Foundational themes in Genesis (Part 17)

Theme: The subtle serpent (Part 3)

(Key verses: Genesis 3:1-5)

The theme of a subtle serpent is foundational in our understanding of God’s works in “the book of the generations” of the first Adam (Gen 1:1; 2:4; 5:1). The first time this theme is directly addressed is in Genesis 3:

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent [Hebrew: “nâchâsh”] was more subtil 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?

The Hebrew word for serpent here is “nâchâsh” and this word connects to other concepts in the scriptures, for example dust (earth), rods, poison, a rock, a broken hedge, a wall, and the sea (Gen 3:14; Ex 4:2-3; Ps 58:4; Pro 30:19; Ecc 10:8; Amos 5:19; Amos 9:3). But the only metal connected to the word “nâchâsh” helps our understanding of God’s purpose with this creature:

Num 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery [Hebrew: “sârâph”] serpents [Hebrew:“nâchâsh”] among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Num 21:8-9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent [Hebrew: “sârâph”], 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 [Hebrew: “nâchâsh”] 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.

God told Moses to make a “fiery serpent” or “sârâph” to which “the [complaining and impatient] church in the wilderness” could look for their healing and getting their life restored, when the poisonous snakes which God sent, bit them (Num 21:4-9; Acts 7:38). But Moses made a “nâchâsh” of brass which also tells us how these two words, fiery and serpent, are connected (Hebrew: “sârâph” and “nâchâsh”). Jesus explained that this event ultimately points to Him dying to His own flesh (His flesh was represented by the brass – a base metal of the ground), but He will come from the dead to be risen up as the “firstfruit” and in this way will giving us His new life in spirit (John 3:13-17; 1Cor 15:20; Gal 3:13). The link with brass is very significant in the way this serpent appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden. Shining brass has the appearance of gold and spiritually it represents the spiritual delusions which appeal to the flesh – the heart of our problem. This serpent appeared as a shining light to impress “the children of the night” (those who live according to the principles which rule “flesh and blood”). The “children of the night” are open to his false enlightenment (Ps 10:9-10; Pro 12:12a). It was indeed the “lesser light” which God created for this purpose, as he also appointed this false light “to rule the night” and those who walk and live in darkness (Gen 1:16; 3:1-5; Acts26:18; Isa 45:7):

Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night…

2Cor 11:14-15 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

But this serpent is always properly discerned by “the children of the [true] light” of Christ who are the “seraphims…in and around the throne” of God who can handle the “live coals” of God (Isa 6:1-6; Rev 4:6;1Thes 5:5; John 1:9; Eph 1:18; 1John 2:8). The “lesser light”, which is represented by the moon, actually has no light at all. This subtle and evil serpent never had the true light or the spirit life of God, but was an evil murderer and liar from the beginning (John 8:44; 1John 3:8). The rule or guidance of the “lesser light” over all flesh is also temporary as King Hezekiah also demonstrated when he destroyed this “serpent of brass” which Moses made:

2Ki 18:3-4 And he [Hezekiah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did. 4 He removed the high places,and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he [Hezekiah] called it Nehushtan [“a thing of brass” = worthless].

The scriptures cannot contradict itself as they cannot be broken (John 10:35). This serpent was never a good spiritual creature that fell in sin by his own unscriptural “free” will. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, for example, are used by many deceivers to “prove” that those verses are pointing to this evil serpent, Satan. But those chapters are addressed to the kings of Babylon and Tyre respectively, who are used as symbols for our own natural, carnal high-mindedness which will eventually lead to dethronement and the grave (Eze 28:3-10; Isa 14:13-15). All symbols in those two chapters are spiritually referring to the first Adam and all those who were given carnal minds by God, including this serpent. In our Adamic state we listen to this subtle serpent and that is why Jesus call all in Adam children of the devil:

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.

