Serpent in the Hebrew is  naw-khawsh’; from H5172; a snake (from its hiss):—serpent.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Subtlety is a quality of our enemy. God is direct and forthright.

Genesis 3:9,11 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

A hissing sound is soft almost whisper like but it is a warning of who speaks where God’s whisper is an encouragement. Satan’s hiss is a subversion of truth. God’s Word is truth.

Psalm 58:4-5 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

Listening to Satan is likened to being struck by a puff adder, which attacks your hearing, preventing you from hearing God’s whispers.

In reference to yesterday’s devotional and my closing comments, here is a hiss from Satan; “That is the truth of God, and that is all it means.”

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Satan would have you believe it means one thing and one thing only. Just to clarify the meaning of prophecy, it means the revealed mind of God. It cannot be private in the sense that it means only one thing. God will use every Word at his disposal to correct and direct us.

The issue here is discerning the difference between Satan’s hiss and God’s whisper.