I think you may misunderstand what it is saying here.
God would never tell us or anyone to pick up a snake.
( unless like with Moses rod, )
But think of Paul..while going about his business he picked up some sticks and a viper bit him, he just by faith, shook it off into the fire. That is the kind of thing.
If you ever read about the imprisonment of Richard Wurmbrand from behind the iron curtain ...he was in prison for years , for being a pastor and preaching Jesus Christ. The guards knew that scripture...they handed him poison and told him to drink it. He, like the young Hebrews that would not bow to the golden image.
They said .." God will save us from the furnace, but if not, we will still not bow down..."
When he drunk it , he did not know if his time was up,or whether God would deliver him from the poison. He drunk. They beat him and hated him even more because he did not die.
He lived to tell the tale... we were in his meetings in England.
So, said all that to say..we don't go around 'looking for snakes and poison', to pick up or swallow, neither do we tempt God by such foolishness.
The idiots called christians who 'handle snakes' etc etc ...are serving playing 'strange fire' LEV 10:1
"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not."