Let’s continue on with our discussion about the “serpent” Moses made and hoisted up on the pole.
I left off last time talking about how Satan was kicked out of heaven for his attempted rebellion against the Almighty.
Today, I want to attempt to piece some more things together.
So Satan was tossed out of heaven?!
Where did he go?
Well, let me introduce a set of verses of which I’m sure you’re all very familiar.
So the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.”
-Genesis 3:14
What is one thing we can learn from this verse?
Well, we can logically deduce that if this serpent (Satan) was cursed from that day forward to have to crawl on his belly, then obviously before that he was a creature who walked upright.
Otherwise, the curse to have to crawl on his belly all his days would have no meaning.
There is another important point most everybody overlooks.
“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’?'”-Genesis 3:1
Notice it says the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals.
And notice carefully what it does NOT say.
It does NOT say the serpent was more crafty than any ONE of the wild animals.
Again, it says the serpent was more crafty “than any of the animals“.
In other words, the Scripture is telling us that this “serpent” was NOT one of the animals.
It was unlike any beast of the field or any other living thing for that matter.
I think we make a mistake in assuming this “serpent” was literally a physical snake hissing around in the garden.
Again, this “serpent” was NOT yet crawling around on the ground.
It was UNIQUE and we’re told this being could speak.
In addition, the contents implies that we’re not supposed to be surprised when this serpent speaks.
The serpent’s capacity for speech seems to be a given in Genesis.
Eve wasn’t all of a sudden taken aback with a WHOAH, did that snake just speak to me?!?!?!?!
Next, I want to move on to another passage of Scripture I’m sure you’re very familiar with.
“Then war broke out in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon,
and the dragon and his angels fought back.
But he was not strong enough,
and they lost their place in heaven.”
-Revelations 12:7-8
Okay, so now this chief adversary who we call Satan in addition to being symbolized as a serpent is also symbolized as a dragon.
We can also deduce from this verse in Revelations that this “dragon” was higher than the angels because it says this dragon had “his own angels“.
Now let’s talk a little bit about dragons.
What exactly is a dragon?
Well, interestingly, the dragon does NOT appear in Middle Eastern culture or traditions.
Dragons as we know them originated in ancient China.
In Middle Eastern folklore, one can find part man and part beast creatures that have wings.
However, these beings were NOT dragons.
Dragons have no humanness to them, they are all beast.
However, the Greeks had dragons as part of their folklore.
Actually, it is from the Greek work “drakon” that we get our English word “dragon“.
However, when John mentions the dragon in the Book of Revelations, what exactly did he have in mind?
I doubt it was the mythical fire-breathing creature we’re all familiar with.
No, it is logical to assume that John being the Jew he was would have imagined something closer to the descriptions we’re given in Scripture.
In other words, he probably pictured an evil and fiery spiritual being that had wings and could fly.
So here’s where we’re at so far.
According to the Biblical accounts, we have the following images:
-Winged Seraphim that stood upright in Heaven
-The serpent in the Garden of Eden who was cursed to crawl on its belly
-The serpent (SARAPH in Hebrew) who Moses mounted to a pole
-The fiery dragon who has wings and flies identified as Satan in the Book of Revelations.
Here’s the thing.
I see an interesting connection between all of these depictions.
Could it not be that the creature who was cast out of heaven was the rebellious SARAPH we now know on earth as Satan?
Also, consider what Yeshua said:
He replied,
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
-Luke 10:18
Consider that in the Bible, lightning is just another representation of fire!
Basically, Yeshua was saying he saw Satan fall from heaven like a fiery streak!
This fits in perfectly with the description that the SERAPHIM are fiery heavenly beings.
And again, keep in mind that in Numbers 21, God ordered Moses to mount a SARAPH unto the pole.
And also, the Dragon mentioned in the Book of Revelations is also described as a “fiery serpent” with wings.
