Tag Archives: Serpent

THE GREAT DECEPTION

Bible Study, ,

Genesis 3:1, 4-5 NLT‬
[1] “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
[2] “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. [3] “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
[4] “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. [5] “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

What was this all about? In a subtle way, Satan, masquerading as “light”, introduced to the first human pair the greatest deception ever perpetrated on humankind.

The devil’s ambition was to replace God as the sovereign of the universe. He tried this ploy before the beginning of time but God very smartly put him in his place.

‭Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT‬
[12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. [13] For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. [14] I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ “

Who is this ‘shining star, son of the morning’?

According to Scripture, God created an order of spirit beings whom He called ‘gods’, sometimes ‘sons of God’ or ‘princes’, to whom He assigned the nations over which to govern in partnership with Him.

‭Deuteronomy 32:8 NLT‬
[8] “When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court.”

This is an amazing insight into God’s heavenly parliament. Each of His ‘cabinet minsters’ in His ‘heavenly court’ was given a nation to govern under His authority. Daniel’s prayer, in Daniel 10, refers to a being called ‘the Prince of Persi’ who fought against Michael, one of God’s chief angels. This ‘prince’ must have been Persia’s ruler.

A high-ranking member of God’s angelic divine counsel, eventually called ‘Satan’, meaning ‘adversary’, led a rebellion against God and was cast out of heaven, taking with him those angelic beings who sided with him.

‭Ezekiel 28:12-17 NLT‬
[12] “Son of man, sing this funeral song for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. [14] I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. [15] “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. [16] Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. [17] Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.”

Was this ‘king of Tyre’, possibly the angel assigned to rule over Tyre, the one who led the rebellion?

God has pronounced His judgment on the heavenly rebels, assigning them to eternal death, as He did the human race, because of their rebellion.

‭Psalms 82:1-2, 6-7 NLT‬
[1] God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings: [2] “How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked?…
[6] I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High. [7] But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’ ”

God created a man and a woman in His image, to begin to populate the earth with the human race. He decreed that they would manage His planet with and for Him, and eventually take over the function of the rebellious heavenly beings in God’s divine counsel.

‭Daniel 7:27 NLT‬
[27] “Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him.”

‭Genesis 1:26-28 NLT‬
[26] “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” [27] So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. [28] Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

He gave mankind authority to manage the physical creation, excluding the nations which were under the rule of the gods, princes, sons of God…His heavenly council,

The plan was working well until….

this Satan, now functioning on the planet God prepared for His human family, disguised as a serpent, and determined to undermine God’s authority and position over creation, approached His human representative on earth, Adam, through his wife, Eve, with a subtly disguised deception….

“Perhaps God didn’t mean what He said”!

And a counter offer,

“You can be like God, make your own rules, and live without Him!”

True, they could, but Satan didn’t tell them the small print. God said they would die if they disobeyed Him. Satan said they wouldn’t die. Instead they, like God, would have experiential knowledge of good and evil.

Here is the subtle deception. God made man LIKE HIMSELF with His life in them. Humans were able to know and have fellowship with Him and live in harmony with Him and His creation through His Spirit in them.

Satan offered them a likeness, not to God but, without saying so, to himself, apart from God, without God and all that He is, cut off from God, and trying to be God. The devil offered man a life that was completely independent of God, so-called ‘free’ from God’s authority and, so they thought, of accountability to Him.

This offer sounded attractive, so they fell for it. Of course, Satan didn’t tell them that they were now at his mercy, under his influence, and subject to the same consequences of disobedience to God as he was.

Simply because he said so, Satan could not cancel the death sentence.

‭Romans 6:23 NLT‬
[23] “For the wages of sin is death…”

Satan has control over the world system which is dominated by selfishness and greed. Everyone without God, dead to God and without His Spirit in them, lives under his influence. He keeps people in the dark by continuing to lie to them with his great deception,

“You don’t need God. You can be God,”…

just as he chose to do when he rebelled. Since he lost his bid to unseat God, he was determined to ruin God’s plan for the human race by claiming authority he did not have and luring them away from union with God.

