King Cobras in the Millennium

My six-year-old son has recently been very interested in king cobra snakes which live in India.  He watched a Wild Kratts show which taught him a little about the snake, and now he really wants to be able to see one in India.  But he also knows that they are very dangerous to humans.  With that in his mind, he was especially excited one morning when he was reading scriptures with my wife and they came across this verse in the Book of Mormon: “And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den” (2 Nephi 21:8).  The asp is a venomous snake, potentially an Egyptian cobra, and the cockatrice is either a legendary monster or some kind of venomous snake.  My wife explained to my son that this was a prophecy about the Millennium when animals would be peaceful and that kids would even be able to play with snakes without getting hurt.  She also taught him that this would happen after Jesus returns at the Second Coming.  He immediately announced that after the Savior comes, he would be on his way to India!

               This prophecy about the Millennium is actually in three places in the scriptures, suggesting I think that it is something important for us to understand.  Isaiah was of course the first to give us these words in Isaiah 11:8, and Nephi quoted them twice for us.  The first was in his long quotation of the words of Isaiah referred to above, and the second was in his discussion about the last days and the Millennium (2 Nephi 30:14).  Clearly in the midst of his challenges—and violence between his people and his brethren—Nephi looked forward to that day when there would be peace on the earth.  In addition to this prophecy being a literal description of the peaceful nature of animals in the future world, I have to think that it is also symbolic of the fact that the devil will have lost his power in the Millennium.  In the story of the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, Satan used the serpent to speak to our first parents: “And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which I, the Lord God, had made.  And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world” (Moses 4:5-6).  Several other scriptures refer to Satan as a serpent himself.  John wrote in his prophecy, “The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth” (Revelation 12:9).  Lehi also used the same term in his description of the devil, referring to “that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies” (2 Nephi 2:18).  Abinadi likewise mentioned “that old serpent that did beguile our first parents,” and in the Doctrine and Covenants Joseph recorded that he “beheld Satan, that old serpent, even the devil, who rebelled against God” (Mosiah 16:3, D&C 76:28).  The serpent is one of the most prevalent symbols of the devil, and so when we read that snakes will no longer be dangerous in the Millennium, it is also a message that Satan will likewise be void of his destructive power.  We won’t have to worry then either about our children being spiritually injured by that old serpent anymore.  This of course is also recorded in the scriptures: “Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years” (D&C 88:110).  But for now, king cobras are still dangerous and we must guard ourselves against the wiles of the adversary who seeks to “ensnare the hearts of men” (Alma 28:13).  But, I will keep looking forward to some future day when my son and I can go to India to play with snakes.