Study #2: TET

TET AS A PICTOGRAM OF A SNAKE

TET is the 9th letter of the Hebrew Alef-Bet and has a gematria value of 9.

Even in its picture form, you can discern the image of a snake in a basket. And the number 9 itself is like a coiled serpent.

This “snake” image has influenced scholars to visualise TET as something that surrounds us like a snake waiting for a strike. Outside the safety of one’s home or God’s covenant are the predators of the wilderness – either snakes in the natural or Satan ( the Adversary ) in the spiritual who is outside the house and covenant.

This becomes clearer if we discern the pictorial meaning from the 3 letters that spell TET:

1. TET = Surround, Snake.
2. YOD = Hand.
3. TAV = Sign, seal or covenant.

Hence TET is likened to Satan who surrounds us and tries to snake his way into our lives if we are not under God’s covenant or the House/ Hand of His Protection.

Abba Father, You warned Cain before he killed his brother Abel about the surrounding presence of Satan as a Serpent: ” You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master” ( Genesis 2:7 ). But he did not listen nor obey. And the tragic story of Cain and Abel shows how dramatically the sin of fratricide has affected humanity until now.