THE SEED AND THE SERPENT
FROM DUST TO GLORY • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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In the 1981 blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones discovers the hidden location of the Ark of the Covenant. Just before being lowered into the Ark's location, Sallah, Indy's trusted sidekick, looks down into The Well of Souls and asks Indy, "Why does the floor move?" Indy responds by asking for Sallah's torch, which he promptly drops to the floor. The torch reveals Indy's worst nightmare: snakes; why did it have to be snakes?
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I to share Indy's fear of snakes, and as I have studied the story of David and Goliath and its connection to the Biblical narrative and the Christmas Story, I have come away saying snake and the seed; it's all about the snake and the seed.
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This obvious truth of the snake and seed had escaped my studies all these years. Though it escaped my observation, it has been observed, studied, and well-written by Bible scholars. The story of our salvation, Christmas, and the real meaning behind David and Goliath are found in this snake-seed motif.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Dust is symbolic of defeat.
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Defeat will come through a seed.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
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Genesis 3:15 sets the stage for Christmas 4,000 years in the future. The remaining books in the Old Testament remind Israel of this promise through the constant conflict between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed.
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Serpent is an umbrella term that includes both snakes and dragons. It’s the big category. Snakes and dragons are kinds of serpents. The Greek word (drakōn), explains an expert Greek linguist, refers to “a monstrous serpent”—“ the ancients Greeks did not visualize it as a winged, fire-blowing creature with claws.”
DECEIVE AND DEVOUR
A serpent has two major strategies: deceive and devour. As a general rule, the form a serpent takes depends on its strategy. When a serpent in Scripture attempts to deceive, it’s a snake.
DRAGON AND SNAKE
When a serpent attempts to devour, it’s a dragon. Snakes deceive; dragons devour. Snakes tempt and lie; dragons attack and murder. Snakes backstab; dragons assault
Kill the dragon, get the girl!
A pithy way to summarize the Bible’s storyline is “Kill the dragon, get the girl!” The storyline features three main characters: The serpent (the villain— Satan) A damsel in distress (the people of God) The serpent slayer (Jesus)
PICTURE
The story begins with bliss. The damsel enjoys a beautiful garden in a pristine world. (Adam and Eve enjoy the garden of Eden.) But the serpent employs the strategy to deceive, tempt, lie, and backstab. (The snake deceives Eve.)
PICTURE
As the story develops, the serpent craftily alternates between deceiving and devouring. (For example, sometimes Satan attempts to deceive God’s people with false teaching. At other times Satan assaults God’s people with violent persecution.)
PICTURE
At the climax of the story, the dragon attempts to devour the hero but fails. (The dragon murders Jesus but merely bruises Jesus’s heel while Jesus decisively crushes the serpent’s head.)
PICTURE
For the rest of the story, the dragon furiously attempts to devour the damsel. (The dragon attempts to deceive and destroy the church.)
PICTURE
The hero’s mission: kill the dragon, get the girl. He will accomplish that mission. (The Lamb will consummate his kingdom for God’s glory by slaying the dragon and saving his bride.)
Serpents Distinctly Symbolize God’s Enemies— Satan and His Offspring
Starting with Genesis 3, the Bible connects the serpent to sin and the curse. More specifically, serpents symbolize God’s enemies. The following four passages equate serpents with the enemy of God and his people:
For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.
For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter;
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf;
they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
Satan— the ultimate serpent— energizes his offspring to be serpents that craftily deceive and devour people. The Lord tells Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
“Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers.
Egypt— specifically Pharaoh— is a serpent. Egypt is a snake, a Leviathan, a sea monster, a dragon in the seas. This is explicit in Exodus, Numbers, Psalms, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. The serpent hates the woman’s offspring
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
PICTURE
One of the serpent’s strategies to fight the woman’s offspring is to be a devouring dragon that murders babies. This happens with Pharaoh (Ex. 1: 8– 22), and the trajectory continues with King Herod (Matt. 2: 16– 18) and the dragon in the book of Revelation (Rev. 12: 1– 5).
God Delivers His People from the Egyptian Serpent in the Exodus
God commissioned Moses to liberate his people. As God prepared Moses to face Pharaoh, God told Moses to throw his staff on the ground. When Moses did that, his staff “became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses,
And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.
But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—
LATER ON
Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ”
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent.
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.
Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
PICTURE
The serpent was one of the gods of Egypt, and God stated what he intended to accomplish by battling Pharaoh: “On all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments” (Ex. 12: 12). So when Aaron’s staff transformed into a serpent that swallowed up the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians, God was sending Pharaoh a strong message: Egypt thinks Pharaoh is a mighty, immortal serpent, but God can easily swallow him up. And that is exactly what God did to the Egyptian army in the Red Sea:
“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.
PICTURE
“Swallowed” translates the same Hebrew word as in Exodus 7: 12: “Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” Later passages in Psalms and Isaiah refer to that exodus as God’s defeating the serpent:
Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
In the famous story of David and Goliath, Goliath is a giant serpent
He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels;
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head.
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David.
Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
speak, and say, Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams, that says, ‘My Nile is my own; I made it for myself.’
I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales; and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales.
And I will cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your streams; you shall fall on the open field, and not be brought together or gathered. To the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the heavens I give you as food.
Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord. “Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel,
The theological message of the David and Goliath story is that
and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
God slays dragons. Once again the seed of the woman crushes the seed of the serpent. It is surely no coincidence that when the seed of the woman named David lets fly his stone, the uncircumcised Philistine seed of the serpent who defied the armies of the living God gets struck on the forehead. The stone sinks into his forehead, and with a crushed head the Philistine falls dead.
The collective seed of the woman are delivered from the seed of the serpent by the judgment administered through the singular seed of the woman.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
CHRISTMAS IS THE SEED COMING INTO THE WORLD TO CRUSH THE SNAKE.
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.
She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,
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The serpent defeated Adam under a tree (“ the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”— Gen. 2: 17), and the new and greater Adam defeats the serpent on a tree— a cross for executing criminals. “With profound irony,” early Christians spoke “of Jesus reigning from the cross.”
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The dragon fails to devour the Messiah. The snake is crushed because the seed of the woman is crushed.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Jesus became the seed of the woman so that the seed of the serpent could be born again as the seed of the woman.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
CHRISTMAS REMINDS US THAT ONLY THOSE BORN AGAIN OF THE WOMAN’S SEED WILL CONQUER THE SERPENT.
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.