Study Aired September 12, 2013

In our last discussion, we started with the theme of Satan, a spirit being who was first introduced to Adam and Eve as a serpent. He was created by God to be “more subtle than any beast of the field” (Gen 3:1, Isa 45:7, Pro 16:4). We touched on a few of his characteristics, especially how he intimately relates to the natural mind and heart in the generation of the first man Adam (Rom 8:6, Jer 17:9). This subtle serpent was the first animal which God brought to the close attention of Adam and Eve before they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At that stage they had no discernment to determine whether this serpent had good or evil intentions. They were not given the necessary armour to “stand against the wiles” of this “old serpent” or “devil” (Rev 12:9):

Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles [Greek: methodeia – cunningness, trickery, deceit, craftiness] of the devil.

All natural things, including the animal world, were created to help us to understand the spiritual world or invisible things of God, even inside ourselves (Rom 1:20). All natural things are not spiritual, but they supply the spiritual type and shadow to help us ultimately compare spiritual with spiritual. When this spiritual “door [is] opened in heaven” we do not become entangled into shadows again; we reckon ourselves dead to “the spirit of the world” (Rev 4:1, 2Pe 2:20, Rom 6:1-13):

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

The Hebrew word for “missing the mark” is the same word for “sin” in the scriptures and this helps us to see God’s plan with this subtle serpent from the beginning:

Jdg 20:16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss (Hebrew: chata).

Gen 39:9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin (Hebrew: chata) against God?

God never misses His mark, and what He has determined for a creature to do, will be done exactly the way God planned it. No creature can do something outside of God’s one will (Isa 43:13, Isa 46:10, Psa 33:11, Psa 135:6, Pro 21:30, Eph 1:11, Rom 9:19). Those who shamelessly propagate this old serpent become ‘more subtle’ and evil and have been given spiritual blindness by God who is using this very serpent to do that blinding (2Co 4:4). God is indeed sovereign over everything in His creation, even directing all movements by His spirit beings, the good ones and the evil ones (Jer 18:11, Amo 3:6):

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil (Hebrew: ra] spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Job 42:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil (Hebrew: ra] that the LORD had brought upon him [through Satan]: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.

This “crooked serpent” was created by God’s hand, and he is in that hand from the beginning until the end (Job 26:13, Gen 1:20-22, Isa 27:1, Rev 20:2,10). He was sent by God to ‘trouble’ Adam and Eve:

Gen 3:1 1 Now the serpent was more subtil [Hebrew: arum = shrewd, crafty or sly] than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Gen 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

The devil and his angels perform specific tasks within clearly demarcated spiritual limitations and for a definite time period as determined by God alone. This is what the book of Job in Chapters 1 and 2, among other witnesses in the Scriptures, also reveal to those who can receive it:

Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Dan 10:13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Luk 4:13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

These demarcations are referring to spiritual control rather than physical boundaries determined by God for every spiritual being, including this serpent (Job 1 and 2, Rev 20:2-3). Like all God’s creatures, the serpent is not able to deviate from what God set out to achieve through him, although his own carnal mind cannot see that. The various names or titles by which this serpent is called in Scripture also help to show us the other ‘tasks’ or purposes for which God is using him (Rev 12:9, Rev 20:2, Gen 1:21, Isa 27:1, Job 41:1). One other name by which he is known in Scripture is ‘Satan’ from the Hebrew word satan, which means “one who opposes” or “adversary”. He resists or stands against the truth:

1Ch 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

Zec 3:1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

He indeed murders the truth with his lies. This ‘satan’ withstands or resists the truth because God did not create any truth in Him from the beginning. Whenever the words of truth or the commandments of God are presented to a natural mind (like that of Adam and Eve), Satan jumps into action to mix the good seed (the truth) with his bad seed (Mar 4:15-19). Everything Satan says is not 100% a lie because deception and delusion will never be successful if a lie and its consequences (including judgment) are paraded openly and blatantly. Yes, there is no truth IN Satan (or the devil) as Jesus said, yet he has been gifted by God to use truth as a camouflage to get entrance for his lies. The spiritual gifts of God have counterfeits or negative applications when they are applied to fulfill physical lusts (1Co 3:1-7, 1Co 3:12-15, 1Co 12:1-2). This is also how a carnal mind/heart twists or wraps God’s word (“My gold”) around its idols or lies (Eze 14:3-9):

Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

All natural or carnal hearts have numerous idols which are expressed through various religious and philosophical concepts. At the center of all the idols we will always find selfish motives, lusts and pride with the purpose to worship the man of sin (1Jn 2:16, 2Th 2:3-4). Our natural heart was made desperately wicked and deceitful like that of this subtle serpent (Rev 12:3; 13:1):

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The truth which was used by the cunning serpent was that the “eyes” of Adam and Eve would open when they ate of the forbidden fruit, which indeed happened – they could recognize good and evil like God, for the first time:

Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

The problem is that Adam and Eve (and all in their generation up until today) think of themselves as gods and are not able to see that God caused them to take another step toward becoming spiritual as the Godhead when they ate of that tree:

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man [Hebrew: adam] is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

The verbal phrase ‘is become’ shows again how the Godhead is confirming here that the first man Adam (and all in him) is in a process of becoming in the image of God, for those who can receive this. God is “creating” the generation of the first man Adam in His image which He started on day six of creation:

Gen 1:27 (CLV) And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.

