The Subtil Serpent.

William Branham.

Read the full account in...
The Serpent Seed.

Genesis 3:1-7,
Now, the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD GOD had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ... the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,... (See? Hunting new light.)... and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to make -- to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat. And their eyes of them both were opened, and they knew... they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made them aprons.

Notice. Now, here's what taken place. I believe, and can support it by the Bible, that it is the serpent that did it. The serpent is that missing person between the chimpanzee and the man, 'cause, listen, notice this now, that the serpent was not a reptile. He was the most subtil of all the beasts of the field. Now, I went and got dictionaries today from everywhere to look up this word, what the word of "subtil" meant. It means "to be smart, to be crafty." And the best interpretation of the -- of the Hebrew from "m-a-h-a-h, mahah" means "having a true knowledge of the principles of life."

Now, let's watch this just a minute. He's smart, crafty. Yet he's called the serpent. But remember, he was the smartest thing there was, and the more like the human being than anything else that was on the field: closest to a human being. He was not a reptile. The curse made him a reptile, and he was the... The Bible said he was the most beautiful of all. And even the curse didn't take all of his beauty away, yet the glorious colors of the snake is beautiful. And his grace and his shrewdness, even the curse didn't move it off. But you remember, God told him that his legs would come off and he'd go on his belly. And you can't find one bone in a snake that looks like a human being, and that's the reason science is lost. But there he is.

God hid it from the eyes of the wise and prudent and promised to reveal it to the sons of God in the last days, when the sons of God would be made manifest. When God's sons that rejoiced with Him before the foundation of the world, when the great revelation of the Godhead and things would be brought down in the last days, He would manifest these things to the sons of God. You know the Scripture teaches that. And here we are. That's the reason that God is opening these things to us. God is bringing His sons into manifestation. He's going beyond the limitations of any human knowledge, way into the spiritual revelations and bringing it down. Haven't we been teaching in this Bible, "Here's to him that has wisdom." Not what he learned in some seminary, but what he can learn on his knees before God, and what pleased God to give him: sons of God made manifest.

Here's the serpent. Now, here's what the serpent was. I'm going to give you my description of him. We have the... We come down from the frog on to that, the polliwog, and on down, on, and so and so; you finally come to the monkey, to the chimpanzee; and from the chimpanzee there we jump from the chimpanzee to the human. And we wonder why. "Well," science says, "now wait; we can breed the woman to the monkey and to the... vice versa, a man breeding to the chimpanzee." It won't work. Breed to any other animal: won't work. Blood won't mix. Take their blood, it's altogether different blood altogether. There's some blood between here, and they can't find the animal. Oh, hallelujah. I'm getting to feel religious right now.

Notice. Why? God hid it from them. There ain't a bone in a snake that looks like a human bone. He put the thing so far away that it couldn't be discovered by smart men. I'm going to show you where that smart man comes from, where he -- where he's at anyhow. See? He can't come through that. It's got to come by revelation. "Thou art the Christ, the Son... Upon this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell can't prevail against it": spiritual revelation. How did -- how did Abel know to offer a lamb instead of Cain offering the fruits of the field? It was spiritually revealed to him. You don't get it by seminaries. You don't get it through denominations. You get it from heaven.

Now, watch the serpent, this serpent which was first. Let's draw a picture of him now. He's a great big fellow. He's between the chimpanzee and the man. And the serpent, the devil, Lucifer, knew that that was the only blood that would mix with this human blood. The only person he could deal with... He couldn't deal with the chimpanzee. That blood wouldn't mix. He couldn't deal with different things. He couldn't deal with the sheep. He couldn't deal with the horse. He couldn't deal with any animal. He had to deal with this serpent. Let's take him now and see what he looks like: Great big fellow, prehistoric giant. That's where they find these big bones, and I'll show you this in the Bible. Now, watch closely then. All right. This great big fellow, let's say he was--he was ten foot tall, great big shoulders, looked just like a man. And his blood, after coming down, coinciding one animal to another...

You can cross animals. They kept getting higher blood, higher form of life, higher form, till it climbs up into the man realm. But the last connection here between here was cut off. How many knows that science can't find the missing link? All of you know that. Why? Here he is, the serpent. Here he was a great big fellow. And the devil comes down. Now, he says, "I can inspire." Now, when you go to looking at women and actions of women, remember you are anointed of the devil, if it's not your own wife. Notice. Now, the devil come down and got into the serpent, and he found Eve in the garden of Eden naked. And he talked about the fruit in the midst, the "midst" means "middle" and so forth. You understand in a mixed congregation. And he said, "Now, it's pleasant. It's good to the eye."