That is why Adam (and Eve) could not resist this subtle serpent in the garden of Eden. The whole situation was a setup of God who has a plan for all things in this creation. Even the garden where this snake operated was the first home of Adam and Eve. The word “Eden” means pleasure, as this natural Eden symbolizes our carnal “pleasure”, or pleasing of self. This is the place where all carnality takes its first steps in the process of becoming like God (Gen 2:8; 4:16; Eze 28:13; Eze 31:1-9). God made everything “good” or “perfect” for the purpose He wants to use it (Gen 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31; Eze 28:12,15). But we know the very best of the physical world, including flesh and blood, can never be “perfect” or enter God’s spiritual kingdom:

1Cor 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

1Cor 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

From God’s point of view all flesh is sin and all the sin offerings were burned “without [outside] the camp” (1Cor 1:29; 1Cor 15:50; Ex 29:14; Phil 3:8). Even Jesus’s flesh was sin and crucified outside the city:

2Cor 5:21 For he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.

Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Although physical or carnal things are in essence representing sin and evil, mankind also serves as a “messenger” of God, albeit as an evil angel / cherub / seraph. God is the “Father of spirits” and all the actions of all in His creation are under His direction or “cover” (Heb 12:9; Eph 1:11; Eze 28:14). If we cannot see the inward spiritual application of all the physical kings mentioned in Scripture and where their kingdoms are, then we have also not been given the eyes to see who the King of those kings is, and where His kingdom is:

Luk 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The first Adam was a type of the “son of the morning” – the negative application of the true “morning star”, Jesus Christ (Luk 3:38; Rom 5:14: Rev 1:8 Rev 2:28; Rev 22:16). Jesus is indeed the only true “son of the morning” and the only “bright and morning star”, and no other creature can make claims to that position:

Rev 2:28 And I will give him [the spiritual overcomer] the morning star [Christ and His life].

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Satan was never a good angel and He never had a proper name “Lucifer” which, for example, the King James and the Latin Vulgate translations have “christened” as such. Yet this error of a “fallen” angel has taken a massive stronghold in the minds (heavens) of many. When we do not know what and where heaven is, Satan or devils “falling” from heaven is very confusing and impossible for the natural mind to understand. When we can understand that evil and carnal things cannot “fall” because we will also know that they already occupy the lowest point in God’s creation. The lowest point in God’s creation is death and that is what we are in flesh:

Rom 8:5-8 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Many are also confused when they read in the Scriptures that Satan and other evil spirits operate (and even making war) in the heavens:

Rev 12:7-9 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And [the dragon and his angels] prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.

Satan and his angels “deceives the whole [carnal] world” and its heavens. This domain of deception and spiritual blindness is the initial spiritual position of Adam and his generation from the hand of the Potter (Eze 18:4; Rom 8:20; Ps 51:5). From birth our thinking and our wisdom are “earthly, sensual, devilish” (Gen 2:7; 1Cor 15:48-49; Jam 3:15-16). This domain is not surrendered without a “war in heaven”. Everyone who hears and stands for the words of truth (symbolised also by Michael and his angels) knows about this war on an intimate level (Matt 13:18-23). But as the parable of the sower shows, the spiritual war (of words) will be won by those who fight on the side of the Word of truth, Jesus Christ. The natural man has not been equipped with spiritual weapons to make war or to resist the devil. That is why the first man Adam and his generation cannot “stand” against the deception or “rule” of the subtle serpent. To resist this “old serpent” takes the “faith of Jesus Christ” and that only came in the “last Adam” by God’s original design, “before the foundation of the world” (John17:24; 1Pet 1:19-21).

Eph 6:12-17 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [in heaven]. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Only through this last Adam we can submit to God:

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

1Pe 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as aroaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

We only overcome Satan’s “wiles” with spiritual weapons supplied by God through His Word, which is His spirit (John 6:63):

2Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Eph 6:11-12 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. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heaven [our minds].

The residents of the city of Capernaum in Galilee (a type of spiritual Babylon in us), were also high-minded when they saw the physical miracles in their “region and shadow of death” (Mat 4:13-25). All will see that all fleshly things link with death:

Luke 10:15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell [Greek: “hadēs” = grave].

