As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god.
Acts of the Apostles 28:3-6
They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
Mark 16:18
My question is if these verses also means that the Lord will still protect us, if there's accidentally happened that could harm us, even we want to avoid it. Unless like you know it will harm you, you will avoid it, because you don't want to put to test the Lord.
A common view is that the traditional ending of Mark (Mark 16:9-20) was likely written sometime later. That is, it's not original to the Gospel of Mark, with the Gospel probably having originally ended at Mark 16:8.
There are actually several possible endings of Mark based on the manuscript evidence. The Traditional ending is known as the Longer Ending, and is the most common in our Bibles today, and appears relatively early in the historical record.
There is also the Shorter Ending, which is included in at least some modern Bibles, for example the NASB includes both the Longer and Shorter Ending. Here is the Shorter Ending as it appears at the end of verse 20 of the Longer Ending in the NASB:
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And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation."
In addition, one ancient codex (Codex Washingtonianus) includes what is known as the Freer Logion, which appears between what would be verses 14 and 15 of the traditional Longer Ending,
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And they excused themselves, saying, 'This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the spirits [or, does not allow what lies under the unclean spirits to understand the truth and power of God]. Therefore reveal your righteousness now" – thus they spoke to Christ. And Christ replied to them, "The term of years of Satan's power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near. And for those who have sinned I was handed over to death, that they may return to the truth and sin no more, in order that they may inherit the spiritual and incorruptible glory of righteousness that is in heaven.'"
At any rate, the Longer/Traditional Ending is debated whether or not it was added later (this is the general consensus however), or is original to Mark but somehow was excluded to some of our earliest copies of Mark. Thus the mention of venomous snakes is quite probable an allusion to the story of St. Paul's snake bite on Malta.
All of this really to say that the Ending of Mark is a really complicated issue. That said, we do have the story of St. Paul being bitten by a venomous snake and being completely unharmed, something which God did for His own good purposes.
Will He protect you or me? If it is His good will to do so. But if you do find yourself bitten by a venomous snake, you should be wise about it--
go seek medical attention immediately.
That God can and has worked certain wonders in the lives of His people is not a guarantee that we don't have to be concerned over our own well-being. If you get sick, see a doctor. If you get hurt, go to the emergency room. Follow the advice of medical professionals. God is the author of knowledge, the skill and knowledge of the medical professional is itself a gift from God that we should not despise, but to trust the expertise of those who have studied these things, and to follow the treatments which they proscribe for us for our own bodily health.
The Scriptures tell us, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." That is, don't be reckless and expect God to intervene. We are to be wise and use commonsense.
-CryptoLutheran