What did he do? He begin making love to Eve. And he lived with her as a husband. And she saw it was pleasant, so she went and told her husband; but she was already pregnant by Satan. And she brought forth her first son whose name was Cain, the son of Satan. "Now," you say, "that's wrong." All right, we'll just find out whether it's wrong or not. "And I will put enmity between thy seed and the serpent's seed." What? The serpent's seed. She had a seed, and he had a seed. "And he shall bruise thy head, and you shall bruise his heel." A "bruise" there means "to make an atonement." Now, there's your seed of the serpent. Now, notice, here comes these two men out. Now, this serpent, when he stood there... This great big giant of a fellow stood up there. He was guilty of committing adultery with Adam's wife. Where's sin lay today? What makes things the way they are today? (Now, I -- I... Surely you can catch what I'm talking about.)

And there he was. And when he did, God said, begin to call for Eve and Adam. And he said, "I was naked." And He said, "Who told you you was naked?" Then they begin to -- in army fashion, passing the buck. Said, "Well, the woman You gave me done it. She was the one who persuaded me." And she said, "The serpent give me an apple." All right, preacher, get next to yourself. She said, "The serpent beguiled me." Do you know what "beguile" means? Means "defiled." The... The devil never gave her an apple. "The serpent has beguiled me." And then the curse came.

He said, "Because you listened to the serpent in the stead of your husband, you took life from the world; and you -- now you'll multiply your sorrows, and your conception shall be to your husband," and so forth. "And because you listened to your wife instead of me -- I took you from the dust the highest specie -- back to the dust you go." "And serpent, because you did that, off goes your legs; upon your belly you'll go all the days of your life. And you'll be hated, and dust shall be your meat." There you are. There's that missing link.

Now, here comes Cain. Let's watch the natures. Here comes Cain. What is he? He's a shrewd businessman. He tills the fields: smart, intelligent, religious, very religious. Watch his -- watch his attributes now. Just move with me for just a few minutes longer. Here he comes out. He knows he's mortal. He wants to go to church. He builds him a church, makes him an offering, brings an altar along--builded an altar, puts his flowers on it, put the field -- the fruits of the field, offered it to God, and said, "There You are, Lord. I know we ate apples. That's what caused it." (Some of his offsets have the same kind of an idea. Shows where it came from.) Brought his apples in out of the field, laid them on there, said, "This will make an atonement." God said, "It wasn't apples." But by spiritual revelation Abel knew it was blood. So he brought a lamb, hacked its throat, and it died; and God said, "That's right. That's what done it. It was blood." (You know what blood I'm talking about.) All right. It was blood that did it. Now, watch.

And then when Cain saw his holy-roller brother had been accepted before God, and signs and wonders was being taken place down there, he got jealous of him. He said, "We'll stop this stuff right now." Look at his brothers. Look at his children on today. "Now, I'm smarter than he is." So he got angry. Where did angry come from? Could you say that's anger? He killed his brother. He was a murderer. Could you call God a murderer? And Adam was the son of God. The Bible said that Adam was the son of God, that pure beginning back there. Adam was God's son, and that jealousy and envy and everything could not come out of that pure stream. It had to come through another place. And it come through Satan, who was a murderer to begin with. The Bible said he was: a liar and a murderer to begin with. There it is. And he killed his brother. And there was a type of the death of Christ. Then out of that, 'course, He raised up Seth to take his place: death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

And watch, then here comes your giants. Then Cain went to the land of Nod. If his daddy was a great big giant of a fellow, what would Cain be like? His daddy. And he went to the land of Nod and took one of his sisters. Only way he could do, there was no more females could come, only through Eve. They claim they had seventy sons and daughters. If -- if there was no females... The Bible don't record females when they're born, just man. And when... If there was no more females than Eve, when she died the human race ceased to exist. They had to have daughters. He'd have to marry his own sister. He went to the land of Nod and got -- and got his wife; and when he married her in there, there's where they found those great big giants, which were fallen sons of God who came through their daddy, the devil through Cain. There's your missing link.

Read the full account in...
The Serpent Seed.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Proverbs 30:20