The most unsettling part of the dream for me was the fact that the owner of the house had become accustomed to the snakes. By now they were so familiar he had grown COMFORTABLE with them. No longer alarmed by their presence, he simply walked among them...
adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,'
declares the Lord."
"The more we know about the ancients,
the more we find that they were like the moderns."
Let's take a look at Jeremiah 7 and 8.
The people had not actually abandoned temple worship.
If you watched their worship, you would have thought the people were sincerely honoring the Lord, but their hearts belonged to the false gods all around them.
They paid lip-service to Jehovah, but gave their hearts (time, energy, attention) to idols.
The Lord warned them: "Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail! DO NOT PRAY FOR THIS PEOPLE...DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING...?"
He commanded them: "Obey my voice and I will be your God and your shall be my people. and walk in all the ways that I command you, that it may be well with you."
He told Jeremiah, Say to them:
'This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God,
and did not accept discipline;
TRUTH HAS PERISHED: IT IS CUT OFF FROM THEIR LIPS.'
And the words of a grief-stricken Father:
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return...no man relents of his evil,
everyone turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle...
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
They did not know how to blush.
THEREFORE THEY SHALL FALL AMONG THE FALLEN...
For behold,
I AM SENDING AMONG YOU SERPENTS,
ADDERS THAT CANNOT BE CHARMED,
AND THEY SHALL BITE YOU,"
Declares the Lord.
"Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy, and NOTHING shall hurt you."
(Luke 10:19)
The Word of God
(John 8:32)
but the reward great:
and by the word of their testimony,
for they loved not their lives even unto death."
(Revelation 12:11)