Snake-Bitten

Snake-Bitten. It’s a term that means unlucky or repeated series of bad events has occurred.

It seems like a lot of good people are “snake bitten.” A good example of being snake-bitten is being forced to leave your home in New Orleans because of a hurricane and evacuating to Houston. Then you have to leave Houston because of a threat of a hurricane. That’s snake-bitten.

Then there is my daughter Princessbelle. She is sick and has to have her tonsils out. While she is recuperating in bed, she gets a high fever. The doctors claim that she was bitten by one or more spiders in bed causing very serious damage, in fact damage much more severe than having her tonsils out. Who knows if they are correct. But it is what I call “ Snake-bitten.”

An unfortunate work event, causes stress that results in an individual’s heart attack. The heart attack puts pressure on a marriage and ultimately results in a divorce. Snake-bitten again.

It seems to me a lot of good people are going through some mighty hard things. There are good people all around me, many of whom are Christians, and they seem to be going through a lot of suffering, suffering way out of proportion to the evil or bad things that they may have done. I call it Snake-bite.

Despite of living in a universe where people are degenerate and sometimes even nature is “fallen” I believe in the goodness and mercy of God. Now I am not smart enough to explain why bad things happen to good people, why children die, why there are concentration camps, and criminals that hurt others. I can not explain satisfactorily why good people get cancer.

In life, one has to come to some articles of faith that one believes in-and from time to time that belief may be above reason. Two of these beliefs are that there is God, and God is good. Period.

I also believe that the cause of snake-bite, is the Snake, an independent evil that exists in the Universe. The Snake is called many things-the Serpent, Evil, Satan, the god of this world. Most of the people I know freely admit that there is an independent evil that exists and works in this world. They are freer to admit the reality of evil than even the reality of good. It is my belief that this evil is not equivalent to God and the goodness of God but the relationship of good to evil, again, is far to complicated for me to have the ability to understand.

The Snake first makes his appearance in the Third Chapter of Genesis when he comes into the Garden of Eden and tempts Eve, mother of mankind, to eat of the fruit of the tree located in the center of the garden, with the result that man becomes aware of good and evil. Aware of evil, not only from eating of the fruit, but for listening to the lies of evil. God had said Eve that if they ate from the tree they would die. Satan told Eve: “Surely you will not die.” And the lies began.

So the power of evil grows, as we , the children of Eve, listen to evil and act upon it. We all have heard these whispers. Whispers, of hatred, jealousy, anger, desire, and doubt of ourselves and others about us.

In Genesis, God makes a judgment about all of this. That judgment is played out in the Old and New Testaments and continues to be played out today. God puts a curse on the Serpent of Old. That curse is found in Genesis 3:15 and reads as follows:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

These are mysterious words. Who is “He” that is born of the offspring of woman. This individual will bruise the Ancient Evil on the head; but the Ancient Evil will bruise this “He” on the heel. Many Jews believed that the “He” would be a Jewish Messiah. Christians believe that the Messiah is Jesus Christ.

Satan is a thief. He steals from us the good things of God. Jesus said in John 10:10:

The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.

Most of us have experienced snake-bite. Despite the poison introduced into our lives, we seek the healing of God, the work of the Messiah, and recognize that a more abundant life is our birthright, and we seek it here and in eternity.

For years, I have admitted that both the just and unjust experience the blessings of God and some of the cursings of evil in this world. I have often misquoted John 5: 44 and 45 which reads:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes his sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

I have often misread this to mean that God sends the sunshine (good things) on all of mankind and God sometimes sends the rain (bad things) on all of mankind. A better reading, I believe, is that God sends sunshine (good things) on all of mankind and God sends more good things (the rain) on all of mankind. In short, God sends blessings and good things to all of us. And we should do the same thing. To the person living in an arid climate, rain is a good thing.

Returning to Genesis 3, we find that not only are we snake-bitten but the Messiah the seed of woman, would be snake-bitten as well or at least snake-bruized. The prophet Isaiah in the 53 chapter describes this Messiah with such words as “despised, forsaken, crushed, chastened, scourged, afflicted, oppressed, grieved, cutoff and dying.” All of these are snake-bite words. The Messiah without sin, bore the curses of Satan and man in order that all the seed of women might be offered the freedom to escape from the control of Satan, the bad choices of our ultimate parents, and even death itself. Yes, the Messiah, Himself, would have His heel bruised, he would suffer even as the Prophets predicted and He would die. But wound was only a “flesh” wound so to speak. The flesh would die, but the Spirit would live. And in a mystery of God even a resurrection of the flesh at the end of the story. A resurrection of the Messiah. And our resurrection as well.

This resurrection of Christ, and the freeing of the bondage of the seed of Woman from the power and captivity of Satan is a head wound to Satan. Ultimately it is a wound that is fatal to Satan. Each of us is back in the garden. We are not bound by the choice of Mother Eve or Father Adam. We are free to choose to follow Christ or not too, of course. The tree of Life is replaced with a cross. We can embrace it and die to our own choices and our own will, even our own life, or turn away from it. When we embrace the cross we find it to be a tree of life, bringing healing to all nations. Not just one color or one nation –but to all who embrace it, whatever their background, whatever their nationality, sex, race or background. They are the seed of woman who have chosen to accept God and embrace the goodness of God. That same goodness that is offered with the sunshine and the rain to all of us.

H.D.