The symbol of the serpent in ancient Egypt represented power. Although the meaning is not entirely lost in the Judeo-Christian tradition, where the power to rule, to heal and to save are embodied in Jesus Christ, presented as a divine snake; (John 3: 14-15), by and large, bound by the law of first mention, whenever snakes are represented in scripture, nothing positive is intended. The snake in the garden lied, and every other snake thereafter evokes every negative quality of spirit that perverts truth, seduces the innocent, and subtly plots destruction. How could one find good in such a venomous creature, hell bent on destruction, opposed to all good; except that God made this legless creature with no backbone, and gave it its slithering tongue for a purpose; and that by God’s own testimony, after creating it along with all other creatures, it was declared good.
Truth however, heaven’s highest virtue, earth’s lodestar, in Hebrew scripture is represented in the equally curious body of a lamb, not just a sheep, ( as dear to the pastoral communities of shepherd-kings from the east identified by the ancient Egyptians as Haribu, as would cattle be to the Massai, whose entire social organization is likewise predicated around the herding of such), but a young sheep … a lamb.
Truth, at least according to the Hebrew scriptures, is much more than the faithful representation of facts, or accurate description of the logic and principles informing a system, it is a condition of heart; that inner state of being we call ‘innocence’, unstained by fore-knowledge, and therefore intent, hence having no beguiling power, no capacity to envision or imagine evil, which is the very signature of its opposite in the snake who sets out to kill prey. The highest value presented to us in Judeo-Christian axiology: purity of intent, the ability to will one thing, undistracted; the opposite of double-mindedness, the very definition of faith, which works according to Hebrew scripture by love.
This noble, harmless state is also depicted in the New Testament as a dove, both creatures of land or sky are gloriously garbed in white raiment, whether of fleece or feather, in opposition to the darker complected serpentile skin of its nemesis in its many shades of Grey. With such opposite extremes, judging, whether the heart of others, or even more importantly, your own, should not be, one would think, such a complex exercise.
On January 6th last year, the whole world watched the events unfolding in real time with jaw-dropping stupor. There appeared to be no equivocation then as to what was unfolding before the eyes of an astonished world, unclear at the time only as to the signification of the event with respect to the continuation of American democracy, however the intent of the perpetrators to harm, and the subjects and object of their intended harm, were clear for all to see and hear.
This 18 month exercise then, must seem farcical with its pointless bleating of sheep in the face of the stopped up ears of the adder, but truth’s trumpet is not as mighty as truth’s seed. It is truth in the inward parts that is God’s priority and desire. What appears real for us are fleeting externalities. Divine realities however are internal and eternal. The only truth that matters (and the only power that exists) is the Christ in you, the Christ in me, whether known or unrecognized (and there are consequences for both). Jesus knew it was no simple task to discern the spirit of which you are of. Here is truth. In the day of judgment, when asked about truth, Jesus remained silent. He understood that the appropriate response to the stopped up ear is a stilled tongue.
YeKengalé 