More on the revealing of the serpent, a metaphorical interpretation of scriptures:
Isaiah 14:12 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
Genesis 3:4-5 “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”
In Genesis, the serpent tells the woman that when she eats of the tree of knowledge her eyes shall be opened and she shall be AS gods. He does not tell her she will be God but only that she will be LIKE God.
In Isaiah 14, Lucifer means light bearer or to shed light on. The serpent can also be considered the bringer of light or the initial (morning) illumination because he encouraged Eve to eat of the tree and brought forth the opening of man’s eyes, the beginning of our questionings of is this good or evil (the beginning of the law which is the carnal law).
It says that Lucifer is fallen from heaven and cut down to the ground. Again, heaven is within us, see previous posts.
Isaiah 14:13-14 “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
As we continue on in Isaiah 14, it says Lucifer said he would ascend into heaven and exalt his throne and be LIKE the most high. Is doesn’t say he is the most high but he is like him and even “thinks” he is God (see Thessalonians below).
2 Thessalonians 2:4-5 ”Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
In 2 Thessalonians is says that the day of Christ shall not come except there come a falling away. The word for “falling away” means apostasy or “the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief”. The day of Christ comes after our original beliefs are transformed.
Not only must there be a falling away of our original beliefs for new beliefs to show forth, but that man of sin also has to be REVEALED so we understand what we are renouncing. And this son of perdition exalteth himself above all that is called God, and thinks he IS God. Think about what the serpent told the woman in the garden “then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be AS GODS, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5)”. He tells her that this fruit will make you AS gods. Or he is hinting to her that she will be LIKE GOD. Again, the serpent in the garden seems awfully familiar to Lucifer in Isaiah and the son of perdition in 2 Thessalonians. They all are talking about being like God. Being like God can be compared to the tares in Matthew 13, they look and act LIKE the most high and are somewhat deceiving [at first] until they are full grown and their true fruit is revealed. So how is this “son of perdition” revealed?
Exodus 4:1-5 “And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.”
Now these verses in Exodus 4 are complex. Moses was concerned that no one would believe him nor harken to his voice because how would they know God has appeared unto him. So God gives him a sign so that Moses and the people would know that he had truly came to him and he is not making up a story. God does something to Moses to make him believe without a doubt. God asks Moses what was in his hand, and Moses answers, a rod. But God proceeds to show Moses that it was not truly the rod he thought it was. The rod Moses possessed represented his authority at that present moment. God tells him to cast his rod to the ground which being interpreted means let it fall from heaven or a falling away (see 2 Thess “falling away” and see Isaiah 14, Lucifer being cut down to the ground). He told him to let his rod [of authority] be cast away from him and be cut down to the ground. God was saying to Moses, you really don’t know the rod (representing his authority) you have been using, let me show you what it truly is. He was revealing to Moses what his rod truly was, the serpent. Once his rod was cast away and cut down to the ground, Moses saw the serpent and he fled from it. This word fled in Exodus 4 means “escaped”. Moses escaped from the serpent that was his old rod [of authority]. Now after he escaped the serpent’s authority, God told him put forth his hand to take it by the tail. Moses caught the serpent. And he was able to catch it by the tail because it no longer had authority over him and could not hurt him any longer. In other words he bound the serpent. This word “caught” in Exodus 4 has a lengthy meaning including to bind. Once the serpent was caught and bound he was able to possess the rod of God, or authority of God, in his hand. This transformation of the old rod into the new rod is what shows and convinces Moses of God’s promise. His old rod of authority is revealed for what it is, and the new rod is the exposed and bound serpent or revealing of the old rod. The process goes as follows; our old rod is cast to the ground and then bound, once the authority of the serpent is bound, the rod is transformed to the authority of God which can now prevail.
Mark 16:17-19 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”
Mark 16:17-19 is a parallel story to Exodus 4:1-5. The devils (messenger or authority of serpent) are cast out [to ground], then then can hear and understand the true message of the Lord (understanding new tongues which helps them escape the deception of the messenger (devils) or serpent), they will pick up the serpent [by the tail knowing it can’t hurt them any longer and put it in captivity], then they will have the authority of God (right hand of God) in their possession. The authority of the Lord brings the message of the serpent to a new light of day.
Ephesians 4:8 “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” We have to hold captive what held us captive.
These verses are an example of how God reveals the son of perdition. There MUST be a falling away first. A casting away of our old rod, our old understanding, our old beliefs, or our old authority. When God tells us to cast away our old understanding, he reveals to us the deception of our old understanding and provides us a new understanding and a new authority. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3 above.
Genesis 2:4&19 “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,….And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”
Consider Genesis 2 as an allegory of the human consciousness. The Hebrew word for the English words “heavens” and “air” in Genesis 2 are the same, shamayim. Remember from previous posts that the heaven and the Kingdom and God and Heaven is within us (i.e. Luke 17:21). The fowls God made are in the air, which is the same word in Hebrew as heaven. Heaven is where the flying creatures fly about [in us].
Isaiah 14:5&29 “The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers….Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.”
Here in Isaiah it compares the rod to a serpent. The fruit of the serpent is a fiery flying serpent. This serpent must be in heaven if it flies. Which means that the seed or fruit of the serpent is in our heaven and has authority, not on the ground and under God authority, until we cast it there. The serpent has authority in heaven until it is revealed. Here in Isaiah 14 it also speaks of the rod of the wicked being broken, which relates back to Moses’ initial rod in Exodus 4.
As we have mentioned in the previous post, the serpent in the Bible can be compared to the ego in us, and the ego is a means to interpret the physical world into our consciousness. The serpent represents the following: 1. the beguiling that we need to recognize, 2. a subtle deception about this world that needs to be seen through, 3. our understanding through the five senses that still needs to be transformed into the spiritual understanding, 4. the initial and first shining of light (son of the morning) which brings forth our first understanding, the carnal understanding. The “opening of the eyes” in the garden is knowledge we gain via our five senses which initially breeds the carnal mind.
Per definition and for more information; the ego is the lens through which we experience physical reality. It is what takes in all the sensory inputs from our physical body, our physical surroundings, and our present physical needs. The ego is just a small part of our entire being. It is simply a tool our consciousness uses to survive in this physical reality.
The serpent from the Garden is compare to Lucifer in Isaiah 14, who is compared to our ego. It brings light to the matter. It is the “eyes” of man’s consciousness. The conscious mind via the ego is exposed to the tree of knowledge of good and evil via the fruit of that tree. In other words, the conscious mind by use of the ego, gains the ability to judge (authority of the serpent). This is where the carnal mind comes into to play.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
The carnal mind is the enmity within us that is against God and against the seed of the woman (Christ), and against us. When our ego has authority, the carnal mind becomes our reasoning, which is against God and his spiritual ways.
1 Corinthians 15:45-46 “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.”
Adam is first natural (ego gathered information), then the last Adam is Spiritual (transformed ego gathered information from natural to spiritual).
Ephesians 2:14-16 “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:”
Once the authority of the serpent is overcome by the authority of God, the enmity (carnal mind) between the woman and the serpent, and between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is dissolved. Once the serpent’s true message is revealed, we come to understand there is more to it than what our ego first tells us. The knowledge gained through the lens of the ego needs to be transformed from the carnal understanding to the spiritual understanding. Once the carnal mind is destroyed, the enmity within us is dissolved and the natural fleshly understanding is transformed to a spiritual understanding.
Once the enmity (carnal mind, carnal law, carnal knowledge) is slain, once the middle wall of partition in us is broken down, we are no longer deceived by our own ego (serpent). There is no longer a veil in the midst of us.