I was relaxing in my, so-called, man cave, recently.  I have a 2-room office built on the side of my house which allows me to enter my office by just walking through our kitchen, down 4 steps, and into my office.  The larger of the 2 rooms has a large desk with two computers, a couple of chairs, and floor to ceiling bookshelves for extra storage space.  The larger room is about 14 by 10 and the man cave room is about 8 by 10.  All my ham radio equipment, radios, recorders, and satellite television are in my man cave. I can sit in my recliner and reach everything without having to get up.  I read, watch TV, and listen to various types of radios in the smaller room.

	Recently, as I sat listening to the radio, I heard one of my grandson call out, “Snake!  Snake!  I see a snake!”  He then called to his brothers to come over and help him find the snake.  “He went under right there,” he said excitedly.  Help me find him again.”  There is a storage shed right behind my back door of my smaller room.  I could open the backdoor and reach out and touch the wall of the shed if I wished.  The boys were at the back of the shed trying to relocate the snake one of them saw.  I laughed to myself and remembered that days I used to chase snakes in the apple orchard behind our house.

	One summer, the boys in the neighborhood and I came up with a game.  The game was to see how many snakes you could catch that summer.  When you caught one, he had to be carried to the other side of the orchard and let loose.  This was so we wouldn’t  be likely to catch the same snake over and over again.  Fact chance of that not happening!  I won the competition by summer’s end by catching over 100 snakes.

	One day, a friend of mind and I jumped the fence of the orchard to see what all the building material was just laying around.  When we lifted a large square of wood, hundreds of small baby snakes went everywhere at ones.  We had never seen so many snakes in our lives.  We caught so many, it wasn’t long before we gave up because of all the running back and forth we did carrying the snakes to the other side of the orchard to let them loose.  Every few days, we would return, lift the boards, and more snakes came  out.

	Considering  this recently, I remember thinking, “There were so  many guarder snakes, you couldn’t walk without stepping  on a snake.  I felt, more than heard, the Lord say, “That’s what you do in my name; walk on snakes.”  I immediately thought of the following Bible verse.

	“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you,” (Luke 10:19 AV).

	This popular passage has been used for years because of its authoritative power.  I’ve heard sermons with a title of “Stomping On Snakes,” and when I dialed that phrase up on the internet, I found hundreds of references to the same.  The idea of “stomping on snakes” comes from the Greek word rendered “tread” by the King James Translators.  It means literally to stomp with violence because of one’s authority.  Hence, stomping on snakes.  In my case, upon recalling a childhood memory and thinking that there were so many snakes under those boards, no matter where you stepped, it was on a snake.  Then, as previously mentioned, the concept entered my mind about “walking” on snakes.  Walking implies without thought or effort.  Yet, I know the word “tread” means with power, authority, and righteous violence against the Enemy.  No, this passage isn’t confirming snake handling, nor does any other passage, but it is a statement of promise to believers concerning the demonic intrusions everyone will face as a Bible believer.

	The word “power” is employed twice in this verse but they are two totally different Greek words.  The first time “power” is used is where it says, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions."  This first usage of “power” means we are given the authority over a designated area, that is, the demonic realm.  The word literally means we are given jurisdiction as that of a judge or a legal court.  In short, we are given rulership over the demons of darkness.  The passage continues by saying, "over all the power of the enemy.”  This second usage of the Greek word for “power” is the common word used throughout Scripture as (miracle working power,) that is, supernatural power.  Colossians 2:10 confirms this when it says, “And you are complete in Christ who is the head of all principalities and powers.”  This word rendered “power” is the same Greek word meaning authority of jurisdiction with Christ as the only head.

	“And nothing shall by any means hurt you” is a powerful promise to every Christian.  It means what it says; in no way can you be harmed by the Enemy.

	What I find interesting is what Jesus says parenthetically in verse 18 just before our verse of Focus; Luke 10:19.  Jesus said He saw Satan as lightning fall from Heaven.  When the Enemy was thrown out of Heaven with a third of Satan’s angels, (see Revelation 12:3-9), Jesus claims to have been there and was a Witness of this event.  So from the very beginning, Jesus was going to give us His power, and authority, or jurisdiction, over all the power of the Enemy and we could be safe walking among the snakes when needed.

	I went to a shopping mall many years ago and walked into a travel agency.  I was buying a plane ticket.  Once things were taken care of, I got up to leave the small office and return to the mall area.  The lady said, “Sir, be careful leaving.  There is a metal track in the floor that is used to slide our glass doors closed when we leave and lock up for the night.  So, please, watch your step.”  I thanked her and said I would be careful.  I promptly forgot what she said because I had entered the office quite simply and with no problems.  Within three steps, I tripped over the metal track she had just warned me about.  I didn’t fall but I felt   stupid for not paying attention to the lady’s instructions seconds earlier.  “Watching your step” is not  the Christians job; watching Jesus is.  He in turn lets us walk on snakes without harm or worry.  For the Christian it should be “Rock on,” but “Walk on!”

Phil.
Walking On Snakes.