Does anyone ever study what it really means to be “wise as serpents??” Alas, probably not nearly as much as we should be.
First of all, serpents are not literal snakes, nor are they simply a crafty and devious evil cartoon critter in a garden long ago. Serpents are “guardians of the temple, protectors of sacred places” pretty much throughout much of human history and mythology. The Bible is no different in how it uses the symbolism of serpents to convey ideas and communicate concepts. “Serpents” and “seraphim” are actually a transliteration of the same root word.
That’s what makes the fall in the garden so horrific, so vile, such a betrayal, because it was perpetrated, instigated by a, “guardian of the temple, a protector of sacred spaces.”
That is partially what it means to be “wise as serpents,” it is to be a “guardian of the temple, a protector of sacred spaces.” It has nothing to do with being crafty or manipulative or devious. It means to be alert and aware as to who you are and Whose you are, and what your job is.
“Seraphim” in Hebrew doesn’t mean to slither on the ground, it means to “burn with flame.” The Seraphim are guarding the Holy of Holies. Ha! They are not fire breathing dragons or flame throwers, either. The “flame” is not just a weapon, it is a Divine spark they are carrying within. They are the burning ones.
In John 3:14 Jesus says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” There is a lot more going on behind the whole concept of “serpents” than what meets the eye at first glance.
I really love John 3:12, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” I empathize deeply with God trying to communicate with us, trying to communicate with me! These are big ideas we have no real plane of reference for, no lived experiences to fully enable us to connect the dots. It’s like trying to download watermelon ideas into a pea brain.
God talking to us is a bit like trying to teach quantum mechanics to some grazing sheep. Given those conditions, I am constantly in awe of what a miracle it is that God can communicate with us at all, or that He even tries! The analogies Jesus draws for us in the Bible, the parables He tells, are just astounding. They are wise as to the nature of human beings.
Anyway, back here on earth, I was recently disappointed by a bunch of celebration about how the Supreme Court is now going to over throw Roe v Wade. I realize it is a heated emotional issue and that clouds our judgement, that clouds our vision. Just the same, we need to step away from feel good quick fixes and bandaid solutions. You can’t wipe off the outside of the cup and just call it good. The law does nothing to fix the condition of the heart. “There oughta be law” is so not the path to better morality and ethics! Also, the government should not be the vehicle from whence our values and healing come.
Also, this is such an obvious false flag, a blatant diversion, so transparent to the point of embarrassment, that it actually annoys me. They are putting barricades up and preparing for riots. The rule of all totalitarians is always, “separate, divide, control.” You create civil unrest and get the people fighting one another in the streets so they are no longer paying attention to what you are doing. So you first create a state of emergency, than you declare a state of emergency so as assert control, to be perceived as a great hero bringing order to chaos. Then you demonstrate to the people that you are the great defender, the sole protector of their rights. See, if it wasn’t for us fighting for you, you would lose all your abortion rights.
People really need to ask themselves, what conservative part of our Supreme court, what liberal lovers of the law have just woken up and suddenly felt Divinely inspired to set things right?? I mean, come on. There are no “accidental leaks” from the Supreme Court.
Left leaning people have been taught to believe there is this great invisible boogeyman who holds all the power, the “far right,” evangelicals, white supremists, the privileged, “The Man,” and they believe in this phantom adversary, even when they hold all the power themselves, even when he is nowhere to be seen.
“The far right is trying to take away our abortion rights,” is already being chanted right here in liberal-ville, where the closest thing we have to the “far right” within a hundred miles is actually just someone like me, currently sipping tea and wondering if the sun is ever going to come out today. But the truth doesn’t matter so much, this is just an effective dog whistle to get everyone all excited and amped up.
So the first rule of thumb, don’t allow yourself to be used as a useful idiot. Don’t play their game. Don’t be a puppet on somebody else’s string. Don’t fall for foolish tricks. Don’t let your emotions dictate your behavior. Don’t respond to dog whistles.
Please don’t be a useful idiot.
I would so like to see greater wisdom in the Body of Christ, but perhaps it is there already? All in good humor here, but I always have to remember that those of us most likely to be shooting off our mouths all over the internet are not necessarily the control group.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
“this is such an obvious false flag, a blatant diversion, so transparent to the point of embarrassment, that it actually annoys me. They are putting barricades up and preparing for riots. The rule of all totalitarians is always, “separate, divide, control.””