The lie which the serpent hid behind the truth was that Adam and Eve were at some level already immortal. By making them believe that they have some type of immortality, this serpent manipulates the fear of death in Adam and Eve:

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Jesus] also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage [from the beginning].

This lie of immortality is propagated in various forms in the generation of the first Adam. We know that the scriptures are clear for those who can see that Adam was never spiritual or immortal and there was never a so-called ‘fall of man’. He was made from dust, and to dust he returned where he is waiting for the resurrection (Gen 2:7, Gen 3:19). All physical things which God created, including the natural mind in the first man Adam, are “marred” and filled with death and darkness from the hand of the Potter (Gen 1:2, Jer 18:4, Rom 8:6, 20). We all naturally want to believe that some part of us is immortal, and that part will ‘move on’ or ‘pass over’ after death. For this purpose, the lie of an immortal soul is a powerful delusion to satisfy this desire of flesh which this subtle serpent used right from the beginning. We naturally cannot accept that God can make everything new (2Co 5:17, Rev 21:5). It truly takes the good Shepherd’s voice to see through all the deceptions by this subtle serpent and his messengers (Joh 10:1-5, 2Co 11:14-15). Everyone in the generation of the fleshly first Adam follows the serpent’s ‘voice’ naturally. God Himself is sending strong delusion in the form of an evil spirit in order for the natural man to believe the lie:

2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.

This serpent is also referred to as “Abaddon” (Hebrew) or “Apollyon” (Greek), the destroying angel, under God’s supervision (Rev 9:11, Job 26:6, Pro 15:11, Mat 10:28, 39). God created and appointed the subtle serpent to be a ‘waster’ that destroys the flesh by puffing it up with an unfulfilling desire for more knowledge or science (Greek: gnosis) “falsely so called”, which contains ‘smooth things’ and ‘deceits’ (1Ti 6:20; Isa 30:10). All flesh is a temporary evil experience or “sore travail” which God created in order to bring all in the generation of the first man Adam toward the spirit man, Jesus Christ (Ecc 1:13):

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

This serpent is also called the ‘god of this world (age)’ and many cannot see his craftiness of luring us into an interest about affairs of this temporary evil age (Gal 1:4):

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world [Greek: aion] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

With this title, the serpent seduces all worldly systems (outside and inside), including all religious and human philosophies, especially through the spiritual Babylonian harlot (Mat 4:8-10, Rev 17:1-6). All earthly things are divisive by God’s design from the beginning (Gen 11:6-9, Psa 2:1, Mat 12:25, Mat 24:6-8). Flesh is always at war with itself about things which seem important to the natural mind, but are dung in God’s eyes. That is why Satan is also called Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. He rules a divided kingdom of dung (Luk 13:8, Php 3:8):

Mat 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Mat 12:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.
Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

Not one of God’s children feel good when they see the products of evil, but to resist the evil in the world is actually showing disagreement with God’s way of doing things:

Mat 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

The subtle serpent can also associate with the word ‘Belial’ which means ‘no profit’, ‘worthlessness’, ‘lawlessness’ or ‘not knowing the Lord’. Like the lawless man of sin, the things which this serpent was given will end in nothing worthwhile for himself – they are all vanity for the earthy, carnal mind-set, but through this evil, God works His perfect plan and His good purposes (Gen 50:20, Ecc 1:2, Eph 1:11):

2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel [one without faith]?

1Sa 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.

The serpent’s task is to keep the carnal mind focussed on idols of self-worship, while God is busy within the generation of the first Adam conforming His elect to have His mind and preparing them for their spiritual tasks. Their eyes are on the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, even Christ Jesus (2Co 5:16, Php 3:14). Submitting to God and His commandments is the only way to truly resist this serpent where it matters – inside (Php 3:11-13, 1Jn 2:16):

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

[Detailed studies and emails written by Mike Vinson relating to this foundational theme in Scripture concerning the subtle serpent can be found at https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/frequently-asked-questions/ under the heading called ‘Satan’. Other themes referred to in this study are also available on the www.iswasandwillbe.com website, including:
Is There A Law of Circularity?
Free Moral Agency, the Fall of Man and the Trinity]

Next study, God willing, we will further discuss the theme of this serpent as to why the natural first-man Adam is unable to resist or cast out Satan, among others.