The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (NLT)
Last week I saw a local news story that has completely ruined lake swimming and boating for me for the rest of my entire life. A video from Lake Pleasant showed a rattlesnake swimming up to a boat and slithering its way onto the swim platform.
A couple of years ago, boating with friends at this same lake, we spotted a swimming poisonous serpent. Many of my non-boating friends questioned the validity of my story, saying “Rattlesnakes don’t swim!”
According to the above scripture in Genesis, The Creation story tells us that the Serpent that deceived Adam and Eve actually talked to them – which was how he so easily convinced them to question the edicts of God.
There is much debate about whether the serpent in Genesis 3 is, in fact, Satan. It’s simply assumed. Being that I am no theologian, I am unqualified to make absolute pronouncements regarding this story. After some research though, the book of Revelation points towards that assumption.
This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Revelation 12:9 (NLT)
Satan or serpent?? I despise both. If the Lord saw fit to give a voice to a deceptive reptile, then a swimming snake is completely plausible.
While snakes no longer have the capacity to speak audibly, that doesn’t mean that the enemy, the great deceiver, has lost his voice.
The “voice” of the enemy sometimes is the loudest voice in my head. At other times, he whispers seductively, encouraging me to do things which I know I should not. Early mornings, he grapples for a foothold early before my feet hit the floor by calling up long-forgotten, painful memories I’ve eradicated from my memory banks. I can’t help but wonder, where exactly does the enemy store these embarrassing, stupid mistakes of my past???
Satan’s primary goal is to steal, kill and destroy. Thank goodness, if we confess our sins to the Lord, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9 (NLT)
Not only does the Lord forgive us once we confess, Psalms 103:12 tells us “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”
I’m not interested in swimming with snakes and thanks to the Word of God, confession and repentance – I can ignore the voice of the serpent and believe I am saved, and I am forgiven.
We can have victory over the enemy if we confess our sins, trust in the Lord and believe that EVERYONE that calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!
Don’t listen to those negative voices. Choose instead to be an EVERYONE!
Blessings in Christ, Kathy K.
