Snakes.
Anyone
who knows me knows that I am a lover of birds. My veterinarian friend who lives
five houses south of me sarcastically complains he is not getting many birds
visiting his feeders because I have set up a smorgasbord birdfeeder in my
backyard! I told him that the reason for that is to attract different kinds of
birds. Where you place your birdfeeders is important, too! Human activity naturally
causes your avian guests to take to the air.
I
have a suet feeder, black oil sunflower seed feeder, proso millet feeder, a cracked
corn feeder, and a Nyjer feeder. I have a ground-hugging birdbath out of reach
of falling feed or sunflower hulls. My hummingbird feeder is stationed closer
to the house away from the main feeding station.
Long
before I put up my birding station, I was having trouble with birds building
nests on the interior side of my pillars on my front porch. Though I am fond of
birds, I do not want bird excrement all over my front porch. Robins, doves,
and some house finches love making a mess building their nests atop two of my
four pillars on the porch side. I have put up with it for several years now,
and I have finally had enough. Even though I am a friend of birds, I am going
to run off the free-nesters. I like birdwatching but not bird-droppings.
To
the present, I have been unable to stop the free-nesters. My brother-in-law recently
suggested putting rubber snakes inside the upper molding of the pillars. That
was a great suggestion that made sense to me, and an easy fix if it worked! He
claimed that it worked for him in stopping the birds from building nests on his patio and
elsewhere. I can hide the rubber snakes in the trough of the molding from view;
no one would know in the neighborhood that I am the only house with four rubber
snakes resting on top of his pillars, except the free-nesters. Maybe the birds
will get the word out that my porch is nothing more than a pit of snakes!
So,
I went to Wally’s the other night in search of some cheap rubber snakes and to
pick up a gallon of milk while I am there! What a grocery list, yes? Well, I
didn’t find any snakes for sale in the toy department; it looks to me that I
will be forced to go online to find my rubber snakes.
Returning
to my car with my gallon of milk and no snakes, I sat down in the driver’s
seat, where else right? Immediately, the Holy Spirit spoke to my mind before
cranking up the car, saying, write an article on “Snakes and Milk.” I didn’t
have to stop and say, “Is that you, Lord?” I get these kinds of directions quite
often; others develop during research or meditation or come to me out of the
clear blue, like “snakes and milk!” I thought to myself, “Yeah, this could work;
thank you, Lord!”
Before saying another thing, let me make this crystal clear; I am not
suggesting that I am some super-spiritual saint because the Holy Spirit is
directing me about something; I am not a “super saint.” I am a man of like
passion as Elijah, as you are, “subject to the same weaknesses and infirmities
as other men” (BBC, Jas 5:17). In the spirit of John the Baptist (Jn 3:30), I
see myself as a nobody, a sinner saved by the grace of God, serving Somebody.
As the old cliché goes, it is what it is.
You might be thinking, “And you said that the Holy Spirit directed you
to talk about ‘snakes and milk,’ really?” Yes! M-G is definitely not an ego
project with titles like that! If anything, it may suggest that I may have a need for some serious help; my friends always comment about me, “He’s not right!” But
seriously, I do this to help others as well as myself. Yahweh wants for you and
me to work the Word; in other words, to know it and put it to use in the daily
routine of doing His will (cf. Josh 1:8-9).
I
am going to make a sweeping generalization that probably holds true; more people
dislike snakes than those who like them. The same holds true of spiders! Snakes
are very amazing creatures and needed in maintaining our ecological balance.
Some snakes are striking in beauty (no pun intended). Unfortunately, people
ignorantly kill the good snakes along with those harmful to man.
Often, we take our aversion to snakes right into the Scriptures with us, especially when we read of the serpent (a.k.a., Satan) approaching Eve in the Garden (Gn 3:1); we know how that turned out, not so good. The Hebrew noun for serpent here in Gen 3 is nāḥāš. The context will determine if nāḥāš is referring to an actual snake, symbolic or figurative. Its root is the Hebrew verb, nāḥāš, meaning to whisper, enchant, practice divination. The usage of the verb form indicates wickedness. The noun form is exclusively translated 28 times (NJKV) as serpent/s. The first five occurrences of the word serpent in our English OT have reference to Satan in Genesis 3 (cf. Rev 12:9).
You
have certainly heard or read, “The only good snake is a dead snake.” In 2 Kings
18:4, King Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent (nāḥāš) that Moses made because the people of Judah turned it
into an idol, which was not the purpose for which Yahweh had intended – healing after being bitten by a fiery serpent in the wilderness (Num 21:7-8, 9;
cf. Jn 3:14)!
We
who are living in the 21st century must never forget that Satan, the
serpent of old, is very much alive and active. Read Peter’s words,
(1Pe 5:8) Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour.
(1Pe 5:9) Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
So,
if Satan walks
about in
Peter’s time in the first century, go back further and compare it to the time
of Job. The date of Job’s book is unknown, but conservative scholarship has the man Job living somewhere between being a contemporary of Abraham (~2000 B.C.) and before the time of Moses (~1525-1405 B.C.). From the book of Job, we see Yahweh asking Satan where he came from, and Satan replied, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking
back and forth on it, Job 1:7; 2:2. Cf. Psa 12:8, prowl: continuous, reiterative action [looping,
orbiting], a global prowling). This hungry lion along with his pride still has a taste for the blood
of the sons and daughters of Adam today, saved or lost. Lucifer, a.k.a, Satan, is
very dangerous, very powerful, and remains very much our archenemy.
