Hello everybody, welcome to the Methodist Voice. We are covering the book of Genesis chapters 1 through 11. I know it's going to come as a shock to many of you. We covered chapter 2 in one episode. So congratulations to us. Not that there's a lot more that couldn't be said about that chapter, but if we're going to finish this series before I retire, then we should probably move along. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to get into chapter 3.
Now we're going to have a lot more to say about chapter 3. So that's going to take a few episodes to work through. Last week in chapter 2 we discussed the beginnings of the message that would later in scripture come to be called the Kingdom of God. It's the message that God wants to live in a particular place on the earth in the midst of His creation, which He loves and is very pleased with and where His rule and will are perfectly manifest.
God wants to be represented in this environment through His imagers, which is you and me. It's His representatives whom He considers His children, His family members. And He wants His will to be represented throughout the entire earth through these imagers. Their assignment is that through an unbroken union with God, they would use His life and energy, His uncreated energy, through their creative will, activity and obedience to replicate the Garden of Eden template across the entire planet.
God wants Himself and His entire creation to be in perfect harmony with one another. This is the vision for the future, which we typically call Heaven, but is more appropriately described as both the created physical universe, the created spiritual realm and the uncreated triune God all living in perfect harmony with one another. That's what we call Heaven, that vision.
And so we're going to learn in chapter 3 as we get into that today, that there are some in God's divine counsel who do not agree with this plan. We will be introduced to the main character who leads a rival rebellion or coup against God's sovereign leadership, seeking to insert, for lack of a better term, Himself in place of God as the one who directs the affairs of the earth and humanity.
So a rival, he wants to set himself up as a rival leader and as a rival plan because he does not like the plan that God is revealing in the midst of caring about the business of planet earth. So let's start in Genesis 3 verse 1. It's the only verse we're going to read today because we're going to get introduced to a character that we need to discuss with a little more depth because this is a big character throughout the story of the Bible.
So Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. So one of the main points is the serpent character is a created being just like every other created being and this character is in no way in a position to set himself up as a rival to the uncreated God. So that's point number one. But this is a very big story. Genesis chapter 3, this is a very big story that's going to be told in a very concise way.
So this is precisely what mythology functions to do. It uses symbols and metaphors to communicate a metanarrative, a big story in narrative form. Remember these are truths that must be retained and communicated for thousands of years without the assistance of written language writing, the technology of writing.
These truths were transmitted orally and crafted into a form that could both capture the imagination of its hearers and would be easy to remember and communicate from generation to generation. So we're going to find much more detail into the who and what of the story from other places in scripture.
So let's start with the serpent character and it's at this point I hope you've been following along with the other episodes, particularly episode 3 and 7 as it pertains to understanding the true nature of this character and who and what or what, however you want to describe it, is being talked about here. So we're going to go to other places in scripture where we're going to get more revelation from God about who this being is. Let's look first of all at Isaiah chapter 6.
I'm going to start reading in verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. So Isaiah the prophet is having a vision and he sees the throne room of God, which is what Eden represents. I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the King of kings and the Lord of hosts.
Verse 6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having his hand on a burning coal that he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. So this is what is considered to be a throne guardian, which would have been a common thing in the ancient Near East. A being that is in charge of guarding the throne of God. Clearly, God does not require guarding from some outside force or enemy.
But his holiness needs to be preserved by allowing no unclean thing to enter his presence, which is precisely what the throne guardian is protecting, God's holiness, from something that is impure, in this case, Isaiah. So we're going to describe this being from, again, the dictionary of deities and demons.
It's a very good resource, a very valuable resource at understanding certain things in the scripture, particularly from an ancient Near Eastern point of view, which is the context which produces these stories in Genesis one through 11. So I'm going to be reading to you now from the dictionary of deities and demons on the word seraphim. The seraphim are now generally conceived as a winged serpents with certain human attributes, right? The being speaks, for instance.
It is generally taken as a derivative of the word seraphim, to burn, incinerate, destroy. This is a little bit of review from episode three. Since the verb is transitive, seraphim probably denotes an entity that annihilates by burning. While the etymological sense is thus, the one who burns the enemies, the term refers several times to some serpentine being.
There is now, continuing on in the entry on seraphim from the dictionary of deity and demons, there is now an emerging consensus that the Egyptian Uraeus serpent is the original source of the seraphim motif in scripture. Now let's pause right there and discuss that. That does not necessarily mean that the Hebrew people or the Jewish people lifted this idea from the Egyptians. The Egyptians created this idea and the Jewish people stole it. That's not necessarily what that means.
