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Hello everybody, welcome to the Methodist Voice.

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We are covering the book of Genesis chapters 1 through 11.

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I know it's going to come as a shock to many of you.

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We covered chapter 2 in one episode.

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So congratulations to us.

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Not that there's a lot more that couldn't be said about that chapter, but if we're

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going to finish this series before I retire, then we should probably move along.

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And that's what we're going to do today.

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We're going to get into chapter 3.

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Now we're going to have a lot more to say about chapter 3.

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So that's going to take a few episodes to work through.

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Last week in chapter 2 we discussed the beginnings of the message that would later in scripture

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come to be called the Kingdom of God.

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It's the message that God wants to live in a particular place on the earth in the midst

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of His creation, which He loves and is very pleased with and where His rule and will

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are perfectly manifest.

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God wants to be represented in this environment through His imagers, which is you and me.

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It's His representatives whom He considers His children, His family members.

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And He wants His will to be represented throughout the entire earth through these imagers.

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Their assignment is that through an unbroken union with God, they would use His life and

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energy, His uncreated energy, through their creative will, activity and obedience to replicate

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the Garden of Eden template across the entire planet.

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God wants Himself and His entire creation to be in perfect harmony with one another.

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This is the vision for the future, which we typically call Heaven, but is more appropriately

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described as both the created physical universe, the created spiritual realm and the uncreated

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triune God all living in perfect harmony with one another.

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That's what we call Heaven, that vision.

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And so we're going to learn in chapter 3 as we get into that today, that there are some

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in God's divine counsel who do not agree with this plan.

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We will be introduced to the main character who leads a rival rebellion or coup against

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God's sovereign leadership, seeking to insert, for lack of a better term, Himself in place

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of God as the one who directs the affairs of the earth and humanity.

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So a rival, he wants to set himself up as a rival leader and as a rival plan because

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he does not like the plan that God is revealing in the midst of caring about the business

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of planet earth.

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So let's start in Genesis 3 verse 1.

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It's the only verse we're going to read today because we're going to get introduced to a

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character that we need to discuss with a little more depth because this is a big character

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throughout the story of the Bible.

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So Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the

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field that the Lord God had made.

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So one of the main points is the serpent character is a created being just like every other created

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being and this character is in no way in a position to set himself up as a rival to the

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uncreated God.

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So that's point number one.

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But this is a very big story.

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Genesis chapter 3, this is a very big story that's going to be told in a very concise

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way.

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So this is precisely what mythology functions to do.

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It uses symbols and metaphors to communicate a metanarrative, a big story in narrative

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form.

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Remember these are truths that must be retained and communicated for thousands of years without

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the assistance of written language writing, the technology of writing.

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These truths were transmitted orally and crafted into a form that could both capture the imagination

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of its hearers and would be easy to remember and communicate from generation to generation.

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So we're going to find much more detail into the who and what of the story from other places

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in scripture.

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So let's start with the serpent character and it's at this point I hope you've been

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following along with the other episodes, particularly episode 3 and 7 as it pertains to understanding

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the true nature of this character and who and what or what, however you want to describe

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it, is being talked about here.

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So we're going to go to other places in scripture where we're going to get more revelation from

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God about who this being is.

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Let's look first of all at Isaiah chapter 6.

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I'm going to start reading in verse 1.

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In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

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So Isaiah the prophet is having a vision and he sees the throne room of God, which is what

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Eden represents.

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I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled

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the temple.

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Above him stood the seraphim.

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Each had six wings.

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With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

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And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

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The whole earth is full of his glory.

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And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called.

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And the house was filled with smoke.

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And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in

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the midst of people of unclean lips.

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And my eyes have seen the King of kings and the Lord of hosts.

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Verse 6.

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Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having his hand on a burning coal that he had taken

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with the tongs from the altar.

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And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is

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taken away, and your sin atoned for.

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So this is what is considered to be a throne guardian, which would have been a common thing

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in the ancient Near East.

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A being that is in charge of guarding the throne of God.

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Clearly, God does not require guarding from some outside force or enemy.

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But his holiness needs to be preserved by allowing no unclean thing to enter his presence,

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which is precisely what the throne guardian is protecting, God's holiness, from something

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that is impure, in this case, Isaiah.

