Call of the Wild - Lesson 2 - Serpents

Blessings and Prayer Requests
My thoughts here are if you ask for a prayer request
I feel we should also here a blessing from you.

I also warn you that I will not pray for anyone’s cat that has diarrhea.
As for unsaved loved ones I believe we are only allowed to pray for their salvation.
But that is open for discussion.

I also believe this class should start to have an identity of its own.
In terms of helping others and reaching out.

I want to keep track of our prayer requests and will ask for updates.
I also think we should pick one or a few couples
to pray for that we want to see in this class.

Genesis 3:1-15, ‘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? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 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. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 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. 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. 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. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 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: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’

It appears a snake used to be able to walk and talk.
I have heard stories that some of the larger snakes actually have toes and fingernails
inside their body cavities and can be seen on snake skeletons.
Possibly left there by the Lord.

In going through this lesson we will be learning how we are not to act.
How we are not to be.

I don’t want us going over these verses to justify our selves or our own actions.
I don’t want us to go over these lessons and say, ‘that’s just like that person at work.’
This is for us.

We will either be saying one of three things.

- I’m glad I’m not like that any more.
- I still struggle in that area.
- I thank the Lord I have not had to suffer with that.


Serpent

Matthew 10:16, ‘Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.’

Sounds like another word we use in this class quite often, balance…





The serpent is represented as cautious to excess, being full of astuteness,
and the dove is simple, even to stupidity,
but Jesus Christ corrects the cunning of the serpent,
by the simplicity of the dove.

2Corinthians 11:3, ‘But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.’

Comments…





Psalm 140:1-3, ‘Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.’

How might someone think we are a snake?





I can tell a snake by their distinctive ‘hiss.’
Might someone know us by what comes out of our mouth?
Might we even betray ourselves with our own mouth?

Matthew 12:34, ‘O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’

Here’s what I think about.
Someone who drinks blames his or her actions on the alcohol.
When I was a drunkard I would do what I wanted,
What I plotted and what I planned.
And if and when I got caught I would blame it on the alcohol

What about when something evil or hurtful leaves our mouth?
What do we say, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.’

This verse seems to tell us otherwise.
If it comes out of your mouth you heart is full of the same.
You have been thinking and pondering on it for quite some time.

Can you elaborate?





Adder

Psalm 58:2-5, ‘Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder [that] stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.’

I believe this snake is mostly deaf.
Charmers would distract the snake so it would not bite someone or themselves.
Here this mostly deaf snake would not waste
what little hearing it has left on the charmer.
It would go about its business and bite if it wanted to.

Earlier we spoke about one of our favorite words, ‘balance.’
This word is probably, ‘what is in our heart.’

Do you have any comments here?





Sadly enough here is another verse I can comment on.
Why did I drink?
Why did or do any of us drink?
Why do we harm ourselves in any way?

Sin is pleasurable for a season.
Are we trying to punish ourselves with smoking or drinking,
like a form of slow suicide?
Are we hiding from something?
I would drink so I didn’t have to think about work tomorrow
or my finances.

Proverbs 23:29-35, ‘Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.’

Why do we put ourselves through this?

Asp

Romans 3:9-14, ‘What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:’

What do I want to learn from this lesson and I hope we can all learn?
I don’t want to be like everyone else.
I believe we are more alike the world than we are different.

I want people to look at us and say there is something different about them.
And say that in a way where they want what we have.

- Does the world want a marriage like ours?
- Does the world want children like ours?
- Does the world want friends like ours?

Closing thoughts…

Do we ever give the world reason to want to be like us?
‘Or do they say, I’m glad I’m not like them.’
‘Why would I ever want to go to church?’

Did we learn anything about serpents?




next chapter

back to index