30/04/14

Is Satan a snake?

Nehemiah 12:9 - Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, stood opposite them in the watches.


In today's message we read about 2 Levites Bakbukiah and Unni along with their brethren who were part of the service of the temple in Jerusalem. One may think what is there about these 2 people that the Lord is telling us that may affect our lives today.

It may surprise you when you come to know the meaning of their name. Bakbukiah means 'curse of Jehovah' and 'Unni' means afflicted. Imagine the cursed and afflicted of Jehovah serving Him!

Whenever Satan is projected, people show him as a snake. In the movie Son of God when Jesus is being tempted in the desert the director showed Satan transforming into a snake. We also have some Christian Churches especially in the USA who hold services playing with snakes, projecting that they have power over Satan.

There are many scriptures where Satan is symbolized as a snake, but then not all of them actually refer to a snake. Like in Genesis when Adam and Eve were in Eden it is written Satan came as a snake. The Hebrew word 'nachash' used here comes from the word that means 'enchanted'. In the Bible there are many other Hebrew words translated as serpent, like 'tanniym' which means monster like the mythical dragon or a prehistoric animal. Also the word 'saraph' which means fiery serpent (creature) is at times translated as serpent (this word is also used for the Cherubs who are called the Morning Stars).

Note in the wilderness when the wrath of the Lord was on the people, serpents came and bit them, such that many died. We see at that time when people pleaded the Lord, He asked them to make a 'saraph' (fiery creature) and set on a pole so that any person bit by a serpent (nachash) will not die but live. What did Moses do? Moses makes a snake (nachash) out of brass and sets it on a pole. We see the Lord does not correct him and when people bitten by a serpent looked up on the brass serpent set on the pole they lived as the Lord said. So indirectly the Lord approved what Moses did. As we know this brass serpent represents Jesus on the cross, to whom we look up to and are saved. So we see not only Satan even Christ (on the cross) is symbolized as a serpent in the Bible.

Serpents are not evil creatures, when God made them along with all other creatures God as recorded in Genesis chp1, God said they are good. So serpents are not bad but what they symbolize is bad. In Genesis we see some of the creatures were made after their kind and some after the Lord's (His) kind. Their kind refers to the fallen angels (evil spirits) who separated themselves from God. That is why the Lord classified some animals as unclean not because there was something bad about the animal but bad about what they spiritually symbolized. We can eat the animal but not what they spiritually symbolize.

At times snake symbolizes deceit (that is why it moves in a zig zag direction. Snake also symbolizes cursed. When God cursed Satan in the Garden of Eden, He said it is cursed above all the cattle (means mute beings / those not having authority) and above every being if the land - levels below the higher Heavens. He also said it will move on its belly (means its doings - means eat the fruit of its doings) and eat the dust (symbolizing death) the time of its living.

On the cross Jesus took our curse and our penalty of death on Himself and became cursed and afflicted by God. By His natural death He went to Hell for our sins were on Him but since He never sinned Himself and there was no sin in Him, therefore He could not be kept in Hell and thus He resurrected (came up from Hell). By His resurrection now anyone who believes in Him by faith is raised through the gates of Hell therefore being free of the prison of Hell, he or she does not go to Hell.

In today's message the Lord is telling us not to look at things in the flesh but see them through our spiritual eyes. We are not called to hate snakes or any animal but discern them spiritually and hate the things of darkness, battle them and overcome them with the Light of Truth.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, your people need more and more of your Spirit. They need to learn to discern things spiritually. They need to know good and be aware of evil yet be innocent of it...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference ]
Numbers 21:8-9
8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Genesis 3:14 - And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Genesis 1:20-26
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great sea creatures, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)