One of the most important principles I’ve learned as a member of various conspiracy theory organizations is that, “The Action is in the Reaction.”
If I was a World Enslavement Forum operative I would switch abortion policy back and forth as often as I could, from one extreme to the other, because riling people up and stirring the pot and rousing the rabble is good for the bad guys.
The issue is never the issue, the issue is keeping people confused and off balance and distracted so that they lose sight of who their real enemies are and what they are up to.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Exactly, the issue is never the issue. The whole point is to create a diversion and keep people confused and off balance. “The action is in the reaction,” totally true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
From what I’ve read, it undoes the judicial reach from 1973 and gives the power back to the states. I think that the legislative branch is fully responsible for this, as they have abdicated their responsibilities in writing abortion into law. They’d rather have immunity from scrutiny, while having SCOTUS somehow infer abortion from the US Constitution. The whole matter is ghoulish, IMO, especially partial birth abortion. I feel as though I’m living through a David Bowie lyric, taken from Cygnett Committee:
And I open my eyes to look around
And I see a child laid slain
On the ground
As a love machine lumbers through desolation rows
Plowing down man, woman, listening to its command
But not hearing anymore
Not hearing anymore
Just the shrieks from the old rich
LikeLiked by 4 people
I agree with you it is a ghoulish matter and I mean that at every level, but especially partial birth abortion. People have not learned anything about the sanctity of life from the times when people sacrificed their children to their false gods until now. These butchered children have been parceled out piece by piece for a price and I do not believe for a moment that has stopped. Sacrificed for science or sacrificed to false gods is there really a difference? I agree with you also about the David Bowie lyric it is just like that.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Ghandi is quoted as saying “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I would borrow that, but add the unborn to this.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I agree about that. I am not a vegetarian, but I believe all living things deserve dignity, One thing that does anger me though is many animals are held higher than our own children. If you destroy a bald eagle egg you will go to federal prison and probably for life, but killing a human baby no problem just another day. Then there is the fact that Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood was a racist it is not by chance that most of there abortion mills are built in neighborhoods of color. She once said something to the effect the best way to pull weeds meaning people of color was through abortion.
LikeLiked by 4 people
After Roe v. Wade was decided, President Ford resisted any Federal funding of abortion mills stating that since the decision applied to the States, the Federal Government was under no obligation to provide federal funding for it. Ford’s Justice Department was planning a new case which would undo the Roe Decision and also another to decide whether taxpayer funding of such services was constitutional. After Ford lost the 1976 Election, nothing has happened since.
What also has to be remembered is that the leaked document was nothing more than a paper that Justice Alito composed—probably reflecting what he intends to argue when the case is coming up for a decision.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a difficult subject for me and that is abortion so I must choose my words carefully if I can. First though I want to say that Satan was one of the Cherubim not the Seraphim he was the angel that covered God’s throne.
Back to abortion it is one of the biggest blights on this country killing babies at every stahe of development including full term and now some want to give the mother the right to have their baby put down even after they are born up to a certain age. Where does it stop or does it? Do we stand idly by and just let them do it? Deflection or not there are literal lives hanging in the balance and so do we just turn a blind eye to it? I would rather err on the side of life than death and that is the death of our most vulnerable. Partial birth abortion is horrific something that if it was done to an adult the one doing it would get a life sentence in prison and yet when it is done to a baby it is oh well it’s their body so their right. What the right to murder their own child.
I have to stop here otherwise I am going to say things I shouldn’t say. As for being as wise as serpents it also means standing up for what is right.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One of the difficult issues here, is that this is not really about abortion. This is entirely about politics. Not one life is going to be saved, not one mind changed, by taking the bait and reacting in the way they want people to react. If anything, it will actually spark more defiant abortions in protest as we are already seeing documented on social media, and stronger, more codified laws at the state level as several Governors are already promising.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Here is the thing IB I don’t give a rats spotted bottom why they do it I really sincerely don’t and even if it cannot be stopped completely it doesn’t mean a blind eye needs to be turned to it. If just Planned Parenthood could be taken down it would cut abortions by a great deal.
