ANTI-VENOM

 

I never shot a gun until I moved to Texas. Now, don’t worry, this isn’t about gun control vs. Second Amendment rights. It’s about snakes! Early on in our marriage, we lived on a ranch in West Texas for six years. During that time, I shot a minimum of eight rattlesnakes in the proximity of our house (and many more as we roamed the ranch property). I saw them, I shot. There was never any hesitation. Snakes have always unnerved me. Having two young daughters just heightened my response. But not everyone has the same healthy fear of snakes that I do.

Rattlesnakes aren’t America’s most lovable animals, but they’re certainly able to draw a crowd. Between January and July, dozens of rattlesnake roundups will take place in at least seven U.S. states, bringing the paying public face to fang with the often-reviled reptile…While roundup organizers around the U.S. maintain that their events focus on snake education, detractors say the events send exactly the wrong message. “They try to put a spin on these events, saying that they are educational, but they’re really more daredevil events,” said Cimino [of the Humane Society]. “At a lot of these roundups, the handlers allow children to touch tails of the rattlesnakes. They’re taught not to be afraid of them. Kids are losing their fear by watching handlers play games with these animals.”[i]

            Not to be afraid? Is this really a good idea? Some snake-handling ‘preachers’ seem to think so:

John Brown, Jr. was a rising star on the snake handling circuit while preaching to the faithful in Alabama. The rattlesnake that Brown was handling turned, sinking its fangs into his flesh. Five minutes later, the preacher’s five kids were orphans. Their mother, Melinda, had succumbed to a snakebite during a service three years earlier. An estimated 75 people [by 2000] have died from handling snakes during religious services in the past 80 years. The practice has so unnerved authorities that it has been banned in every Appalachian state except West Virginia. In Georgia, it remains a misdemeanor to handle a snake without a permit, but the law is rarely enforced.[ii]

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[i] Handwerk, Brian; Snake Handlers Hang On. National Geographic Online. March 10, 2003.

[ii]Simao, Paul; Praise the Lord, Pass the Serpents in Georgia, Reuters. September 29, 2001.

Many of these snake handlers have been bitten multiple times but continue in their suicidal practices, twisted and grotesquely gnarled fingers resulting from the neurotoxic venom of such encounters. Don’t be afraid? This mentality all started in the Garden. Remember Adam and Eve? Their reptilian encounter didn’t turn out too well either. They received the quintessential snakebite, the venom that continues to “steal, kill, and destroy.”[i] This is the poison that leads to twisted hearts, minds, and souls, which destroys personal and communal peace. Yet we are tempted to follow our never-satiated desires for health, wealth, and power (sometimes professedly in the name of God) – only to get bit time and time again!

Now being tempted, in and of itself, does not make you a bad or foolish person (or a ‘sinner,’ to use classic Christian terms). How do we know this? Because “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” One of the precious reasons to follow Jesus is because he can truly “sympathize with our weaknesses.”[ii] He’s been there – but without making foolish choices or sinning. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”[iii]

Follow the Leader: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”[iv] After his baptism, Jesus didn’t suddenly get a wild idea to fast for forty days in the Judean Wilderness to become more spiritual. He was not seeking to prove his mettle to his Father – or trying to test the limits of his Father’s love. Rather, Jesus was being obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It was God’s will that Jesus should battle Satan before he began spreading the Good News. This, however, does not mean that God initiated the temptation, for Scripture tells us that “God tempts no one.”[v] But God can, and does, at times use the efforts of evil people and their father, the Devil, in order to advance the heavenly kingdom.

But does that mean that we should proactively seek such encounters? Absolutely not! Sometimes people have rashly put themselves in temptation’s destructive path, ostensibly in the name of God. For example, “God didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt,” said Marie Hobbs, a 45-year-old Georgia woman who was bitten by a snake - in church. “I count it an honor to die for the Lord.”[vi] Do you really believe that the same Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the desert led Marie to play with snakes “for his glory”?