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So we're going to describe this being from, again, the dictionary of deities and demons.

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It's a very good resource, a very valuable resource at understanding certain things in

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the scripture, particularly from an ancient Near Eastern point of view, which is the context

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which produces these stories in Genesis one through 11.

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So I'm going to be reading to you now from the dictionary of deities and demons on the

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word seraphim.

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The seraphim are now generally conceived as a winged serpents with certain human attributes,

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right?

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The being speaks, for instance.

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It is generally taken as a derivative of the word seraphim, to burn, incinerate, destroy.

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This is a little bit of review from episode three.

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Since the verb is transitive, seraphim probably denotes an entity that annihilates by burning.

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While the etymological sense is thus, the one who burns the enemies, the term refers

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several times to some serpentine being.

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There is now, continuing on in the entry on seraphim from the dictionary of deity and

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demons, there is now an emerging consensus that the Egyptian Uraeus serpent is the original

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source of the seraphim motif in scripture.

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Now let's pause right there and discuss that.

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That does not necessarily mean that the Hebrew people or the Jewish people lifted this idea

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from the Egyptians.

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The Egyptians created this idea and the Jewish people stole it.

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That's not necessarily what that means.

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What it means is that the Egyptians are the first one with a physical recording of this

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being.

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The Egyptians developed a technology to record things, whether it's in high, whether it's

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carved into clay tablets or into the side of walls or through papyrus paper.

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They're the first ones to record a record of their understanding of these beings.

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It does not mean they created the idea of these beings.

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Since we believe the scripture is true and authoritative, we believe these beings are

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real.

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The Jews knew about them, the Jewish people had their interpretation of what these beings

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are and function to do, and the Egyptian people had their idea of what these beings are and

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function to do.

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So what this scholar is saying, maybe not what he's saying, but how we could interpret

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it maybe as distinct from him, just because the Egyptians were the first one to record

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these beings doesn't mean they came up with the idea.

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That's all I'm trying to say.

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So let's carry on back to the entry.

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This interpretation was worked out by Othmar Keel, Old Testament scholar, who is able to

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adduce iconographic evidence showing that the Urayus motif was well known in Palestine

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from the Hyksos period through the end of the Iron Age on scarabs and seals.

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So the Jewish people used very similar icons to depict these beings that the Egyptian people

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did and that's true.

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During the eighth century BCE, the two winged and in Judah, especially the four winged Urayus

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is a well attested motif on seals, while six winged Uri do not seem to occur.

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So that is a unique thing we find in Isaiah and of course later on in the book of Revelation.

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The breezes with Uri without wings are found in Egyptian and Phoenician chapels.

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The English term Urius is a loan word from Greek which was taken in turn from the Egyptian

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word for the Cobra figure worn on the forehead of Egyptian gods and kings.

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And so you will recognize that when you see like the statues of Pharaoh that are like

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blue and gold and he has the headdress on and right in the middle of his forehead is

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a Cobra figure.

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That's what it's talking about.

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The Cobra protects by means of her fire or poison.

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Among the Egyptian designations for the Urayus, one finds the word flame.

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The preeminent Cobra deity in Egypt was the crown god Uto.

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In Isaiah 6, the Seraphim appear in connection with the enthroned heavenly king Yahweh.

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The following may be said about their position, form, number and function.

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Their position standing above Yahweh lends itself to comparison with the raised Uri on

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chapel freezes where the Uri are however without wings.

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Whether their shape is serpentine or more humanoid is a matter of dispute.

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As for number, there are probably two Seraphim in Isaiah 6.

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Concerning their function, Isaiah 6 displays a noteworthy mutation of the Urius motif.

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Instead of protecting Yahweh, the Seraphim need their wings to cover themselves from

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head to feet from Yahweh's consuming holiness.

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Yahweh does not need their protection.

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Isaiah uses the Seraphim to underscore the supreme holiness of the God on the throne.

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So this is all just to inform us how this character in Isaiah was considered serpentine

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in nature, was a throne guardian of God and how this type of character would have been

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understood within the context of the narrative, the Ancient Near East.

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It would have been a common depiction of a type of being in the Ancient Near East.