God looks at the hearts (the mind / the invisible heavens) and He is working towards a new heart (“new heaven”) for each one that is first filled with a carnal mind (“old heaven”). A changed heart is scriptural talk of how Satan “falls” from heaven (2Cor 5:17; Eze 11:19; Rom 12:1-2). This is how we use the “Name of Jesus” to cast out devils as we abide in or do His doctrine:

Joh 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

This “new heaven” comes through a humbling process of God’s fiery judgement:

Rev 12:3-4 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third [the number three symbolises process of judgement] part of the stars [messengers/angels] of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

At one time Jesus sent out seventy disciples and when they returned with joy and reported to Jesus that they have subjected devils (“the dragon…and his angels”) in His Name, Jesus affirmed them and acknowledged what they did when they proclaimed the truth of His Word. Listen how He describe that event…

Luk 10:17-19 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils [Greek: “daimonion”] are subject unto us through thy name. 18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions [false doctrines], and overall the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

The subjection of Satan and his angels [Greek: “daimonion”] is how Satan and his angels are cast from heaven – when his lies are replaced by the truth IN OUR MINDS. It is indeed wonderful to experience, but Jesus gives a warning about that too. This is clear that the “fall from heaven”of Satan which Jesus described here was not a historic event at the time, but actually telling us the process of sanctification when the lies in our minds are replaced by the truth of God’s Word:

Joh 17:17-19 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Eph 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

This process of sanctification but should be happening daily until the end (1Cor 15:31; Acts 17:10-13; Acts 14:22; Phil 3:10-15; Rev 17:14). This links with being seated with Christ in heaven and knowing His mind which is also not a once-off occasion (1Cor 2:16):

Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subjectunto you; but rather rejoice [now in the present], because your names are written in heaven.

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

(We will get to this theme of sanctification later on in this series, God willing.)

“Names written in heaven” is not only referring to having His mind and His “seat”, but it is also referring to the spiritual gift called “faith of Jesus Christ” by which we grow through trials (Eph 2:8; Rom 3:21; Gal 2:16; Gal 3:22). Through tried faith the fasting and praying is done when we “loose the bands” or “bind on earth”. Fasting is when we are being starved of evil and false doctrines by replacing them with the true doctrine of Christ. This is how evil spirits are cast out when Jesus’s truth is PRESENT:

Mat 17:14-21 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. 16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Fasting and prayer is to know Jesus and His Word of truth is present in our hearts, and the world and its thoughts/ideas/concepts/lies are not followed/rejected/cast out. That only happens through trials and tribulations. Then we rejoice in the trials and tribulations because those are the only means God uses to remove us from earthly lies and deceits and secure our “seat” in heaven (Matt 6:16-18; Matt 9:14-15). This is also the only way how we can minister to others truthfully! It all first happen IN heaven before it can manifest on earth!

Isa 58:6-7 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked,that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Mat 18:18 (CLV)  Verily, I am saying to you, Whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth shall be those loose in heaven.

Luk 10:33-34 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

It is all done in heaven (our minds) first before it is done on earth (Matt 6:10). Because God caused or worked all things in our heavens first, this enables us to work out our own salvation as we bind the spiritual wounds left by false teachings with His Word and true doctrine, also in others (Phil 1:27; Phil 3:20; 1Tim 4:12; Heb 13:5; Jam 3:15; 1Pet 3:1):

Php 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God will eventually destroy Satan in the lake of fire and that is where all those with a carnal mind will be saved through God’s fiery words (Isa 65:25; Jer 5:14; Rom 8:6; 1Cor 3:13-15). Satan, like all in the first man Adam, has a carnal mind which is death (Rom 8:6). But all death will be “swallowed up in victory”, even taken up in the spiritual life of Jesus Christ (1Cor 15:54-55). There will certainly be “no more death”:

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [for the eons of the eons].

Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

That is why the last Adam, Jesus Christ, was appointed by God to destroy ALL the works of the devil when they have concluded their purposes eventually:

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus will be 100% successful!