Viper Lessons – Acts 28:1-5

When I was just a little guy, still living in Omaha, Nebraska, my parents enrolled me in a summer, day-camp.

I don’t remember if it was through the YMCA or if it was run by the city,

but every morning for a week or two a group of us kids would gather at a certain place,

and a bus would take us out into the country, until late in the afternoon when we’d be brought home.

At this camp we had various kinds of hands-on nature lessons, local history, horse-back riding, games, etc.

And it was there that I was introduced to mice, snakes and other critters – up close and personal.

It was great for a city kid like me.

For example, one day we were trekking through a meadow when I spotted a garter snake, which I proceeded to chase and catch.

I can’t remember how I got it back to the camp, but I did.

I proudly carried it into the camp kitchen, hoping that they could give me some food and a container to keep him in.

I remember that the cooks were not pleased to see me walking in with a snake draped over my arm.

Eventually I found a box,

and I tried feeding my little captive grasshoppers and some of the tiny frogs that infested the area,

although I can’t say that I ever saw him eat anything that I offered –

much to the relief of the grasshoppers and frogs.

At night I would safely hide my snake, and re-commence his domestication again the next morning.

So for a couple of days I played with my snake, coaxing it to eat and carrying it draped along my arms.

Then one day towards the end of the week, after I thought that we had become good buddies,

I was carrying it as usual, when it decided that it had enough.

It opened up it’s little jaws and bit me as hard as it could.

Needless to say it instantly won its freedom and slithered off into the grass.

I learned a thing or two about snakes that summer.

And if it wasn’t that summer, it was either the year before or after, that I learned that mice can bite too.

There are such things as mice and viper lessons.

And there are even viper lessons right here in the pages of the Word of God.

For example, there is the lesson that unbelievers will cling to anything in order to attack God’s Word.

Who will make a guess how many times the word “snake” is found in the Bible?

Not once in either Testament.

The word “serpent” or “serpents” is found a total of fifteen times in the New Testament.

And the word “viper” is found five times.

Four of the five uses of “viper” come from the lips of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus as they were condemning the religious hypocrites of their day.

The only other use, is right here.

It is believed by most experts that the word “viper” refers to a special variety of serpent – the serpents with fangs and poison.

Cleopatra wasn’t bitten by a Garter Snake, but by a viper – a poisonous asp.

I wasn’t bitten by a viper, but by a common Garter Snake.

And the Pharisees were vipers, not because they were skinny, leg-less and slithery, but because they spread the poison of false doctrine.

There is a Biblical and biological difference between a serpent and a viper.

I have never been to Malta, so I can’t speak with any authority,

but I have read that there aren’t any snakes on those islands.

And then on the other hand, I have read other accounts which said that there are snakes, but there aren’t any vipers in Malta.

In either case, those facts or statements have given incentive to the critics of the Bible to point their fingers at this scripture and say that it is a pack of lies.

“This is fiction; Luke made it up to make Paul look good.”

There are even highly respected Biblical commentators who argue about this viper.

Some point to the word “fastened” (v.3) and say that this doesn’t mean that it fastened with its fangs.

They say that this wasn’t a poisonous snake, but a constrictor of some sort, which wrapped itself around Paul’s hand.

They remind us that the word “venomous” in verse 4 is in italics; the English word is not a direct translation of a Greek word.

And then they will further defend themselves by saying that there aren’t any poisonous snakes in Malta.

On the other hand there are others who point to verse 4 and say that obviously the translators of our King James Bibles believed that this was a poisonous viper, or they wouldn’t have used the word “venomous.”

And then they say that verse six demands some sort of poison-injecting viper.

“Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.”

As far as the Maltese were concerned the man attacked by this snake should not be expected to live.

Assuming that it is true that there aren’t any vipers on Malta, does that prove that Paul wasn’t bitten by one?

What do the Great Auk, the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina Parakeet have in common?

Not sure? Then how about the Tasmanian Tiger?

These are all creatures which once were rather common, but which are now apparently extinct.

So animals do sometimes live in places and then not live in those places.

How popular are snakes as pets and neighbors?

I can honestly say that I no longer have the same fondness for them that I once had.

Could it be that vipers lived on Malta 1900 years ago, but they were exterminated?

Do you think that if someone saw a poisonous viper, he’d say,

“Hey, honey, bring the kids, I think that I just saw one of the deadliest serpents on the Island”?

Let me give you a little perspective:

The population of Spokane County is roughly the same as today’s population of Malta: 400,000.

But the area of the county of Spokane is 1,764 square miles.

Do you remember what I said that the area of Malta is? 316 sq. kilometers or roughly 122 sq. miles.

In other words Malta is the population of Spokane County stuffed into an area less than 1/10 the size.

Or to turn that around the population is ten-times as dense in Malta as it is here.

If you were a snake or a viper, would you even want to live in a place crowded with people who hated the sight of you?

