Sunday 9 August 2009

That old serpent

He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; - Revelation 20v2

One of the first characters we meet when we start to read through the Bible shows in Genesis 3, right after the creation account. ‘Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"’

Ever since then, all through the word of God, that old serpent has been causing trouble. He is referred to as a dragon, a snake, a roaring lion, the deluder, the deceiver, the father of lies, and so on and so on.

Sometimes it seems that he is winning. Sometimes it seems that he has won. 1,184 chapters after we first met the serpent we now see the beginning of his demise. Yes, he will pop up again after 1,000 years, but that will be a fruitless effort.

He hissed and slithered and wove his way throughout human history. We still must deal with it for a while. We can however take encouragement from the fact that his doom is sealed.

No comments: