The Dark Side Of All The Talk About Angels

Angels are big in our American culture. Google the word and you come up with tens of thousands of sites. And they're apparently always ready to help. All you have to do is get in touch. Strangely, they're usually pictured as feminine in gender, but ever with glorious powers of healing and protection. Example:

The Purple Oasis - A Sacred Space for Healing

What has the Creator of men and angels revealed about these wondrous beings? Its quite different in many cases from what is passed off as inside information on the Internet. This week I'll take a look at some of God's, not man's revelations.

When we start at the very beginning—with the serpent in the garden—we come at once to the dark side to this story. Prior to Adam's creation there was a rebellion among these spirit beings we are told (Rev.12:7-9). When God created Adam and Eve, the leader of that rebel angel crowd sought to take these bodied souls under his control. So we read . . .

Now the serpent was more crafty (cunning, shrewd, subtle) 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'?" - Gen 3:1 ESV

Was this serpent a fallen angel? The text says nothing about the serpent being an angel. Instead we simply read about the nachash, the serpent, "The nachash was more crafty than any other beast of the field made by the LORD God." What made this poor beast so cunning? Could it have been the spirit that had taken over its body? Furthermore, it seems this nachash was more like a dragon, a reptile with feet, because he wasn't forced to crawl on his belly until later:

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. - Gen 3:14 ESV

I see nothing to suggest at this point that the curse extended to all of that particular serpent's offspring. Nothing suggests that wonderful class of creatures known as snakes are all under some curse of God.

The word nachash is also a noun meaning divination, enchantment, omen and sorcery. The only place we find that noun is in the story of the pagan prophet Balaam (Numbers 23:23; 24:1). In Gen. 30:27 we meet the verb form as Laban learned by divination that he was blessed because of Jacob. Divination is in the list of forbidden secret practices of Deut. 18:10. Further, the Hebrew words for copper, bronze and brass have nachash as their root. All that may help to explain why Eve was attracted to the dragon/serpent in the garden.

Of course, we do read more about serpents in other places. For example, at the start of Exodus story, the LORD sends Moses and his brother Aaron to Pharaoh with their miracle working staffs. When Pharaoh demands proof of their authority, they throw the staffs down and Aaron's "became a nachash!" No big deal, says mighty Pharaoh. He merely calls in his magicians whose staffs do the same thing. But—and I've always like this part—Aaron's staff-nachash swallows up those of the Egyptians (Exodus 7:8-12).

What's the deal about serpents, both in the garden and in Egypt? All through the myths and stories of Egypt and various other religions, both ancient and modern, serpents and snakes figure in very prominently. The Egyptians had many serpent or dragon gods.

- Aker, was a dragon representing the earth. It bound the coils of Apep. It was believed to preside over the point where the eastern and western horizons of the Underworld met. Aker aids the forces of light by binding and chaining the serpent when Ra passes through the underworld. 

- Apep [also known as Apophis], a terrifying great sea-serpent, lay in wait in the Egyptian underworld to ambush the sun god, Ra, who had to voyage through it each night ready to rise again. Apep would viciously attack the boat Ra was in as he crossed the sky during the day, and when there was an eclipse, it was believed to be due to Apep swallowing the vessel whole. Despite Apep's menace, he never gained complete victory over his eternal enemy. However Apep was also never believed to have been fully vanquished. The reddening of the sky at dusk was said to demonstrate that the serpent had been overcome by the sun's strength.

- Ankh-neteru was a serpent god. Afu Ra [the sun god] had his boat pulled by twelve gods through Ankh-neteru's body, entering the tail and exiting the mouth. This results in Afu Ra being transformed into Khepera, the ancient god associated with the creation of the world.

- Denwen came about during the third millennium B.C. and is described as a fiery serpent. He would have caused an inferno that would have destroyed all of the gods had he not been thwarted by the Egyptian King.

- Nehebkau, a servant of Ra, was an Egyptian serpent with human arms and legs. It was the great serpent upon which the world rested, and is sometimes represented with a man's body and holding the eye of Horus. Nehabkau was known to guard the entrance of the Underworld and accompanied the sun god on his nightly journey through it as well. 

- The Uraeus was the symbol of sovereignty, worn on the royal Egyptian headdress. It is used as a protective symbol, as the Egyptians believed that the cobra would spit fire at any approaching enemies.

- Wadjet was an Egyptian serpent guardian sent by Osiris to protect Pharoah and control the Nile. The cobra goddess was the patroness of Lower Egypt. Wadjet was part of the Osirian myths and was always viewed as a protector of Egypt, depicted as a woman with a cobra head or as a cobra about to strike at the nation's enemies.

Common also was the ouroboros, the snake that eats his own tail. Dating back as early as 1600 B.C. Egyptians believed that the sun god rose through the underworld each night on the back of ouroboros. The word comes from the Greek: ouroboros = tail-devourer. In many religions the ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and infinity. Like the circle, it symbolizes creation out of destruction, life out of death. You can read more about general serpent symbolism in the Wikipedia article.

Ouroboros - Wikipedia

In the Exodus story the power of the LORD was greater than all the serpent gods of the Egyptians. 

So back to the serpent in the garden. Was the serpent or dragon in the garden the devil? It is obvious that the devil or satan—and those under his control—are spirits. They do not need bodies to move around. However, they are able to enter bodies of beasts or men. For instance, we read of two demon-possessed men who lived among the tombs in the country of the Gadarenes. Jesus drove them out and gave the demons permission to enter a herd of pigs (Matthew 8:28-34). Again, we read about how Satan entered into Judas, leading him to betray Jesus (Luke 22:1-6). The only conclusion we can reach is that in the garden the devil used that particular dragon's body to seduce Eve to disobey a specific command of the LORD. 

For this and other reasons snakes are seen as seductive and deceptive, especially since many carry lethal poison in their fangs. The snake's phallic shape is also associated with fertility.

The warning at the Bible's very beginning: The devil long ago succeeded in his plans. In many and various forms he now appears, not only as a snake. He has become, in fact, the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 1 John 5:19). 

Not a good way to start our examination of angels, but quite realistic. 

A Dark Prince Enters The Story

In previous posts I discussed the back story of the mystery of marriage as recorded in Genesis 2:15-25. But that is not the entire back story. In the very next chapter someone dark and foreboding enters and everything starts to go wrong. Suddenly we see that the story is not being played out as originally planned by the Author of Life (Acts 3:15; John 1:4, 11:25-26). This someone was there when Adam and Eve were created. Now he steps into the story and twists it to his own purposes. We will not understand the back story without this part of it. Let's look at it.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and  pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:1-6). 

Without this part of the back story we cannot understand human history as it has unfolded from the Garden of Eden to the present. Unless we accept the reality of spiritual forces under the leadership of a dark prince dedicated to pulling us into  disobedience and rebellion all of our social sciences are pointless and useless. The Apostles of Christ emphasized this. Paul wrote,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-12).

With our laws about marriage, our legal definitions of the institution, our social services, our courts, our therapies and our drugs we do bring a certain order to human life. However, all of it is but temporary and transient. The Apostles remind us again and again that we are merely dealing with surface issues. A darkness has descended upon this world. Unseen, highly organized and very powerful spirits are at work behind the scenes in that spiritual darkness. And they are led by a prince with a ravenous appetite for power and glory (Revelation 12:9; Ephesians 2:2).

In further discussions of marriage we must always be conscious of this part of the story. This is and was the beginning of the great conflict. There is, however, hope for God's children. There is another Prince in this tale (Isaiah 9:2; John 1:1-14). In this Christmas/Epiphany season we celebrate His coming.