Gather round dear friends and hear my story if you will.... A story that might make you think... that might make you angry... or might make you
laugh...
Either way its just a story...
take it as you will
Told to be the most subtle of all creatures, The snake makes some interesting appearances within the pages of the bible. Revelation defines "the
snake" as Satan specifically...
Revelation 20:2
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
So now that this symbolization is known for my story... Lets go back a few years....
Waaaaay, back.... To where our story begins... written millenia ago...
A story of a women in a garden....
Genesis 3
3 Now the serpent 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?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
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.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
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.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
..............
Here we have a ni
eve (ironic?) woman being "beguiled" (as paul put it) by a talking snake... tempting her to eat of the tree of forbidden
fruit that "God" placed in the garden...
Now obviouly a talking snake is ludicrous, but lets not focus on the fairytales here, this is about the symbolization of the snake (previously defined
as satan)
So...we fast foward a few thousand years... To a man called a prophet of God... Who led his people out of Egypt, to the land of milk and honey (which
by the way, he never made it to) They traveled the desert for a certain time led by this man, until they came to what was called "the mountain of God"
where he ascended to the peak... And saw a burning bush... and a voice called out his name... Moses...
.............
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid
to look upon God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I
know their sorrows;
...............
And the voice told him to go to pharoh... and tell him to let my people go.... But moses was afraid and didn't believe he could possibly say such
things to the ruler of Egypt...
But the voice shows him a sign.... even a
Symbol of his power....
.........
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto
thee.
2 And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
3
And he said. Cast in on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and he became a SERPENT; and Moses fled from before it.
4 And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his
hand:
..............
During thier time around this mountian this voice gave Moses the commandments of God... one of which happened to be...Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
So we continue our journey with Moses, leading his people away from the mountian and back into the desert... eventually his followers got tired of
following Moses, and began to speak against him and this God that spoke to him on the mountian...
................
4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of
the way.
5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread,
neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
..............
This angered this God... And he sought revenge against these people...
.................
6 And the Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
..................
And the people were afraid, and went to moses again... wondering how they could end the torment of this God....
And this God spoke onto Moses again saying....
No worries about that commandment i gave you...
................
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.
And the people were saved once again from this God... and his Wrath...
Many years later another man spoke of serpents... and a generation of "Vipers"...
But that is a different story...
Perhaps one for another night...
Thanks for listening to me tell my tail.... (Im a cat... get it?
)
Hope you enjoyed it
edit on 9-10-2012 by Akragon because: (no reason given)