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And so we're going to read from a few other places in scripture that are going to give

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us more detail, more insight as to what's going on in the story about this character

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and his background in history and nature.

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We're going to be looking first of all from Isaiah chapter 14 and I'm going to be starting

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in verse 4.

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The spirit is saying to Isaiah, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon.

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So let's stop there.

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This is how this diatribe is introduced.

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It is a diatribe against a human king, the king of Babylon.

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Now this is going to apply both to the passage from Isaiah that we're reading and to the

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passage in Ezekiel that we're reading.

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We have a human king that has been elevated and empowered by some force behind it.

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I'll give you an example of how that works.

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If you'll remember from the gospels, when Jesus is asking his disciples, he's quizzing

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them, who are people saying that I am?

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Who do you say that I am?

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He's trying to draw out of them their understanding of his true nature.

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And Peter pipes up and says, you are the Christ, you're the son of God.

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And Jesus says to Peter, listen, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my

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father who's in heaven.

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And so Peter has gotten the unction or the inspiration from that confession from another

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place.

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And then Jesus is going on to tell his disciples in the same story, how he's going to have

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to go on and he's going to be beaten and crucified and died.

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And then Peter tries to rebuke Jesus and he says, no, that's never going to happen.

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I'm paraphrasing.

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When Jesus turns around, just right after he affirms Peter is getting an unction from

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heaven, he rebukes him and he says, get behind me, Satan, for you don't have the things of

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God in mind, but the things of man.

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And so if you think about it in that passage, there's two perfect illustrations of a representative

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and imager of God being in agreement with the agenda of heaven and giving expression

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to it, which is what humans are called to do.

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And at the same time, receiving an unction and inspiration from a rebellious spirit with

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a different agenda.

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Right?

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So Jesus speaks, get behind me, Satan, you don't have in mind the things of God, but

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things of man.

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He's talking to Peter when he says that, but he's addressing the spirit that is animating

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or motivating Peter's speech.

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So that's precisely what we're going to see the scripture doing in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel

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28.

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God, the Holy Spirit through the prophets is going to be speaking to a human king, but

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mixed up in this judgment against this human king and his activity mixed up in that is

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going to be a judgment against the spirit that has elevated empowered and is motivating

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this King's heart and decision making.

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Okay.

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So here's what we get.

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We said in Isaiah 14, take up this taunt against the King of Babylon.

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Babylon throughout scripture is representative of a satanic agenda, satanic kingdom building

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outside of the governance of the one true God.

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And so Babylon is a consistent metaphor for Satan's kingdom that he's building on the

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earth.

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And so let's get down to verse 12.

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It says how you are fallen from heaven.

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Oh, day star, son of Dawn.

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Now as we get into chapter three, it's going to describe the judgment of Satan as crawling

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on the dust of the earth.

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His language being used to describe him being demoted, him being brought low, him being

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taken down a few notches or more than a few notches.

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And so here's what Isaiah is describing.

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How you are fallen from heaven.

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Oh day star, one who used to shine, one who used to shine with the beauty and the glory

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of God, son of the Dawn.

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You used to be beautiful and glorious in your nature.

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But you've been, as we keep reading, how you are cut down to the ground.

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Now that doesn't that sound similar to the judgment against the serpent right here in

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chapter three.

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You will crawl on the dust of the earth.

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You will eat the dust of the earth.

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The text says in chapter three, how you were cut down to the ground.

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You who laid the nations low, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above

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the stars of God.

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The stars of God represent throughout scripture, the divine council, the angels, the created

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spirit beings, the Elohim, the other little G gods.

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I will set my throne on high.

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I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the far reaches of the North.

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That's an interesting metaphor as we get into prophetic literature.

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The North is descriptive of where Satan establishes his throne and his kingdom.

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I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

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I will make myself like the most high and the judgment verse 15, but you were brought

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down to shield to the far reaches of the pit.

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Not only have you been cast to the earth, demoted to the earth, but you're even lower

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than the earth.

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So that's a severe judgment, but it's descriptive of what is motivating Satan's heart to rebel.

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He wants to promote himself above the other created beings, even to elevate himself to

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replace God.

