In Zechariah 13: 8-9 the seed is the third part of three parts. Two parts are cut off and die (verse 8) and the third part will be brought through a fire to be refined and they are the seed of God.
One seed of God can be used by God to make other people the seeds of God. That is partly why those in Christ are called seed, because they can multiply. The seed is found in Romans 9: 7, "In Isaac shall they seed be called." Galatians 3: 16 talks about Christ being the seed of Abraham, and Galatians 3: 29 says "And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed..." Abraham's seed are also the seed of God.
The two parts cut off are those who claim to be of God, but are in false doctrines, following the spirit of Anti-Christ or the false prophet. They are the serpents and scorpions.
Serpents is used as a metaphor in Matthew 23: 33, where Christ calls the Pharisees serpents. Scorpions are metaphoric in Ezekiel 2: 3-6, where the rebellious house of Israel is called scorpions. Serpents and scorpions appear also in Revelation 9, on the trumpet judgments.
The serpents and scorpions make spiritual war upon the seed of God, and eventually some also wage physical war against the seed.
Serpents bite and their venom kills. Scorpions sting and their sting causes pain. Serpents represent Death and Scorpions represent Hell. Hell is torment. Christ came to bring life and it more abundantly (John 10: 10). The opposite of life is Death. Those who reject Christ as having come in the flesh are of the spirit of anti-Christ (I John 4: 3) and this is Death.
Christ says in Matthew 23: 13, 15, 28, 33: "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. ..... . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves..... Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.......Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
This is a description of those religious authorities called serpents by Jesus Christ. They teach false doctrines, are hypocrites, only pretending to be righteous, when they are not. They prevent those they teach from entering into the kingdom of heaven.
Ezekiel 2: 3-6 says "And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
4. For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
5. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
6. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house."
Revelation 9: 2-5 says "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man."
Revelation 9: 2-5 shows a little of the character of those people called scorpions, who pretend to be religious. We can see from what Christ said of the serpents that the serpents are those who, as the religious authorities, prevent the scorpions from entering the kingdom of God. In other words, the serpents teach them false doctrines. We can also infer from this that the scorpions are more numerous than the serpents.
Metaphorically, in Revelation 9: 2-5 the scorpions come out of the bottomless pit which has been opened. The scorpions are called both locusts and scorpions. Locusts eat up everything; they consume, eat hungrily or quickly, and they prey on those they identify, or are identified by the serpents, as the "bad guys." The scorpions are greedy for gain, for the material things of the flesh of this world. The serpents, on the other hand, are more religious. They serve Satan, which apparently most of them do not fully realize.
In the words of John 16: 2 the scorpions think they are doing a service for God by preying on those they think are their enemies. They torment (Revelation 9: 5), but do not kill as happens in John 16: 2. In Revelation 9: 15-19, two metaphors - four angels that were bound in the Euphrates, and a huge army of horsemen who are also identified as serpents, or their tails were like serpents - are said in verse 15 to slay a third part of men. Verse 18, however, as part of the metaphor, says this third part of men are killed by what comes out of their mouths, by what they say. These are the huge number of false prophets that Christ mentions in Matthew 24: 11 and that Peter talks about In II Peter 2: 1-3. They kill the spiritual part of man, his third part, leaving man sixty-six percent of his being.
Ezekiel 2: 3 says the scorpions in the Old Covenant timeline have transgressed against God, both their fathers and the they, the children. The scorpions of old, like those of the end times, do not realize that they have transgressed against the Lord.
John 16: 2 says that "whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."
This is a description of those religious authorities called serpents by Jesus Christ. They teach false doctrines, are hypocrites, only pretending to be righteous, when they are not. They prevent those they teach from entering into the kingdom of heaven.
Sadly these would agree with you and see those who are the true children of God as such. So sad.
Sad indeed..........I used to be one such person. Honestly
I left a wake of destruction behind me. When I think about it now it truly hurts me. I can only imagine what Paul felt in his persecution of Christians when the scales were lifted from his eyes and his rightous sight was given.
Bible prophecy on the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-4, the several texts of Paul in I Timothy and II Timothy on the same subject, such as I Timothy 4: 1-2, II Timothy 3: 4,-5,7, II Timothy 4: 3-4, Matthew 24: 11 and II Peter 2: 1-3, and the heavily metaphoric Trumpet Judgments of Revelation 9 are all meant to warn Christians about the danger of false doctrines and of false prophets who teach them.
For those who are interested - have ears to hear - these and other scriptures can began to inspire you to learn the difference between the meanings of scripture and the meanings of man made false theologies, and there are both more obvious false theologies and more subtle ones. Without leaning the difference between man made false doctrines and the doctrines of scripture there is no coming to the knowledge of the truth.
Calling religious leaders serpents and their followers scorpion-locusts is metaphoric for killing and tormenting. And these metaphors are all part of God's trying to wake some up out of false doctrines.
Serpents and scorpions run twice, they occur in both Old Testament and in New Testament times. They are seen at the time Ezekiel wrote about scorpions in Ezekiel 2: 3-6, where he says in verse 6 "thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words..." and when the Pharisees argued against the teaching of Christ, and he exposed them and called them serpents in Matthew 23. Revelation 9 on the opening of the bottomless pit, another metaphor, shows scorpion-locusts coming out and in verses 14-19 the huge army of horsemen whose power is in their mouths and, they have tails like serpents, kill the third part of men, meaning they kill the spiritual part of men.
Saying these horsemen of the huge army's power is in their mouths is a clue about the meaning of the metaphor to those who can see it. What they say and write is what kills the spiritual part of men.
The huge army of Revelation 9: 16 is the huge number of false prophets of Matthew 24: 11 and II Peter 2: 1-3.
See the reason these scriptures are true beside just being that they are Gods word is this.
Religion prevents honesty and genuiness and this prevents repentence and the lack of repentence leads to death. The religious leaders who use force to cause others to be like them causes the same thing in others lives leading them not to come to repentence and then their lack of repentence seperation from God and seperation from God is darkness and death.