Texas has several sanctuary cities now where abortions are not allowed and it is their right to do so. Will it stop abortion completely no, but it will help and there is a better chance that people from a right to life group can get to the woman or girl. Many of them if they see an ultrasound they change their minds.
I was fighting abortion long before it was popular and will continue to do so because no one has the right to kill a child before or after it is born. I don’t care what they are trying to deflect me from I can pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent pieces I have read today. Not just because I agree with you, but because it is not simply emotional and reactionary. I had to read it quick, so I will be back later to reread. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with the stuff you said. But, I had to be a good Berean, so I looked up serpent and cherubim in the Hebrew concordance, and it was a bit different.
Serpent in the garden, and cherubim that guarded the garden afterward were the only two examples I looked up, though.
But I really enjoyed thinking about that today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! As you probably know, there are not a lot of details about angels in the Bible, so most of the discussion comes much later from church fathers who were debating the whole matter. If I remember right, it was Thomas Aquinas who really declared satan to be a fallen cherubim? However, Genesis clearly calls him a serpent. The serpent that Moses lifts up is also a transliteration of the word “saraph,” which is what we get “seraphim” from.
The reason I mentioned it is because the “serpents” were guarding the throne of God. The Garden of Eden was designed to be the dwelling place of God. That is why the serpent was in the garden in the first place. We were just the gardeners. The cherubim were placed east of the garden after the fall. I have no idea what they were doing before that.
All in good humor here, but we are not called to be wise as cherubim, but rather wise as serpents, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter either way.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Seraphim not cherubim. My mistake.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you guys are interested in the great serpent debate, there is tons of research, books, and discussions about it. Here’s a video that touches on some of that.
LikeLike
Here is where God call Lucifer a Cherub and it can only be him because of the way it is worded. Ezekiel 28:14-16
14
You were the anointed cherub who [a]covers,
And I placed you there.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
15
You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created
Until unrighteousness was found in you.
16
By the abundance of your trade
[b]You were internally filled with violence,
And you sinned;
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, you [c]covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Learned a lot from your post, IB!
“ That’s what makes the fall in the garden so horrific, so vile, such a betrayal, because it was perpetrated, instigated by a, “guardian of the temple, a protector of sacred spaces.””
Knowing this now, I see “the Fall” more clearly!
It’s similar today because I see so many people in government acting in “vile” ways, when they are supposed to be “protectors” of our laws, ways, and our very lives! So many are in it for other reasons – to make money through illicit endeavors and to shut down the speech (and attack the beliefs) of those they disagree with. Most of the time, they are against Christians and what we believe from God, the Bible and Jesus Christ..
You wrote, “The analogies Jesus draws for us in the Bible, the parables He tells, are just astounding. They are wise as to the nature of human beings.” So true!
You wrote, “ The law does nothing to fix the condition of the heart.”
That’s the ultimate issue regarding this “abortion rights’’ topic!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just a side note on a pet peeve of mine these days… It frustrates me that so many people don’t seem to understand what’s really going on. The Supreme Court isn’t about to outlaw abortion. Overturning Roe v Wade would mean each state gets to decide the laws for that state. (Does that make the ones who want Roe overturned the real pro-choicers?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I completely agree! Most of my state gov, including the Governor, are just salivating over the opportunity to codify abortion into state law. There are prochoice protestors out in the streets chanting their names. I could be wrong, the Lord certainly works in mysterious ways, but I have not seen a single thing that makes me think this is some kind of prolife win. In fact, the precise opposite.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“the Lord certainly works in mysterious ways, but I have not seen a single thing that makes me think this is some kind of prolife win.”
It’s a minor pro life win because states will presumably have more discretion regarding abortion laws. The bigger factor is the Constitutional principle of federalism and limiting the power and scope of the central national government and the strengthening of the 10th Amendment, which says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
As pro-life as I am, I consider this 10th Amendment principle to be far more important in terms of law and politics and government than the particulars regarding abortion. I see abortion as much more of a social and individual issue where the law has limited efficacy to control it. If women want to murder their babies, there’s not much the rest of society can do about it in the long run.
LikeLiked by 1 person