What it means is that the Egyptians are the first one with a physical recording of this being. The Egyptians developed a technology to record things, whether it's in high, whether it's carved into clay tablets or into the side of walls or through papyrus paper. They're the first ones to record a record of their understanding of these beings. It does not mean they created the idea of these beings. Since we believe the scripture is true and authoritative, we believe these beings are real.
The Jews knew about them, the Jewish people had their interpretation of what these beings are and function to do, and the Egyptian people had their idea of what these beings are and function to do. So what this scholar is saying, maybe not what he's saying, but how we could interpret it maybe as distinct from him, just because the Egyptians were the first one to record these beings doesn't mean they came up with the idea. That's all I'm trying to say. So let's carry on back to the entry.
This interpretation was worked out by Othmar Keel, Old Testament scholar, who is able to adduce iconographic evidence showing that the Urayus motif was well known in Palestine from the Hyksos period through the end of the Iron Age on scarabs and seals. So the Jewish people used very similar icons to depict these beings that the Egyptian people did and that's true.
During the eighth century BCE, the two winged and in Judah, especially the four winged Urayus is a well attested motif on seals, while six winged Uri do not seem to occur. So that is a unique thing we find in Isaiah and of course later on in the book of Revelation. The breezes with Uri without wings are found in Egyptian and Phoenician chapels.
The English term Urius is a loan word from Greek which was taken in turn from the Egyptian word for the Cobra figure worn on the forehead of Egyptian gods and kings. And so you will recognize that when you see like the statues of Pharaoh that are like blue and gold and he has the headdress on and right in the middle of his forehead is a Cobra figure. That's what it's talking about. The Cobra protects by means of her fire or poison.
Among the Egyptian designations for the Urayus, one finds the word flame. The preeminent Cobra deity in Egypt was the crown god Uto. In Isaiah 6, the Seraphim appear in connection with the enthroned heavenly king Yahweh. The following may be said about their position, form, number and function. Their position standing above Yahweh lends itself to comparison with the raised Uri on chapel freezes where the Uri are however without wings.
Whether their shape is serpentine or more humanoid is a matter of dispute. As for number, there are probably two Seraphim in Isaiah 6. Concerning their function, Isaiah 6 displays a noteworthy mutation of the Urius motif. Instead of protecting Yahweh, the Seraphim need their wings to cover themselves from head to feet from Yahweh's consuming holiness. Yahweh does not need their protection. Isaiah uses the Seraphim to underscore the supreme holiness of the God on the throne.
So this is all just to inform us how this character in Isaiah was considered serpentine in nature, was a throne guardian of God and how this type of character would have been understood within the context of the narrative, the Ancient Near East. It would have been a common depiction of a type of being in the Ancient Near East.
And so we're going to read from a few other places in scripture that are going to give us more detail, more insight as to what's going on in the story about this character and his background in history and nature. We're going to be looking first of all from Isaiah chapter 14 and I'm going to be starting in verse 4. The spirit is saying to Isaiah, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon. So let's stop there. This is how this diatribe is introduced.
It is a diatribe against a human king, the king of Babylon. Now this is going to apply both to the passage from Isaiah that we're reading and to the passage in Ezekiel that we're reading. We have a human king that has been elevated and empowered by some force behind it. I'll give you an example of how that works. If you'll remember from the gospels, when Jesus is asking his disciples, he's quizzing them, who are people saying that I am? Who do you say that I am?
He's trying to draw out of them their understanding of his true nature. And Peter pipes up and says, you are the Christ, you're the son of God. And Jesus says to Peter, listen, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who's in heaven. And so Peter has gotten the unction or the inspiration from that confession from another place.
And then Jesus is going on to tell his disciples in the same story, how he's going to have to go on and he's going to be beaten and crucified and died. And then Peter tries to rebuke Jesus and he says, no, that's never going to happen. I'm paraphrasing. When Jesus turns around, just right after he affirms Peter is getting an unction from heaven, he rebukes him and he says, get behind me, Satan, for you don't have the things of God in mind, but the things of man.
And so if you think about it in that passage, there's two perfect illustrations of a representative and imager of God being in agreement with the agenda of heaven and giving expression to it, which is what humans are called to do. And at the same time, receiving an unction and inspiration from a rebellious spirit with a different agenda. Right? So Jesus speaks, get behind me, Satan, you don't have in mind the things of God, but things of man.
He's talking to Peter when he says that, but he's addressing the spirit that is animating or motivating Peter's speech. So that's precisely what we're going to see the scripture doing in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.