Now, I do want to let you know that I am well aware that there are quite a few places in Scripture where we’re told that the heavenly being kicked out of heaven was called a CHERUBIM.
But remember earlier I also mentioned that when we compare the depictions given for CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM, they’re pretty much the same.
Again, I think that SARAPH (meaning “fiery“) might just be a characteristic of CHERUBIM.
To be continued…
I get what you’re saying or trying to tie together..if we also study that the SARAPHIMS each had only one face and were hovering over the THRONE of Almighty YAHUAH verses the CHERUBIMS who each had four faces were under the expansion on which the THRONE of Our ALMIGHTY FATHER sits there is a difference in ranks or orders to the two in this study
Also the saraphims had six wings and the cherubims had four wings
Hi Henry, Can you please give me Scriptural references for both SERAPHIM and CHERUBIM? I’d like to conduct an analysis. Thanks
Also the saraphims had six wings and the cherubims had four wings
The four faces represent shape shifters.
Hello Rabbi Rich,
You wrote that “Dragons, as we know them, originated in ancient China.” But is not the Chinese are descendants of Shem? In ancient times, the Chinese worshipped the one and only one true God. Unfortunately, somehow Dragon came and stole these people of Shem’s offsprings from the Almighty God. It would be appropriate to say, the crafty Satan (original from Heaven) went to the East–China. Like Eva, the Chinese were deceived by giving power to Satan.
Hi Susan, Thank you for sharing some interesting thoughts. I also want to let you know I am NOT an officially ordained Rabbi…by any means…nor do I play one on the internet. These articles on this blog are based on my personal research and studies. I just wanted to make sure you understood that. Be blessed and SHALOM!
To be taken seriously one should learn to correctly spell the book of Revelation.
Without a doubt dragons were killed off. There’s ancient coins with pictures of dragons fighting knights. Satan seems to exhibit both dragon and snake/serpent in the scriptures. The real question is how did existing dragons at the time become snakes? or did that even happen? Perhaps snakes didn’t exist at the time but since Satan had turned into one. all he could do on the earth is create more snakes. reptiles are surely some of the most vicious animals. They have to swim in their own crap and constantly drag on the ground. But i guess the dragons kept reproducing until the knights killed them off? I don’t know. All ancient folklore depicts dragons. reptiles seem the most related. Surely by now though all the dragons are mostly extinct. This would also explain why angels in genesis wanted to create giant humans. They were probably jealous of Satan’s giant dragons. Like father like son and they might say. fallen angels.
anyway this topic is hard to research because of the buried history and we just don’t know enough. however i don’t think an animal with small arms and a giant head (T-Rex) that can’t support its own body weight ever existed. Its a joke played on the masses. The real T-Rex bones are from Dragons! dragon bones.
serpent is not snake, it may be reptile, it may be all big high serpent or reptile or dinosaur became low belly crawlers as judgement for making Eve think she could eat of the forbidden fruit and not die, which may have been egg and the serpent did it as a bully, but God had to kill the parent of the egg so they didn’t kill Eve and Adam or live in agony over loss of egg.
Well written. I agree with your saraph and cherub account of the dragon.
I was hoping you could tell me if the ancient Chinese had a religious concept of the devil as Satan, promoting the rule of darkness?
Glad you liked this Rob. Don’t think the Chinese have the religious evil concept like Satan. They have more of a yin and yang (polar opposites) situation going on.
You imply that the serpent or dragon in the garden of Eden wasn’t a physical serpent and only Satan, instead of a literal serpent working with Satan, but this interpretation doesn’t explain why there are physical animals called snakes crawling on their bellies. I think it’s pretty obvious that the serpent or dragon was cursed to be a snake and the ancestor of snakes. Now, this doesn’t take away from the pagan worship of dragons and snakes and the symbolism of Satan as the serpent; it just adds to it.
Also, you said that dragon stories originate from China, but I just heard about a Babylonian Creation myth that involved a dragon.