Physical Cravings: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter [Satan] came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’”[vii] Jesus, being the Son of the most-high God, had the power to turn the stones into bread in order to fill the emptiness in his stomach, quell the headaches from lack of food, and gain much-needed physical strength lost through fasting. This is the same Jesus who would later turn five loaves of bread and a couple of fish into a feast for thousands so their hunger pangs would be satisfied. But the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan while in a famished physical state – not fueled for the fight strengthened by food.

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[i] John 10:10

[ii] Hebrews 4:15 (italics added)

[iii] Hebrews 4:16

[iv] Matthew 4:1

[v] James 1:13

[vi] Simao, op. cit.

[vii] Matthew 4:2-3

(Image by Dann Schrader)

Satan thought he could take the physically weakened Son and turn him against his Father. “If your Father really loved you, why doesn’t he feed you? Why is he letting you suffer in this wretched wilderness? If he’s not going to care for you, take matters into your own hands!” It’s the same lie Satan has been trying to spread since the Garden: “Your Father really doesn’t love you! If he did, he’d give you __________.” Fill in the blank from your own life. No matter what you believe your physical needs/wants are or have been, Jesus understands the temptation to give in to get relief.

But how does he respond? Jesus answers, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[i] His first recorded words after being baptized into ministry affirm the authority of Scripture, his Father’s words, over his life…and ours. The full meaning of those three simple words is, “‘It has been written, and still stands written.’ This emphasized the eternal unchangeableness of God’s Word.”[ii] In order to battle Satan’s temptation to use divine powers rather than feel the full force of being human and hungry, Jesus relied on the Word as his guide.

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[i] Matthew 4:4 (italics added)

[ii] Earle, Ralph; Beacon Bible Commentary. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1964, p. 58.

Scripture Twisting: Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”[i]

This is the same type of ‘faith’ that the snake handlers seek to propagate. They, too, defend their practices by citing Scripture erroneously: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”[ii] Those snake handlers believe these words are an unequivocal commandment to literally risk life and limb. If they survive a snake bite, the pain was for God’s glory. If they die, they die for God’s glory. Scripture-twisting has always been a favorite ploy of the great deceiver.

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[i] Matthew 4:5-7 (italics added)

[ii] Mark 1:16-17

(Image by Dann Schrader)

How did he do it with Jesus? He took him to the pinnacle of the temple and quoted Psalm 91:11-12. In essence, Satan said, “If you truly trust your Father’s Word, jump! Going without food for a while isn’t really a big deal. Prove your faith by putting your Father to the ultimate test – to protect your life.” By using Scripture, Satan seeks to turn the Sword back on Jesus so that it will become impotent. But the Lord is not deterred – and neither should we be. Jesus pulls the Sword out again and thrusts it towards his adversary. Jesus properly interprets the meaning of Scripture by laying it side by side against itself, not allowing one passage to be taken in isolation from another. He counters Satan’s deceit by quoting, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”[i] “We tempt [test] God when we put ourselves into circumstances that force Him to work miracles on our behalf. The diabetic who refuses to take insulin and argues, ‘Jesus will take care of me,’ may be tempting the Lord. We tempt God when we try to force him to contradict His own Word.[ii]

Wealth and Power: Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”[iii]

Satan’s methods haven’t changed. He’s still trying to get every single person to turn away from Jesus. The promises of health, wealth, and power are often Satan’s modus operandi in order to get people to worship him. Why follow Jesus? Because he knows what it is to feel the full weight of temptation without surrendering to it. To say that Jesus knows the full intensity of temptation is to understand that the moment we surrender to it, temptation terminates. But Jesus never experienced that. One reason Jesus did this is so that we would know that he really does understand any temptation we have experienced, are experiencing, or will experience. When that time comes, and it will, almost assuredly on a daily basis, be prepared to resist Satan so that he will flee. Jesus’ final words to Satan need to be at our ready every time temptation comes knocking at our door: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”[iv]

Music: Don't Tread on Me 

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[i] Deuteronomy 6:16

[ii] Wiersbe, Warren; The Bible Exposition Commentary, 1996, electronic edition, S. Mt. 4:1

[iii] Matthew 4:8-10

[iv] Matthew 4:10-11