The Only Good Snake

The Only Good Snake…

Genesis 3:15/ Galatians 4:4-5

Finish this statement…

“The only good snake… _is_a_dead_snake_”

The best snake to kill? Poisonous

Today is a very important day… the first Sunday in Advent…

Advent comes from the Latin word for “Coming” or “Visitation”

In the Christian church it is the season of expectant waiting and preparation

You could say that today kicks off the Christmas season… at least for the church.

Advent is a four week season that is designed to help Christians to remember the long, long wait of the Jewish people… who were waiting for the coming of the Messiah.

Each week we mark the wait by lighting one of the four candles on the outside of the Advent wreathe. Each candle has a special theme which we will celebrate that day.

Today we lit the candle of HOPE.

The Jewish people expected the Messiah to come with power and be a mighty warrior.

They were in hope that the Messiah would come as a political/military deliverer who would deliver Israel from the bonds of servitude to foreign powers.

The thought of the Messiah… the long awaited Savior coming as a helpless infant… was laughable and repugnant… not to mention VERY DISAPPOINTING.

All of those years of waiting, all of the expectation, the dreams, the promises… and this is what they get???

The Long Wait

How long had they waited. How many years do we symbolize with the Advent season?

Was it 400 years… the number of years that make up what we call the “Inter-Testamental” period… the period of time between the last word or message from God in the Old Testament

From the last message given by the last OT prophet, Malachi (430BC) to John the Baptizer, (c. 2 BC) God was silent. He had grown weary of sending message after message, prophet after prophet, warning after warning and call after call. The Jews refused to heed His call or listen to His threats. They persisted in their idolatrous and stiff-necked ways.

So… God decided to get their attention another way… silence.

For roughly 400 years, God said nothing, answered no prayers, sent no dreams, no miracles, no anything.

They looked to the skies, they prayed, they fasted, they begged, they did acts of penance… BUT NOTHING

Until one day, word came to a man named Zechariah, that his wife would bear a son and he was to be named John. John would be to one to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.

Ironically, when God does decide to speak, after a 400 year silence, Zechariah is doubtful and God punishes him by making him mute until the baby is born…. More silence…. Go figure.

So had they waited 400 years?

Or was it almost 750 years… the period of time from the fall of Israel into the hands of the Assyrians.

Another of the disobediences of the Jews…

The Israelites had become a vassel state… paying tribute… protection money really to the new world power and political bully, Assyria. Soon the yolk of the tribute became too heavy and the King of Israel sought an ally in the king of Syria. Together they thought they could fend off the Assyrian bully.

God was angered that Israel had placed their faith in their political alliance with Syria rather than trusting in Him… so he allowed the Assyrians to utterly destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel.

It was essentially the end of the nation of Israel (until 1947 AD)

So they had waited 750 years for the Messiah to deliver them??

Actually, The period of waiting was much, much more than 750 years, more than 2000 years… the waiting refers to an even that happened way, way, way back in the Garden of Eden… long, long before there was a nation of Israel.

Back there in the Garden of Eden, in paradise…. One day Eve was walking in the Garden… this may be the very first recorded shopping trip. While Eve was looking at the beautiful things of the garden, perhaps choosing a meal… she had a run in with Satan.

Satan took on the form of a serpent… a snake! He slithered up to Eve and said, “Hey… Eve… over here… wouldn’t you like one of these?”

He was referring to the fruit of the tree of knowledge. One of two trees that God had told Eve were OFF LIMITS.

Long story short…Eve listens to the serpent

NEWS FLASH*** No matter where you are or what you are doing… if a serpent starts talking to you… THAT IS NOT GOOD!!!

Not only did Eve sin… she led Adam to sin.

NEWS FLASH #2 - When we sin God is NOT a happy camper

And “When God ain’t happy…. Ain’t NOBODY happy”

God came to the Garden and began to ask questions