Would You Believe A Talking Serpent?

We’re discussing some verses found in the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible.  Our primary purpose in this is to better understand, not only the problems which mankind finds itself in today, that is the overwhelming consequences of sin, but more importantly the solution which the Bible prescribes.  We’ve mentioned in previous programs, quoting from Genesis, that when God created everything, everything was very good, that is perfect in every way, but then sin entered His creation through disobedience.

We’re looking at the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin against God as we pick up with verse 9 in Genesis 3:  “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.”  Verse 11:  “And He (that is, God) 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.”  Dave, this is a very different Adam and Eve that we know about previous to sin.  Major things happened here, big changes took place.

Dave:

Well, they are alienated from God, first of all.  They have a guilty conscience before God; they are not comfortable in God’s presence.  They are being dishonest, they are trying to hide from Him, and they can’t be open with Him anymore. They really lost fellowship because they have disobeyed Him, and the whole relationship now has changed, they are rebels, they are sinners.

Tom:

Yeah, and Dave, its affected, or we are going to get on with more of these verses, but you can see right off, Verse 12, its affected their relationship, that is Adam’s relationship with Eve.  He’s laying the blame on her, this is self, self has risen, self preservation has come to the fore here.

Dave:

Not only is he blaming her, but he is also blaming God, “the woman that You gave me, God it’s all your fault, You gave me this woman and she’s the one that led us into this.”

Tom:

Verse 13:  “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.”  Well, she’s laying the blame off here on this entity who seduced her.  In other words, the problem is not with her.

Dave:

Yeah, Tom, maybe we need to deal with the serpent for a moment, we probably have in the past, I can’t remember.

Tom:

It’s good to repeat some of these things.  

Dave:

Somebody, first of all, could say, I mean, this is obviously a myth.  We talked about the Bhagavad-Gita, you call a myth, what about this, the talking serpent?  Well, it’s not so mythological after all because we have our modern scientists trying to talk with porpoises.  We have the North American Indians, Native American Indian religion for example, and they talked to all kinds of animals.  This is an idea that is very current today.

Tom:

But that doesn’t make it true, or a reality.

Dave:

I’m not saying it’s true but you can see the truth of this story, this is history.  Because the very idea that serpents could talk, the very idea that you could commune with nature, hug trees and so forth comes right out of here, and it is still here today.  Furthermore, serpent worship, you know the Bible identifies the serpent as the bad guy; this is one of the forms Satan likes to take.  The Bible says that right up front, right at the beginning, you find serpent worship everywhere.  So again, you see the validity of this story, and you see how all the world’s religions, not only are contrary to the Bible, but they have inherited this error that arose at the very beginning.

Tom:

But Dave, to clarify this a little more, we know this took place because God’s Word lays it out, and God’s Word.  We’ve talked over and over again about the evidences that this Word is true.  So what you have is a created being in the form of Satan.  You have him—

Dave:

Who has no body of his own, he’s a spirit being.

Tom:

Right, but he through this animal communicates to Eve, that’s what it says.

Dave:

And animal communication—the point I’m making, Tom, you will find it in all the pagan religions—not to say that it actually happens.  Well, according to the Bible, they’re not talking to animals at all.

Tom:

I guess what I missed was you’re saying this deception which began in the Garden of Eden, it was a reality, [and] it was a deception.  But it has been promoted down through history through all other religions and this is where it began.

Dave:

Absolutely, and the Bible says this opened the door to error and evil, and yet we have pagan religions going to the same source.  The witch doctor, the shaman tries to find a power animal, maybe a coyote, or a jaguar, or whatever, you know, and they believe they are getting wisdom through this.  So all I’m saying is, Tom, we have this being repeated today, and we can only conclude that the same source is behind it all.  In fact, Satan somehow likes to identify himself as the serpent.  We were talking about Hinduism earlier, Shiva, you mentioned Shiva, his hair is entwined with serpents. Yoga is depicted as a wrath made out of cobras with which you journey to the other side, to moksha.  You find serpent worship, the Hopi Indians for example, and in India serpent worship.  So I think we can see that this is a very factual story because it’s history because we have the effects of it still today, and perpetuating the same results.

Tom:

Dave, to repeat again, the reason we’re looking at Genesis is to better understand what the problem is today.  And again, if there is a problem there has to be a solution.  Now we are going to get to that in some later verses.  But the thing I want to look at right now is, before man disobeyed he was in fellowship, in a relationship with God.  God said, The day you eat of the fruit, in other words, the day you disobey me, you will surely die.  And that death had to do with, first of all, with man’s relationship with God.  We’re seeing changes here, but they are still communicating with God.  What is this separation from God that death brings about?  

Dave:

Well Tom, we need to discuss death, life or death, I guess.  Jesus said I am come that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly.  He’s saying that to living people, people who are alive.  The Bible says that we are dead in trespasses and in sin.  It says that to people who are physically alive.  We don’t even know what life is.  Basically our bodies are made of chemicals, metals and potassium and oxygen and carbon and so forth.  How does it get life?  No scientist can tell you what life, even physical life really is.  The Bible says God made man out of the dust of the ground, analyze your body, from dust you are to dust you return, that’s what we are.  But it says God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.  Now, the life that man had came from God.  It brought man into a relationship with God.  Man was made in the image of God, not that God has hands and feet, he’s not a physical being, God is a Spirit, Jesus said in John 4.  But man was created in a moral image of God, so that he could understand truth.  He could love, he could recognize justice and holiness and so forth and be in fellowship with God.  Now when he rebelled against God he died spiritually.  I believe that the Spirit of God removed itself from the spirit of man, and there was a chasm between now.  Even the physical life that God gave man came from the spiritual life of God within man, and when man was cut off from God, he began to die physically.  He is already dead spiritually, separated from God, he begins to die physically.  

Tom:

But Dave, what I want you to explain is, he’s separated from God spiritually, but here we have God in the garden, he is still communicating, how does it relate to that?  Sometimes you would think, well, they are cut off from God, they are separated spiritually, and God is just never going to talk to them, never going to communicate, never going to appeal to them and then people would tell you that, but that’s not true.

Dave:

Tom, have you ever had a misunderstanding between you and Peggy?

Tom:

Yes, with my wife too.

Dave:

 I can remember the first one we were just engaged, one month before our wedding, and I went over to see her, and we talked about it, there was a barrier between us.  It didn’t mean that we couldn’t orally communicate, we’re communicating but we’re not on the same wave length, there’s something wrong, something has come between us and it has to be made right.  Yes, God can come down, He talks to Adam and Eve, He talks through His Word, He sends His prophets, and so forth, but there’s a barrier between God and man.

Tom:

And this barrier we know if it’s a separation from God at death, the barrier stays, and these people are no longer in the presence of God, and there is no communication, isn’t that true?

Dave:

That’s right, they would be with themselves.  It’s going to be a lonely time, self will be supreme finally, this is what many people want and this is where self had it’s awful birth in the garden of Eden.  So there would be a separation that would be final, but at this point God is still trying to draw man back to himself.

Tom:

Well we are going to pick up with this next week.