God, the Holy Spirit through the prophets is going to be speaking to a human king, but mixed up in this judgment against this human king and his activity mixed up in that is going to be a judgment against the spirit that has elevated empowered and is motivating this King's heart and decision making. Okay. So here's what we get. We said in Isaiah 14, take up this taunt against the King of Babylon.
Babylon throughout scripture is representative of a satanic agenda, satanic kingdom building outside of the governance of the one true God. And so Babylon is a consistent metaphor for Satan's kingdom that he's building on the earth. And so let's get down to verse 12. It says how you are fallen from heaven. Oh, day star, son of Dawn. Now as we get into chapter three, it's going to describe the judgment of Satan as crawling on the dust of the earth.
His language being used to describe him being demoted, him being brought low, him being taken down a few notches or more than a few notches. And so here's what Isaiah is describing. How you are fallen from heaven. Oh day star, one who used to shine, one who used to shine with the beauty and the glory of God, son of the Dawn. You used to be beautiful and glorious in your nature. But you've been, as we keep reading, how you are cut down to the ground.
Now that doesn't that sound similar to the judgment against the serpent right here in chapter three. You will crawl on the dust of the earth. You will eat the dust of the earth. The text says in chapter three, how you were cut down to the ground. You who laid the nations low, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. The stars of God represent throughout scripture, the divine council, the angels, the created spirit beings, the Elohim, the other little G gods.
I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the far reaches of the North. That's an interesting metaphor as we get into prophetic literature. The North is descriptive of where Satan establishes his throne and his kingdom. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high and the judgment verse 15, but you were brought down to shield to the far reaches of the pit.
Not only have you been cast to the earth, demoted to the earth, but you're even lower than the earth. So that's a severe judgment, but it's descriptive of what is motivating Satan's heart to rebel. He wants to promote himself above the other created beings, even to elevate himself to replace God. And so that gives us some insight into what is motivating the heart of this being. We're going to read also from Ezekiel chapter 28, starting in verse 11. Very similar scenario.
This is a diatribe against initially the Prince of Tyre in the first part of the chapter. The language switches here. So the language switches to a different character, to the King of Tyre here in verse 11. It says, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, verse 12, son of man, raise a lamentation over the King of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you were the signet of perfection. Now, think through this. Could the signet of perfection ever apply to a fallen human being?
My answer to that would be no. Fallen human beings could never be described with that type of language. Maybe at one point Adam, but the text doesn't even use that of Adam. It's just very good. All of God's creation was very good. It says you were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering.
Sardius, Topaz and diamond, barrel, onyx and Jasper, sapphire, emerald, carbuncle and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. Verse 14. You were an anointed guardian cherub. Now that verse right there alone tells you this cannot apply to a human being. Now it's a little bit confusing because the text refers to a cherub, not a seraph. But that can be explained like this.
Think of cherub as like a class, so to speak, and seraph like a species of a class. So for example, you have the class ape in the animal kingdom and then you have different species of ape like a chimpanzee or a gorilla. They're both considered apes, but they're different species. So think of seraph or the seraphim as being a species of a cherub, a guardian cherub, a throne guardian being.
So you'll see different throne guardians described in like Ezekiel and Revelation where they're not serpentine in nature, but they've got like four faces, the face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of a lion, the face of an eagle. So they're different species of this class of throne guardian, which were well known throughout the ancient Near East. Like we've said in previous episodes, the Sphinx of Egypt that are guarding the throne of Pharaoh.
You know, it's got the head of a man and the body of a lion. You also see these in Assyria, Assyrian throne guardian characters. So these were well known throughout the ancient Near East, these characters. Clearly this is not describing a human being. Verse 14, you were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God.
Now if you remember from last week, one of the ways the scripture describes the particular place where God lives on the earth, which was being described as Eden in chapter two, it's both a garden and a mountain. Both of those words or environments are descriptive of the living room of God on the earth. So here we have it. What was this serpent doing in the story in the first place?
If this is the living room of God and this is like the perfect place, his safe place for his kids, what is this serpent character doing in the story? Well here we're told right here in Ezekiel, he was appointed there as a guardian cherub. The text says, I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire. You walked. Now that just means shining stone.
That speaks of the bright shining environment of God, which is described very well in Revelation again 21 and 22. The light of the sun and the moon are not needed in the living room of God because the light of God is so bright it illuminates everything. So in the midst of the stones of fire, the shining stones you walked, you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you.
