Learning Resilience , Renewal and Constructive Craftiness from the Serpent

UV 3319/10000 Learning Resilience and Renewal from the Serpent
Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “ Can it really be that God has said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”

Genesis 3 v 1

Though the serpent brought about the loss of innocence of man, Jesus asks us to be shrewd as the serpent and gentle as the dove. We are to learn to be wise so that we are not deceived again. We are to be clever enough to identify the pitfall of temptations and avoid the snares of the enemy. We too can learn resilience and renewal from the serpent. Jesus does not want us to be naïve and gullible even as we believe every word that proceeded from His mouth and handed over to us in the written record. The serpent misquoted scripture to ensnare the first woman and man. We should be wise enough to learn and understand and apply scripture accurately, aptly and precisely like a skilled worker knows how to use his tools diligently.

A leopard cannot change its spots or its skin but a serpent can and does change its skin periodically. Like a serpent sheds it skin, we need to identify the attitudes, actions, habits of our lives that need to be changed and appropriate the help and grace of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit to shed or get rid of these. Like the serpent moves on from the spot where it sheds its skin and does not return to that place,we need to move on.

Like the serpent makes hissing noises to warn and fend itself against any potential threats, we too by our words and body language, can save ourselves a lot of uninvited trouble and keep our enemies and opponents at bay or at a distance. We are not to be crafty or cunning to harm others but we are to be crafty and cunning to keep ourselves from harm. It requires knowledge of the ways of the enemy and the sensitivity to pick up cues and signals of movements in the spiritual realms even as a serpent lies close to the ground and as it crawls, its nerves pick up the vibrations of movement of any other creature in the vicinity.