Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 5- the Hunter

the hunter

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Do you see him?

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I strained my eyes to look back beyond the time when I had just witnessed the killing of Abel by Cain. Not only was he not the hunter, but I could no longer see him in the chaotic mist of that place beyond the field of Abel’s blood. In fact, I could no longer see their field at the edge of the garden.

I can’t tell what I see, but I don’t see a hunter.

Did you read what I just showed you from in the beginning Book?

I thought I knew it without having actually read the Scripture to which my Guide had pointed me. With a questioning tone in my uncertain voice I read:

“So it came about in the course of time that Cain…

No, son.. You must look back further in the beginning of the Book to what I showed you. Do you see it again?

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My mind wandered aimlessly back to what I almost recalled, but could not see.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep..

and God divided the light from the darkness.. ..the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.. And God created .. every living creature..

(Then my thoughts continued out loud.)

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them…

“No,” I replied with the cluelessness of a student caught off-guard by a teacher. “I don’t see it. I don’t see any hunter.

Do you think that you know good and evil from the beginning of the Bible?

I dared not answer from this chaotic recall from my mind. (But I had read this frequently in the past.)

You open your eyes in a place of darkness. And darkness and deception are the place where the hunter hides.

Was this a hint from my Guide?

Please, won’t you just tell me where I can find the hunter?

If you look closely you will find the hunter wherever there is disobedience to God.

I gave his words weighty thought as I listened to my Guide read what I had missed as my Guide then read from the Beginning to me.

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

I had once memorized this from Genesis 2:16-17 and thought that I knew it well. But when my Guide recited it, NOT for my memorization but with authority, he said it differently.

“The Lord God commanded the man,” my guide had emphasized.

And then, as if to underline what he had just read, my Guide paused.. and looked into my eyes, making sure I was paying attention before he continued with what the Lord God had said.. I mean, what the Lord God had commanded.

I wasn’t really thinking about the Hunter, then, but I knew it was important. He read on about the man being lonely and the woman being made from him.

I tried not to let the naked part distract me (as it often did when I was a boy). So recalling that they were Cain and Abel’s parents helped. But then I couldn’t really see the serpent as a talking snake..

Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made.

Genesis 3:1a NASB20

Why did you stop?

So you could tell me about the serpent you see.

It’s a snake and I don’t really like snakes at all. You know, I can’t really picture a snake talking to Eve either..

You’re not saying that this serpent didn’t talk, are you?

Oh? .. No, I guess not. Moses said that THIS serpent talked to Eve.

I’d just never thought about her being Cain and Abel’s mom.. or how that meant that Cain and his brother would not grow up in Eden. Looking back, I guess I see the serpent talking to Cain’s mom.

Then I recited the next part from some long-ago memory.

“Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

And why does Moses’ story tell us that this serpent was cunning?

Isn’t the serpent asking Eve to tell him something he already knows?

Indeed he is.

Is it a good question?

I thought about it.. A good question? Is it a good question.. good..? good. Why would the serpent ask that?

Isn’t the serpent trying to trick Eve? I don’t think that could be good. It can’t be a good question like the questions God asks.

No it can’t.

And if the serpent’s question is not a good question what kind of question is it?

The serpent is up to no good. So I guess that makes it an evil question.

You have already seen what happened to the man and the woman, before Cain killed Abel. Do you recall what happened to the serpent?

That’s why he has to crawl on his belly?

It’s much more than that.

And I will make enemies
Of you and the woman,
And of your offspring and her Descendant;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

Genesis 3:15 NASB20 – click here for more versions

Finally I asked, “Is the Serpent the Hunter?”

Yes. The Serpent is the Hunter.

But this cunning hunter of souls so willing to question God appears in other forms, clothing himself in unsuspecting ways to wayward men and unsuspecting women.

We will meet up with this hunter again…

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.. therefore, beware.

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:16 NASB + Caution of the Lord Jesus to his disciples

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