"THE NATURE OF SATAN"
By Patti King

We should all be desiring the nature of God - not the nature of satan. Satan's nature is a counterfeit for the nature of God.

Genesis 3:14 "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:"

God said, "Because thou hast done this." I asked myself, "What did the serpent really do to deserve this curse?"

Let's look a little closer at the nature of this beast that God ultimately cursed. Genesis 3:1 "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." In this reference his nature is described as SUBTLE. What does subtle mean? It means cunning and crafty, delicately skillful or clever, strangely suggestive, mysterious, sly.

Genesis 3:13 records Eve as saying, "The serpent BEGUILED me." Here, we see him as the beguiler. Beguiled comes from the Strong's Concordance #5377 and it means to lead astray, i.e., (mentally) to delude or (morally) to SEDUCE, DECEIVE.

His nature as the deceiver means to take down or from, to make a person believe what is not true, to mislead, to cause to err, to beguile, to divert.

His seducing nature is to lead apart, 1. to persuade to do something disloyal, disobedient, 2. to persuade to do wrong, as by offering something to tempt to do evil or wrongdoing, to lead astray, 3. to persuade to engage in unlawful sexual intercourse, especially for the first time.

These descriptions of his nature give us a partial idea of what we are dealing with. We will refer to his subtle, beguiling, deceiving and seducing nature throughout this article.

We would like to add, for the purpose of clarification, who this serpent is. In Genesis, serpent is "nachash" (#5175) - a snake (from it's hiss), serpent. It comes from 5172 - to hiss, i.e. whisper a (magic) spell, generally to prognosticate, divine, enchanter, observe signs, practice fortunetelling.

Revelation 12:9 identifies him as "the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and satan." Interestingly, the word "old" in that passage is "archaios" which is a derivative meaning "original or primeval" - (them of) old (time). The Lexical Aid says, "That which was from the beginning". On a brighter note, it is the same "old" found in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, "old" things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Jesus has made provision for that which was from the beginning to pass away! Praise the LORD, that as we apply and appropriate what Jesus did, the nature of God comes forth in us.

I would like to submit that there are old serpents in all of us that are yet to be cast out!

Have you ever wondered how the serpent beguiled Eve? Stop and think about it. She had it all - yet she was beguiled.

Let's rehearse for a moment and read Gen 1:27 & 28. "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

God had finished His work of creation and had given dominion over "every living thing that moveth upon the earth" to Adam and Eve. Dominion (7287) means to tread down, i.e. subjugate; specifically to crumble off, prevail against, rule over. They had dominion over the serpent.

Genesis 2:9 "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."

Genesis 2:16-17 "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." There was no restriction at that point to them eating of the tree of life. They had full access to it.

The ONLY RESTRICTION that God placed in their lives was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They only knew life. They had no comprehension of death. They had NO knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve really were living the abundant life at that time!

So, how did the serpent beguile Eve? (To be continued in a future issue)

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