Patrick Heron

When it comes to gleaning the truths of Scripture, I am a firm believer that the Word interprets itself when one allows it to do so. It is a feature of many parts of the Bible that it is written in figurative and/or metaphorical language which makes the plain understanding hard to elucidate by times. The Book of Revelation is the best example of this. For God has chosen to write this book in such a way that many of its secrets and mysteries have remained just that, almost two thousand years after it was penned. And that is God’s prerogative.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: But the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2

So it is in the matter of the Serpent of Genesis 3. It is our contention that the word ‘serpent’ is a figure of speech referring to Satan, who, Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 11:3, beguiled or deceived Eve. ‘And no wonder’, Paul continues, ‘for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light’. (NIV)

To present an illustration of how figures of speech can hide the true identity of the personages being referred to, we go to a difficult passage in Revelation chapter 9 which speaks of a time in the near coming Apocalypse when the Abyss will reveal its contents:

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given a key to the bottomless pit.

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the bottomless pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And there came out of the pit locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” Rev. 9:1-3

The question here is; what are these locusts and scorpions? No doubt many folks believe that these are literal locusts and literal scorpions, just as many believe that the serpent in Genesis 3 is a literal snake. But we shall now endeavour to show that this is indeed, not the case. One should always first look at where similar usages of words or phrases are used before, when trying to establish exactly what they mean. We turn to Luke 10 and the record of the 70 returning after Jesus had sent them out two by two into every town that he was going to visit. He sent them with this charge:

“Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” Luke 10:3

So immediately here He is using figures of ‘lambs’ and ‘wolves’ to describe the disciples and something else. Upon their triumphant return they proclaim:

“And the seventy returned again with joy saying, ‘Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name’.

And He said unto them, ‘I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to thread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20

Now let’s back up the truck for a moment and examine this more carefully. In these few verses we have several figures of speech using animalistic and insect names to refer to some other truth. We have lambs, wolves, serpents, and scorpions. To this you might add in the ‘locusts’ of Rev. 9. And what is the whole context of the above passage? It speaks of ‘devils’, of Satan ‘falling from heaven’, of ‘the power of the enemy’, it tells of ‘the spirits that are subject unto you’.

From this we can deduce that Jesus is speaking here of the Devil and his agents. Through His name the devils are subject to the disciples of Jesus. He gives us the power to thread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Further, He informs us that these devils and scorpions and serpents are spirits (‘rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you’). As I pointed out in my last essay, spirits are what we call ‘angels’ (Speaking of angels in Hebrews 2: 13, 14 we are told: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”). The nature of angels is ‘spirit’ as opposed to us human which are ‘flesh and blood’.

Back to Luke 10 and we have wolves, devils, serpents, Satan, the enemy, scorpions and the spirits, all referring to Satan and his evil spirit comrades, the fallen angels, and the power they wield on this earth. And you can add in the locusts of Revelation 9 to this list. For it is patently obvious to anyone with eyes to see, that all these terms are figures of speech which refer to the Devil and his angels who are the spirits, scorpions, locusts and serpents.

So now we know who and what is to emerge from the Bottomless Pit in the coming Apocalypse. It is those fallen angels of Genesis 6 who have been incarcerated there since the Flood of Noah. (I shall not elaborate on this here as I deal with this in great detail in my eBook, The Return of the Antichrist and the New World Order, at www.neph.ie).

For those who insist that the serpent of Genesis 3 is a snake, then I would ask you to extend that logic to the Luke 10 passage. This would mean that the seventy disciples became literal lambs who were sent out among literal wolves and who were in danger of getting bitten by scorpions or snakes (serpents) as they moved from town to town. Of course this is ludicrous but we must be consistent in our thinking patterns.

