Why Serpents? 4

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. (Deuteronomy 12:30)

In my write up on Christ’s command for His servants to be as shrewd as serpents, I feel that it is important for us to remember this one fact.

Snakes are never curious. They do not go out looking for trouble. They do not go out looking for information.

A snake only looks for three things; food, warmth and somewhere to hide.

Security undergirds everything a snake does as I have explained in my previous posts on the same.

Why am I writing this? I know someone is wondering.

Man is curious by nature. We are excited about knowing a little bit more.

And God knew that when He issued this command to His people.

What is a bait?

Bait is food with a trap. It is an invitation to willingly enter into a trap. It is the enticement to get into a hole you won’t be able to get out of.

In short, a bait is poison packaged as food.

That is where curiosity gets us.

It is as we are seeking to know that we are entrapped.

A drug addict doesn’t just become addicted.

It always starts with the desire to feel something; to experience something.

Most addicts knew the dangers of the drugs they were getting into but felt that sampling was harmless. Until they got hooked.

Curiosity is dangerous, and not only on drugs.

That is why God issued that commandment.

Do not seek to know how the other side operates. Destroy their pictures, their shrines and everything that represented their worship was God’s command.

That is why I am revisiting serpents.

Jesus used serpents for this reason too.

As we minister, we are supposed to stick to our lane. And for a very good reason.

Curiosity is enticing in very subtle ways.

And in no greater way does it beat the desire for knowledge, especially esoteric knowledge.

That is what Eve fell for. And that is what a majority of our seeking ministers are falling for too.

This is especially in places where culture and superstition reign.

We think we will be more effective as evangelists if we are at par with what whoever God sends us to. We therefore seek to know as much as possible about their belief systems with that goal in sight.

But it does not work that way.

We may in our pursuit get swallowed into what we are seeking to rescue them from.

I have written of pastors who went to a new country for a conference and were warned against visiting the red-light areas.

But they probably thought their hosts were not good enough or bold at evangelism and went there anyway.

The truth of the matter is that quite a number of them returned home with HIV.

That is the power of curiosity, the curiosity God was warning the Israelites against.

God did not mean His servants to be ignoramuses. We should be knowledgeable.

But our knowledge should come from God and His revelation. AND ONLY THERE.

God knows the kind of knowledge we need to accomplish the assignments He has for us. He will thus avail the same to us in ways consistent to His revelation.

There is a great difference between you looking for information about witchcraft and their way of doing things and having a converted witch giving you the information. It is completely different when you seek to understand harlots through ingenuity and hearing the testimony or counsel from a converted one.

Though the information may be the same, one comes through pursuit and the other through revelation.

One is led by curiosity while the other is brought by God.

That is the reason God in Eden gave the commandment, do not eat.

But man sought to know why and for what purpose God had said that. And that enticement is the reason he tried to ring fence his obedience with his own commandment, do not touch.

That is what the devil capitalized on.

I have always said that it is interesting that though Eden occupied all the land from Ethiopia and South Sudan all the way to Iraq according to the boundaries in Genesis 2, they were found around the forbidden tree.

Though a sampling of the whole land’s fruitfulness could have taken decades, they never left the vicinity of the forbidden tree.

Being mesmerized by the forbidden became their obsession.

That is what curiosity births.

Should we neglect knowledge?

Of course not. But we should stay withing God’s limits in our pursuit of the same otherwise we will replicate what happened in Eden.

We should immerse ourselves into the primary sources from God and allow them lead us to the relevant information we will need in our ministry.

Our primary source is God’s word, the Bible.

Every other pursuit should start from there.

Anyone who has been reading my blog will notice that I read a lot. But I allow God to lead me to the information I need instead of pursuing my basic curiosities.

This message has the capacity to become massive so I think I will stop here with the simple instruction.

Be aware of curiosity. It is addictive. It is ensnaring. It can easily head one to damnation.

Seek to know God’s word instead and use it as the gauge for any other information you may pursue or even come across.