The Serpent! - Part 2

Published: Tue, 02/18/20

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth!

Hi ,

In our last e-mail, we looked briefly at a few interesting facts about snakes, and how they function. Here are just a few more…

Snakes operate on instinct, like all animals. As an excellent example of this, consider the Iranian spider-tailed viper. It is camouflaged to look like the rocks and desert in which it lives. However, the very end of its tail looks exactly like a large spider. The snake will sit completely motionless, but it will move the tip of its tail back and forth over the rocks, making it look like a big spider crawling. There are birds that eat that type of spider, so just when the bird thinks it’s about to get a meal, it becomes one!

Have you ever seen a snake in the water? They should drown! They have no limbs to help keep their bodies afloat. Imagine if your arms were tied tightly to the sides of your body, and your legs were tied together, and then you were thrown into a lake. There would be no way for you to stay afloat. It’s similar with a snake. So how do they do it? Snakes have one lung that is operable, the right one. The left one is very small or non-existent. However, only the front of the lung can exchange gases. In other words, just the front portion of the lung is used for breathing. The back half can be blown up like a balloon! That’s what helps to keep them afloat! And, it’s effortless for them!

When a snake swallows an animal whole, it could suffocate if the animal is large. However, God has provided a special breathing tube, called a glottis, that protrudes and can be extended from the bottom of the mouth. This provides an unobstructed flow of air into the lung that otherwise might be squeezed closed.

There are many other interesting facts about snakes, but there are a lot of myths, too. Consider these few:

* Snakes are slimy. No, they’re not. Many are actually very smooth and soft.

* The only good snake is a dead one. Wrong. Snakes are very beneficial. Only a relative few can harm a human. (By the way, no snake is “poisonous”; the ones with fangs are “venomous”. Poison is ingested; venom is injected.)

* Some snakes hypnotize their prey. Wrong. That’s found only in movies!

* Snakes always coil before striking. Wrong. A snake can strike from virtually any position.

Interestingly, the word “serpent” used in the Bible is essentially the same as “snake”. So, when Jesus said in John 3:14, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up”, He was making a startling statement. Moses lifted up a snake made out of bronze. Everyone who had been bitten by a venomous snake could simply look at this snake, and would be healed. In a similar way, we’ve ALL been bitten by the serpent, the devil. The wound is fatal, too! It’s the curse of sin. Jesus likens Himself to that serpent on the pole! All we have to do is look in faith, and be healed!

In Christ,

PS - We will be at Cherry Tree Alliance Church in Uniontown, PA this coming Saturday evening and Sunday morning and evening, February 22 & 23, presenting my regular series of seminars called "The Creation Weekend Safari".