And by the same token, then Dan is a snake according to Gen. 49:17, Nero is called a lion in 2 Timothy 4:17, Herod is a fox (Luke 13:32), and Judah is called a ‘lion’s whelp’. These figures of speech show that something much more real and truer to truth is intended showing something much more real than the letter of the word. Thus the Hebrew word for serpent in Gen.3 is nacash (from the root Nacash, ‘to shine’), means ‘a shining one’. These accords with Paul in 2 Cor.11 where he defines the serpent as Satan who is ‘an angel of light’.

But what of Genesis 3:14, I hear you say? When God confronts the serpent He says;

“...upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust thou shalt eat all the day 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.”

Again we have more figures of speech employed here. God said He would put enmity, or hostility, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And that the seed of the serpent would ‘bruise the heel’ of the seed of the woman, while her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. In the New International Version of the Bible, referring to the seed of the woman, it says ‘he will crush your head’. Of course this verse is the first prophecy in scripture of the coming Messiah who would ultimately destroy the works of the serpent (Satan) while it also states that the Devil would bruise or strike the heel of the Messiah. This refers to the crucifixion when the ‘princes of this world’ (1 Cor. 2:8) murdered the Lord Jesus. But this striking of the heel is a non fatal attack to a non vital part of the body, the heel, as He was raised from death three days later. However, the serpent having his head crushed by the Messiah is a much more grievous injury in that it implies that all Satan’s plans and plots and schemes will one day be destroyed when finally he is cast into the Lake of Fire. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (NIV) Again, this is a figure of speech and does not mean our literal feet.

The point is; it is not speaking of the literal heel of Jesus neither is it speaking of the literal head of Satan. These are both figures of speech.

In the same way, ‘on thy belly shalt thou go’, is a figure which means more than a literal belly of a snake. It is describing the utter humiliation of Satan as he must crawl on his belly in submission before the Most High God because of his sin. The same truth applies to the words, “Dust shalt thou eat.” Snakes do not eat dust. But I will again defer to Appendix 19 of E W Bullinger’s Companion Bible for he makes the case more eloquently than I ever could:

“Dust thou shalt eat.” This is not true to the letter, or to the fact, but is all the more true to truth. It tells of constant, continuous disappointment, failure and mortification; as when deceitful ways are spoken of as feeding on deceitful food, which is “sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel” (Proverbs 20:17). This does not mean literal gravel, but something far more disagreeable. It means disappointment so great it would gladly be exchanged for the literal ‘gravel’. So when Christians are rebuked for ‘biting and devouring one another’ (Gal 3:14, 15), something more heart-breaking is meant than the literal words used in the Figure. When ‘his enemies shall lick the dust’ (Ps. 72:9), they will not do it on their knees with their literal tongues; but they will be so prostrated and so utterly defeated that no words could literally depict their overthrow and subjugation.

This is why Satan is quite content that the letter of scripture should be accepted in Gen. 3 as he himself accepted the letter of Ps. 91:11. He himself could say “It is written” (Matt 4:6) so long as the letter of what is written could be put instead of the truth that is conveyed by it; and so long as it is misquoted or misapplied.

This is his object in perpetuating the traditions of the ‘snake’ and the ‘apple’, because it ministers to the acceptance of his lie, the hiding of God’s truth, the support of tradition, the jeers of the infidel the opposition of the critics, and the stumbling of the weak in faith.”

In Acts 17:11 we are told that the Christians in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica, because they “received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so”. I have no problem changing my theology if someone can point out to me that I am in error and can plainly show me the truth of the Word. As workmen of the Word, we must be open and humble and ready to accept the simple truth of scripture, even of it means giving up ideas we have held for decades. Jesus once said; you cannot put new wine into old bottles. The serpent of Genesis 3 is Satan who is the Devil who is also figuratively called, the dragon. He is a bright shinning angel and masquerades as such. It is he who debated the Word of God with Adam and Eve in the garden and deceived them causing the fall by which death entered the world.

(You can download Patrick’s eBook, The Return of the Antichrist and the New World Order for just $5 at www.neph.ie).