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And so that gives us some insight into what is motivating the heart of this being.

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We're going to read also from Ezekiel chapter 28, starting in verse 11.

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Very similar scenario.

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This is a diatribe against initially the Prince of Tyre in the first part of the chapter.

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The language switches here.

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So the language switches to a different character, to the King of Tyre here in verse 11.

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It says, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, verse 12, son of man, raise a lamentation

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over the King of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of

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perfection.

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Now, think through this.

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Could the signet of perfection ever apply to a fallen human being?

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My answer to that would be no.

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Fallen human beings could never be described with that type of language.

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Maybe at one point Adam, but the text doesn't even use that of Adam.

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It's just very good.

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All of God's creation was very good.

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It says you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

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You were in Eden, the garden of God.

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Every precious stone was your covering.

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Sardius, Topaz and diamond, barrel, onyx and Jasper, sapphire, emerald, carbuncle and crafted

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in gold were your settings and your engravings.

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On the day that you were created, they were prepared.

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Verse 14.

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You were an anointed guardian cherub.

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Now that verse right there alone tells you this cannot apply to a human being.

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Now it's a little bit confusing because the text refers to a cherub, not a seraph.

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But that can be explained like this.

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Think of cherub as like a class, so to speak, and seraph like a species of a class.

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So for example, you have the class ape in the animal kingdom and then you have different

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species of ape like a chimpanzee or a gorilla.

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They're both considered apes, but they're different species.

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So think of seraph or the seraphim as being a species of a cherub, a guardian cherub,

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a throne guardian being.

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So you'll see different throne guardians described in like Ezekiel and Revelation where they're

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not serpentine in nature, but they've got like four faces, the face of a man, the face

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of an ox, the face of a lion, the face of an eagle.

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So they're different species of this class of throne guardian, which were well known

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throughout the ancient Near East.

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Like we've said in previous episodes, the Sphinx of Egypt that are guarding the throne

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of Pharaoh.

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You know, it's got the head of a man and the body of a lion.

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You also see these in Assyria, Assyrian throne guardian characters.

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So these were well known throughout the ancient Near East, these characters.

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Clearly this is not describing a human being.

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Verse 14, you were an anointed guardian cherub.

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I placed you.

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You were on the holy mountain of God.

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Now if you remember from last week, one of the ways the scripture describes the particular

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place where God lives on the earth, which was being described as Eden in chapter two,

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it's both a garden and a mountain.

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Both of those words or environments are descriptive of the living room of God on the earth.

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So here we have it.

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What was this serpent doing in the story in the first place?

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If this is the living room of God and this is like the perfect place, his safe place

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for his kids, what is this serpent character doing in the story?

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Well here we're told right here in Ezekiel, he was appointed there as a guardian cherub.

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The text says, I placed you.

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You were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire.

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You walked.

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Now that just means shining stone.

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That speaks of the bright shining environment of God, which is described very well in Revelation

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again 21 and 22.

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The light of the sun and the moon are not needed in the living room of God because the

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light of God is so bright it illuminates everything.

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So in the midst of the stones of fire, the shining stones you walked, you were blameless

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in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you.

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Now as we unpack the following verses of chapter three, when was unrighteousness found in Satan?

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Well the text tells us in chapter three exactly what happens.

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So as we go through the chapter, we'll find that it's describing the event that caused

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the downfall not only of human beings, but Satan himself.

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I would pause it and we get some other insight into the motives of this character's heart

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from even extra canonical literature, extra canonical from a Protestant standpoint, not

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so much from other Christian groups.

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This is considered very important if not canonical information.

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This is from the wisdom of Solomon chapter two, verses 23 through 24.

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It describes the motivation of this being.

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And these books, even if you don't consider them to be authoritative revelation from God,

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they are still important insight and understanding into the big story of scripture.

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And we'll get into other books that are considered extra canonical from our Protestant point

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of view, but are still important bits of information about how the people in the time in which

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this information was received, understood the narrative.

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So this is the wisdom of Solomon chapter two, verses 23 through 24.

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For God created us for in corruption, human beings, and he made us in the image of his

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own eternity.

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And through the devil's envy, the devil was jealous.

