Jamin Bradley

I worked quite a bit with serpentine imagery in an allegorical fantasy book I wrote. The villain was a huge snake with robot legs and robot wings, who tried to pretend he was a dragon. Temptation was offered by snakes that tried (very poorly) to pretend they were harmless sheep. As humans gave into temptation, they began to hiss their words. By the end of the book, readers should recognize that some humans and spiritual beings have found allegiance with the snake-dragon through their sin and like-mindedness with him.

This allegorical portrait is painted by the Bible as God told the snake in the Garden of Eden that there would be hostility between his descendants and the descendants of humanity. Not only will the snake raise up a family in the spiritual realm, but he will also do so in the physical realm. This is commented on in several ways in the New Testament. Jesus and John the Baptist called some “serpents” and “brood of vipers.” Jesus recognized the devil as the father of some. And 1 John 3 made the contrast between the children of the devil and the children of God—for just as Satan has family in the spiritual and physical realm, so does God.

Cain was one of Satan’s earliest victims, for sin crouched in wait to win him over (a picture that lines up well with Peter’s description of Satan prowling like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us). Cain unified his thoughts with Satan’s, and instead of offering a good sacrifice to God, he offered a blood sacrifice to Satan by killing his brother, Abel. Perhaps this is why Jesus calls Satan a “murderer from the beginning” in the same lecture where he recognizes Satan as the father of some people. Perhaps this is why Jesus calls some people “serpents” and a “brood of vipers” in the same lecture where he comments on the bloodshed of Abel. Perhaps this is why 1 John 3 brings up Cain as an example of how not to live after making a contrast between the children of the devil and the children of God.

May our serpentine ways be stripped of us entirely through the power of the Holy Spirit, who is freeing us from a life of sin and helping us to become more like Christ.