This
snake of all snakes should never be underestimated. We all need to be aware and
alert to the false teachings of the various snakes of the snake of all snakes (Satan). Sound
teaching and the indwelling Holy Spirit protect true believers against
spiritual error. I am speaking to believers and not to the world. Why? Because the spirit of
the Antichrist is already in the world (1 Jn 4:3)!
(1Jn 4:4) You
are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you
is greater than he who is in the world.
(1Jn 4:5) They
are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world
hears them [not us because though we are in the
world, we are not of the world; cf. Jn 15:19].
(1Jn 4:6) We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Milk (1 Pet 2:2-3).
I am old school; I love whole milk; nothing less than whole will do for me, and I love ice-cold milk. Put cold whole milk in an ice-cold glass, and I am loving it! Surely you recall the old affirmation of the swearing-in of testimony in court,
“Do you swear to drink the whole milk, and nothing but the whole milk so help you God? I do.”
I have been a faithful witness ever since!
Now, when I discovered there were no rubber snakes being sold in Wally’s, I had
to go to the opposite end of the store to retrieve my whole milk! You may be a two-percenter
milk drinker; that’s okay with me, to each his own. But I want to briefly talk
about spiritually drinking the milk of the Word from the Scriptures.
Notice that Peter mentioned in 1 Pet 2:2, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of
the word (emphasis
mine).
This
is the natural response of a newborn baby of wanting nourishing milk from his/her
mother’s breast. Likewise, it is unnatural for a newborn believer (Jn 3:3) not
to long for the milk of the Word and satisfy that desire to be fed, yes? Throughout
the years, it is sad and not surprising whenever I see people who claimed to be
a Christian for decades but still sucking their thumb, spiritually speaking. They
were always in need of pablum for they could not digest the meat of the Word because, in spiritual reality, they were still thinking, saying, and acting like newborn babes in
Christ, in theory at least! I have also observed that they get offended quite easily.
Think about this scenario. You had a friend who bore a child twenty years ago, and it remained an infant. Would you not say to yourself, “There is something wrong
with that child?” You were thinking from an observational point of view and not
being judgmental. The same could be said of those claiming to be born again and
never growing, “There is something definitively wrong with this picture; this is not normal!” Read what
Paul said when he came across this situation: 1 Cor 3:1-3; Heb 5:12-14; carnality
reveals immaturity. MacArthur comments on the verb exercised in Heb 5:14,
“The person who has come to Christ for spiritual completion is then trained by the Word to discern truth from error and holy behavior from unholy.”
(2Tim 3:16) All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
(2Tim 3:17) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
I want you to think about something else; how in the world can the authority of the Scripture (inspired of God) be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous in our lives if the Word of God is not our rule of life and governing what we think, say, and do?
How can you and I be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work if the Scripture is not governing our life here in the present tense on terra firma? The answer is we cannot! If Scripture is not the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice in our lives, governing all that we think, say, or do, we can never be complete this side of eternity; we will remain ill-equipped (thumb-sucking), and fruitless. Our bringing glory to God will be severely limited.
Believers in such spiritual conditions are prime candidates to fall into spiritual error by listening to the snakes. Call it judgmental, if you will; but to me, it is a sad commentary of a life claiming to be redeemed and intentionally ignoring the Word of God. There are no lasting blessings or victory over sin in such a lifestyle!
I left Wally’s that evening knowing that until I put some rubber snakes up on top of my pillars, those free-nesters like the robins, the mourning doves, and the house finches are going to start nest-building sooner than later, and I will wind up with a messy porch once again when people come knocking on our front door.
In some ways, those “non-poisonous” rubber snakes will remind me to continue to put up a roadblock for the real snakes in the grass, the enemy of my soul and his underlings, demonic or human, in trying to make inroads into my spiritual vitality and diminish me in some ungodly way! Their objective is and has always been, to devour (1 Pet 5:8). Never forget that!
The enemy wants nothing more than to be able to inject a debilitating virus
of spiritual error into our spiritual bloodstream by filling our hearts and
minds with unsound teaching. The best way to combat that nonsense is knowing the
truth of Scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit as our Guide. That is not
going to happen as long as we are working the Word as our rule of life,
allowing it to govern every aspect of our life, not just a part. Thumb-sucking
is not going to cut it!
You may not be in need of some rubber snakes to chase off
free-nesters, but you certainly do not want to open the door of your heart out
of willful spiritual ignorance for Satan to nest ideas in your heart and mind through false teachers, hampering or inhibiting your ability to glorify Yahweh in the truth. This sinister, powerful angelic
being, called Satan, can transform himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13-15)
or into a beguiling serpent (Gn 3:1). He is a spiritual shapeshifter; there is no doubt.
Milk
to meat is the best way to combat spiritual error, and the best way to make
that transition in knowledge is by working the Word. The only way to do that is
to be in the Word, not just under it! <><
(2 Pet 3:17) You
therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also
fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
(2 Pet 3:18) but
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be
the glory both now and forever. Amen.