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Death entered the world, which is what is going to be described in chapter three of

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Genesis and those who belong to his company experience it.

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Those who get in agreement with Satan experience death.

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So there it is.

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It was envy that entered the heart of Satan.

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Envy of what?

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Well God had created this beautiful physical universe.

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He created human beings, planted them in the environment of his living room where his divine

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counsel exists and intended for them to rule over all of it.

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And you see how a being described as beautiful and wise and perfect as Satan might feel envious

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over that high honor and might begin thinking that he should have been given that honor

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instead of human beings.

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That's not really that big of a stretch to understand some of the dynamics that might

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be going on here.

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Here's a quote from Dr. Heiser.

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In this last regard, I shared the view of certain lines of Jewish tradition that teach

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that the serpent's motive for seducing Eve was jealousy at humanity's appointment as

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supreme authority under Yahweh on earth as opposed to the sons of God getting that job.

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So that's Heiser's interpretation as well.

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And it's not difficult to understand how that motive might lead one to subvert the plans

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and the purposes of God with the trajectory of hoping that I will take that assignment

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for myself.

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So we'll get into the dynamics of that story in future episodes.

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We've probably got several episodes we're going to cover on chapter three.

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For instance, if God's creation of human beings, if they were perfect, they were without flaw

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and blemish, why did they make a bad decision?

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Why was Satan appointed in the garden in the first place?

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Well, Satan was originally good and the Bible talks a lot about guardian angels and it's

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their job to help human beings.

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That's all over scripture.

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In Matthew chapter 18 verse 10, take heed that you do not despise one of these little

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ones, one of these children who are innocent, immature, untested.

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For I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my father who is in

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heaven.

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So their beings that are assigned, assigned to these kids to help them come to maturity,

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which is probably precisely what's going on here in Genesis chapter three.

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The reason Satan is in the story is because he has been assigned to help original human

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beings develop in their capacity to represent God on the earth.

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Here's another example of that from the New Testament, Acts chapter 12 verses 13 through

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15.

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Peter, if you'll remember, had been put in prison and he'd escaped and he's knocking

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on the door of his friends, so Acts 12 13.

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And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.

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When she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate,

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but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.

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But they said to her, you are beside yourself.

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Yet she kept insisting that it was so.

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So they said, it is his angel.

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So even they understood that there are angels appointed to oversee and to assist human beings

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in their assignment on the earth.

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Psalm chapter 91 verse 11 through 12, for he shall give his angels charge over you to

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keep you in all your ways in their hands.

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They shall bear you up.

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Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

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Hebrews 13 to do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some of unwittingly entertained

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angels.

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Hebrews 1 14.

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Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit

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salvation?

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So this is a common motif in scripture.

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These created divine beings are assigned to be assistance to human beings in the affairs

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of ruling or governing or administering the affairs of the earth.

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They are to assist them in the job of extending the Garden of Eden environment, developing

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their ability to extend the Garden of Eden environment throughout the entire planet.

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So that's not an uncommon motif in scripture.

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So the serpent is there because he was assigned to be there by God.

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And he was assigned to be a guardian, you know, just like on the earth, when you have

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a kid that doesn't have parents and then two adults or an adult decides to take charge

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of that kid, they're called a parent or guardian.

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Right.

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So you have these beings assigned to oversee and assist the development of human beings

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in their assignment to be God's representatives or imagers on the earth.

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So that's why the serpent is in the story.

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And we've discussed the name, you know, that the use of the word serpent can be a triple

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entendre, as Heiser would say.

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It can refer to his nature as a seraphim.

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It can also refer to his character, the lowliness of his status, you know, a serpent, a snake.

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He's a snake, snake in the grass.

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And it can even allude to his craftiness.

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And that's one of the things that we learned.

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We're going to learn in Chapter three, he was more crafty than any other beast of the

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field.

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He's like a snake in the grass.

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So it can be like it can function like a triple entendre in the story, in the narrative designed

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to communicate an episode in history that we don't have that much detail about.

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We get glimpses to it in scripture, but there was probably way more going on than what we're

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even given in the fullness of the story of scripture.

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So we'll stop there and we'll carry on with Genesis chapter three next week.

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Hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.

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Be blessed.

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Hold it