 12 and read in verse 8 that he was cast out of heaven, he and his angels who had followed him. (Verse 7 last part) We conclude that he must have made propaganda for his unlawful ambitions and a good number of the angels must have used their freedom of choice to believe in his case and followed him. When he found himself on Earth and became what we read in Eph.6:12 ruler of the darkness of earth and its surroundings, his first aim was to deceive the people of the Garden of Eden.
By using a serpent for disguise and attraction, he told Eve the first GREAT lie that she would not die but become like God. Gen.3:4, 5. What Satan had not been able to reach in heaven, he suggested to Eve, knowing very well that she would fail and loose life and die. Satan knew that his end would be death as he was told as we read in Eze.28:16 “I will destroy thee. Satan also knows what Jesus said in Matth.25:41 that he will end his life with his angels in fire. There is freedom of choice in heaven and on earth, but if we choose our way we have to accept the consequences. Sin or rebellion against God cannot exist together in God’s perfect Kingdom we will loose our place as the angels did, 2Pet.2:4 and loose our life in hell fire, eternal death Rom.6:23

When Satan and his angels were thrown out of heaven he became the ruler of earth with access to heaven as earth’s representative. How did that take place? When Adam was created he was given charge of this world and dominion over it, Gen.1:28; Ps.8:6. But when Adam switched from obedience to God to Satan he made himself subject to Satan and lost his dominion over the earth and being its representative. Rom.6:16. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert after His baptism. One of the temptations was to worship Satan and receive all the kingdoms of the world, because Satan said they have been delivered to me, Luke 4:6 Jesus refused and gained the victory over Satan. Satan is called even by Jesus the Prince of this world, John 12:31; 14:30. He is even called the God of this world 2Cor.4:4 and the prince of the powers of the air, Eph.2:2

Based on this position Satan has on earth as said before, Satan retained access to heaven. We learn that from Job 1:6-8 and 2:1-3. One of the reasons Jesus came down to earth by way of incarnation, in our flesh, was to take up the battle against Satan and undo his work, Hebr.2:14.Jesus was willing to meet His opponent, Satan, on his battle ground. We will see later how Satan has done everything thing within his power to avoid this, but he did not succeed. When Jesus died on the cross His last words were it is finished John 19:30. The battle with Satan was over, Jesus had not fallen victim to Satan but gained the victory over him and rose in victory the third day after His death. From that day onward Satan has no access any more to heaven, Jesus is now our representative with the Father, 1Tim.2:5.

But Satan exercises still much power on earth, because he is filled with anger and wrath, Rev.12:12 and goes around as a wounded lion seeking what he still can destroy before he himself is destroyed, 1Pet.5:8. In Rev.12:10 we learn about another name for Satan accuser. He goes around accusing. He accused God about Job, read again Job 1:9, 10 and 2:4 also in Zech.3:1-3.
Satan also has done everything he could to prevent Christ from coming to this world as the Messiah. After he listened to Gen.3:15 that his head would be crushed to death and that the seed of the woman, which is Christ, Gal.3:16, 29 only to be wounded he tried to prevent this, and be the winner in the enmity between the two seeds. He used Cain to kill Abel. But another son was born Seth, Gen.4:8, 25. Then Satan deceived the whole world causing the flood, Gen.6. He tried to have all the Hebrew male babies killed in Egypt Ex.1:16. In the time of Queen Esther he tried to do away with all the Jews, Esther 6:8.He did this because he knew from the Bible out of whom the Messiah, Jesus would be born. When Jesus was born he tried to kill Jesus as a baby, but his parents found refuge in Egypt, Matth.2:16. During Christ ministry Satan tried to kill Jesus but with no success until Satan had Christ on the cross and challenged Him to come off the cross to show Himself. Matth.27:42, 43. But Jesus remained firm and the Devil did not win. He is now a defeated enemy. The Great Controversy may still be raging, but the kingdom and power now belongs to Christ and to those who place themselves on the side of Christ, Rev.12:10 and 17:14.
We can overcome the Devil through Jesus if we accept Him as our Saviour and Lord and accept His blood as the price for our redemption, Rev.12:11; Eph.1:7; 1Pet.1:18, 19 May God bless you to make that choice.

Commitment: Dear reader are you willing to make a commitment now and accept Jesus in your life as your Saviour and Lord and thus have the power to resist the Devil with all his temptations?