Now as we unpack the following verses of chapter three, when was unrighteousness found in Satan? Well the text tells us in chapter three exactly what happens. So as we go through the chapter, we'll find that it's describing the event that caused the downfall not only of human beings, but Satan himself.
I would pause it and we get some other insight into the motives of this character's heart from even extra canonical literature, extra canonical from a Protestant standpoint, not so much from other Christian groups. This is considered very important if not canonical information. This is from the wisdom of Solomon chapter two, verses 23 through 24. It describes the motivation of this being.
And these books, even if you don't consider them to be authoritative revelation from God, they are still important insight and understanding into the big story of scripture. And we'll get into other books that are considered extra canonical from our Protestant point of view, but are still important bits of information about how the people in the time in which this information was received, understood the narrative. So this is the wisdom of Solomon chapter two, verses 23 through 24.
For God created us for in corruption, human beings, and he made us in the image of his own eternity. And through the devil's envy, the devil was jealous. Death entered the world, which is what is going to be described in chapter three of Genesis and those who belong to his company experience it. Those who get in agreement with Satan experience death. So there it is. It was envy that entered the heart of Satan. Envy of what? Well God had created this beautiful physical universe.
He created human beings, planted them in the environment of his living room where his divine counsel exists and intended for them to rule over all of it. And you see how a being described as beautiful and wise and perfect as Satan might feel envious over that high honor and might begin thinking that he should have been given that honor instead of human beings. That's not really that big of a stretch to understand some of the dynamics that might be going on here. Here's a quote from Dr. Heiser.
In this last regard, I shared the view of certain lines of Jewish tradition that teach that the serpent's motive for seducing Eve was jealousy at humanity's appointment as supreme authority under Yahweh on earth as opposed to the sons of God getting that job. So that's Heiser's interpretation as well. And it's not difficult to understand how that motive might lead one to subvert the plans and the purposes of God with the trajectory of hoping that I will take that assignment for myself.
So we'll get into the dynamics of that story in future episodes. We've probably got several episodes we're going to cover on chapter three. For instance, if God's creation of human beings, if they were perfect, they were without flaw and blemish, why did they make a bad decision? Why was Satan appointed in the garden in the first place? Well, Satan was originally good and the Bible talks a lot about guardian angels and it's their job to help human beings. That's all over scripture.
In Matthew chapter 18 verse 10, take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, one of these children who are innocent, immature, untested. For I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven. So their beings that are assigned, assigned to these kids to help them come to maturity, which is probably precisely what's going on here in Genesis chapter three.
The reason Satan is in the story is because he has been assigned to help original human beings develop in their capacity to represent God on the earth. Here's another example of that from the New Testament, Acts chapter 12 verses 13 through 15. Peter, if you'll remember, had been put in prison and he'd escaped and he's knocking on the door of his friends, so Acts 12 13. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.
When she recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, you are beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it is his angel. So even they understood that there are angels appointed to oversee and to assist human beings in their assignment on the earth.
Psalm chapter 91 verse 11 through 12, for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways in their hands. They shall bear you up. Lest you dash your foot against a stone. Hebrews 13 to do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some of unwittingly entertained angels. Hebrews 1 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? So this is a common motif in scripture.
These created divine beings are assigned to be assistance to human beings in the affairs of ruling or governing or administering the affairs of the earth. They are to assist them in the job of extending the Garden of Eden environment, developing their ability to extend the Garden of Eden environment throughout the entire planet. So that's not an uncommon motif in scripture. So the serpent is there because he was assigned to be there by God.
And he was assigned to be a guardian, you know, just like on the earth, when you have a kid that doesn't have parents and then two adults or an adult decides to take charge of that kid, they're called a parent or guardian. Right. So you have these beings assigned to oversee and assist the development of human beings in their assignment to be God's representatives or imagers on the earth. So that's why the serpent is in the story.
And we've discussed the name, you know, that the use of the word serpent can be a triple entendre, as Heiser would say. It can refer to his nature as a seraphim. It can also refer to his character, the lowliness of his status, you know, a serpent, a snake. He's a snake, snake in the grass. And it can even allude to his craftiness. And that's one of the things that we learned. We're going to learn in Chapter three, he was more crafty than any other beast of the field.
He's like a snake in the grass. So it can be like it can function like a triple entendre in the story, in the narrative designed to communicate an episode in history that we don't have that much detail about. We get glimpses to it in scripture, but there was probably way more going on than what we're even given in the fullness of the story of scripture. So we'll stop there and we'll carry on with Genesis chapter three next week. Hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.
Be blessed. Hold it