The man who says that there aren’t any vipers on Malta today proving that Acts 28 is a lie, is clutching for straws.

Lesson number one: that is what unbelievers do.

Second, Satan will turn to any means to stop the servant of God.

I know that I don’t have any Biblical proof of this, but I am assuming that the Devil had his hand in this chapter.

I believe that no storm can fall upon us without the permission of God.

But as we learn from the Book of Job, with the permission of the Lord, Satan stirred up a tornado which destroyed the house in which Job’s children were dining and killed them all.

And I believe that the Devil’s intent was entice Job to sin and to silence his testimony.

I think that Satan wanted to use this storm to drown the Apostle Paul.

But when the Lord carried him safely to Malta, the determined Devil tried again with a poisonous serpent.

“Though he hath escaped the sea, yet Satan suffereth Paul not to live.”

How many true saints of God does the Lord have scattered across the globe? A million? A hundred million?

How many of those people are actively and deliberately striving to glorify the Name of the Lord?

How many of those people is the Devil actively and deliberately striving to silence?

He probably doesn’t have to worry about the testimony of 90% of those Christians.

Many of us are so inert and self-occupied that we are of very little use to Christ.

But then there are that 10%, like the Apostle Paul, who are a real thorn in the spiritual flesh of Satan.

So what kinds of vipers does the Devil use to try to bury the Christian in Melita?

I would say, let your imagination come up with some ideas, but that might be a part of the problem.

Satan has as many vipers as he has vices.

And sometimes he even uses our imaginations to work against us.

He has as many serpents as he has temptations.

He has as many snakes as he sees that we have weaknesses.

And my weakness is not the same as your weakness.

You may be ten-times as more vulnerable to a specific temptation as I am.

But then I may be a hundred-times more defenseless to something else.

I don’t think that I want to be stung by a bee, because I know that it would hurt.

But you might be allergic to the venom of a bee, and you might die if stung.

Neither of us want to be stung, but there would be a difference between us, if we were both stung.

Satan knows which viper to send in our direction.

And that brings me to the next point.

The Lord can control any situation.

Our God has in His dispensary the anti-venom necessary to offset any viper Satan may throw at us.

I mentioned on Sunday that Luke was very nonchalant in his description of the miraculous Maltese healings.

Although he gives us a little more detail here, he doesn’t seem to be any more excited about Paul’s personal healing than he was about the father of Publius.

Paul was bitten; Paul shook off the viper into the fire; the islanders expected him to die; he didn’t.

End of story. Yawn.

So, are there some unexpected vipers in your life?

Disease or infirmity, you say?

Like the infirmity of the man at the pool of Bethesda? Cured.

Like the disease of Peter’s mother-in-law? Cured.

Like the crushed bones of Paul outside of Lustra? Cured.

Like the dysentery of Publius’ father? Cured.

I’m not going to say that it’s the Lord’s will to heal every snake bite,

but I will say that He CAN heal any snake bite that He chooses.

“Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through?

God specializes in things thought impossible – He does the things others can’t do.”

Update on my little IRS problem:

Although its not over, this mountain appears to be a little smaller than it first appeared.

I got a letter saying that in 2003 I hadn’t paid the self-employment taxes that were due – $2,800.

And that could have been the tip of a huge financial iceberg,

because they could have said the same thing for every year since 1988

for a grand total of a gazzilion dollars.

But when a tax accountant looked at it, he immediately saw that all that I needed to do is show to them that in 1988 I opted out of Social Security and therefore don’t owe self-employment taxes.

Just a simple letter with a copy of the proper document should end the issue.

With a shake of the wrist this viper falls into the fire.

(Having said that, please continue to pray about this.)

Satan may have his vipers, but the Lord has His serum.

And therefore, Christians shouldn’t fear any serpent that Satan might send.

Now I hope that everyone is paying close attention.

At this point, I am talking about Satanic vipers, not earthly vipers.

When I say that Christians don’t have to fear serpents and snakes, I am not telling anyone to go out, find the biggest Diamondback Rattle Snake that you can and bring him home with you.

When the Lord said,

“They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them,”

He was not telling us to drink poison and to play with snakes.

The Lord was merely setting the stage for some early season miracles like the one in Acts 28.

In regard to this sort of thing our Saviour said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

We must not think that serpent-bating is approved of God; whether they be natural or supernatural serpents.

Judy and I have a Christian acquaintance who was bitten by a rattle-snake and survived.

But we also know people who have been bitten with the viper of temptation and not survived.

When living in New Mexico we were surrounded with vipers, and we learned to avoid them.

Similarly, the Bible says, “Flee youthful lusts.”

When disaster strikes and vipers bite, praise God for His omnipotent grace.

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

And, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Pray that the Lord keep the vipers of Satan away from us,

but at the same time, we don’t have the same reason to fear them that the unbelieving Meltians had.