I rolled right over the serpent in the road today. I looked in my rear view mirror and decided to back up for a closer look. There was the snake, writhing in pain. I hadn’t braked when I rolled over him, but my tires had still done some damage. It didn’t look like a rattler, but I went over him a couple more times while applying the brakes – and then once in reverse. Then he was in a mangled ball. I’m pretty sure he’s a goner.
So, there you have it. I killed the serpent. The great Satan is dead. I wonder what that means for the future of the human race and this planet. Will the other fallen angels (demons) commit suicide now? Will they surrender to God’s judgment and be cast into the fiery lake at once? Will bacteria stop randomly attacking people and plants and animals? Will the fallen creation be righted? What, if anything, will fill the vacuum left behind now that Satan is out of the picture? Will childbirth be better for women? Will farming become easier and less sweat-inducing toil? Will evil cease to exist? Will there be peace on earth? Will there be any need for the police?
Will I get a medal for this?
Wouldn’t it be crazy if it were that easy? While Satan somehow took the appearance or incarnation of a serpent in the Garden of Pleasure way back when (I’m gonna venture a guess and say a little over 6,000 years), we know that he was a fallen angel and the snake I ran over today wasn’t really him. It’s an interesting thought to speculate on, though, huh?
I had an old friend tell me once that Satan appeared to him. He said, “I nearly (bleep) my pants.” He didn’t say “poop” and his language was pretty much clean all the time, so the use of profanity was perhaps used to underline the seriousness of his fear. He said the devil told him that he was going to be used to bring division to the body of Christ. What a horrible message to hear, huh? It’s debatable whether or not this came true. My friend went through some real gnarly times long after that, with some terrible choices and wicked fall-out as a result. I don’t know if he was telling me the truth or not, but I sort of believe him. Not that it really matters much.
Many preachers have made the statement that warns us not to take extremes when it comes to the devil. “Don’t dwell on him too much,” they’ll say, “and neither dismiss him as non-existent or harmless, either.” That’s good advice. The Bible tells us in Jude:
“In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals – these are the very things that destroy them.”
Someone may say, “But yeah, Michael the archangel is not filled with the Holy Spirit!” That’s a good point, but I don’t know if I want to argue with Jude, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, according to Scripture, to write this portion of Scripture; or argue with Michael the archangel, either. I’ll take a cautious approach. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and having the authority of a believer in Jesus and being known by Him makes for a powerful ambassador of God’s kingdom that can certainly stand up and resist the devil’s schemes and, if need be, cast such an evil spirit out of someone.
Wow, did you think when you logged onto the internet today that you’d read about devils and demons and snakes and things?
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