Help! There's A Snake In My Garden! Series

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” [1]

You will not hear many sermons in which a snake is central to the message. And it is especially true that you won’t hear many sermons during the Advent Season in which that ancient serpent is the focus of the message. The message today will be an exception to what is undoubtedly the rule. While we may hear the odd sermon about the old serpent, the devil, for the most part sermons in which the devil figures prominently are few and seldom heard in the sacred precincts of contemporary churches.

Few people are enamoured of serpents. Candidly, it does seem that most people can tell themselves that snakes don’t mean to harm them, but somehow the message never seems to reach the feet. There are some snake handlers who make a valiant effort to encourage us to appreciate snakes and to ensure us of the necessity of these creatures in our world. Nevertheless, while most of us will grudgingly agree there may be an ecological benefit of the presence of snakes, few of us wish to invite them into our home. There is a dark mistrust of snakes deep within the heart of most people. That mistrust must be overcome before any of us could ever become an apologist for herpetology.

I wonder if the origin of our deep mistrust of serpents lies buried deep in the history of mankind. I wonder whether the guise adopted by the wicked one when he tripped up our first mother, and through her brought the race into ruin, is the basis for our almost universal fear of serpents.

TEMPTATION — We have all heard the story describing the seduction and subsequent fall of our first mother. We may tell ourselves that we wouldn’t have fallen for that line, but we fall for other, less subtle lines. “If only he (or she) was my spouse, I would be happy.” “If I only had that job, I would earn enough to give regular gifts to my church.” “If I could just live in a bigger house, I could invite the neighbours to join me in church.” Where do such fantasies originate? Certainly not from the Spirit of Christ, Who teaches us to say, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” [PHILIPPIANS 4:11b].

Prompting His servants to reveal the mind of the Lord resident in their life, the Spirit of Christ has also ensured that all who follow the Master have been taught that, “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” [1 TIMOTHY 6:6-8].

Allow me to cite one further instance when the Spirit of the Lord has endeavoured to instruct us as His people to avoid falling into the trap of thinking that wealth is the answer to the great needs we imagine in our life. We read in the Letter to Hebrew Christians, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” [HEBREWS 13:5]. And we yet find ourselves in a mad race to accumulate more money, even sizing our perceived stature against others by how much they earn. It is one of the first questions we ask when we meet someone: “How much do you earn?” And if we aren’t asking, we are silently judging one another by the toys we have squirreled away in our houses and garages.

We cannot blame God for the temptations that rise up before us in our lives. James cautions each of us who are Christians, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” [JAMES 1:13-15].