‭2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT‬
[4] “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

Independence, the great deception, still rules in the hearts of all people. Until, by God’s gracious intervention, His mercy extended to those who believe what He says, everyone is spiritually dead and under His eternal death sentence.

Only God can undo what Satan has done…ansd He did, through His own Son, Jesus.

Stated very simply…

‭John 3:16 NLT‬
[16] “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

THE SNAKE ON A POLE… 7

Bible Study, ,

John 3:14 NIV‬
[14] “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up… “

What a strange symbol Jesus used about Himself! Is there some hidden meaning in this picture of a snake on a pole?

Nicodemus, as a trained religious leader, would have been familiar with the stories of Israel’s journey through the wilderness. Every detail would have been etched on his mind through years of reading and study. Every word would have been scrutinised to draw out all the nuances of its meaning.

However, his encounter with Jesus would add something completely foreign to his understanding. A man, lifted up like a snake on a pole! What could Jesus be talking about?

Nicodemus also knew the title Son of Man. After all, the son of man appears in the Old Covenant, the Tanach, with at least two connotations.

First, God addressed the prophet, Ezekiel, throughout his writings, as the son of man, a frail mortal, yet one God chose to deliver a stern message to His people.

Second, Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7 puts a completely different slant on the title “son of man.” Far from its flavour of frail humanity, Son of Man elevates a specific human, the Son of Man, to a position of unique authority, none other than God’s Messiah, and Nicodemus would have understood this.

‭Daniel 7:13-14 NLT‬
[13] “As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. [14] He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.”

“Lifted up” would also have been a familiar practice in Nicodemus’ religious system. Part of the ritual of the first-fruits offering, the “terumah “, the first portion of the harvest, was to “lift it up” to God as an offering to Him, signifying the promise of what was yet to come.

Jesus was obviously using the symbol of the serpent “lifted up”, not as a reference to the serpent’s nature but as a symbol of healing for those who looked at the snake after being bitten by a fiery serpent.

The Greek word, hupsos, translated “lifted up” has the connotation of being elevated or exalted. It means more than the simple act of lifting up. It carries the idea that the terumah offering was an exalted offering to God.

‭Leviticus 23:10 NLT‬
[10] “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest….
[20] “The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the Lord, together with the loaves representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the Lord, belong to the priests.

The concept behind “lifting up”, also translated “wave offering” or “heave offering”, was an offering dedicated to the Lord and honouring to Him.

‭Proverbs 3:9 NIV‬
[9] “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;”

So, in those two words, was Jesus referring to the spiritual counterpart to the serpent incident in Israel’s history? In God’s economy, nothing happens without meaning. Israel’s sin, which allowed the serpents to bring God’s judgment, led to a solution that became a picture of His salvation from sin.

‭John 3:14-15 NLT‬
[14] And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [15] so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

Now let’s look at Jesus’ words to Nicodemus again. Nicodemus’ question to Jesus was…

John 3:9 NLT‬
[9] “How are these things possible?”…

Born again?
Born from above?
Born of the Spirit?

Jesus’ response…

“You have to look in faith at the Son of Man, God’s Messiah, who will be lifted up on a pole as a “terumah offering,” that honours God and guarantees the complete harvest.”

Now let’s see how the Apostle Paul completes the picture.

‭1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NIV‬
[20]”But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [21] For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. [22] For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. [23] But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”

What an amazing revelation of God’s rescue plan!

A snake on a pole tells the story in a nutshell. A man, lifted up to die on a torture stake, but so much more! God’s Messiah, put to death on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sin, becomes an acceptable sacrifice, and the firstfruits of the resurrection.

All who gaze at Him in faith are miraculously delivered from judgment and death, transferred out of Satan’s domain into the kingdom of God, and transformed inside, all by the power of God’s Spirit.

All who believe will be included in the harvest of the resurrection, of which Jesus was the “terumah” offering, the firstfruits which guarantees the full harvest.

‭John 12:24 NLT‬
[24] “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
[32] And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” [33] He said this to indicate how he was going to die.”

I wonder whether Nicodemus “got it”.