The Mustard Seed
February 2012
"Ask Pastor"
by Pastor Ron Friedrich
christdeaf@verizon.net
Did snakes have legs in the Garden of Eden?
Genesis chapter three is the familiar story about Adam and Eve's fall into sin. Verse 14 says, "So the Lord God spoke to the serpent. He said, 'Because you have done this, I am putting a curse on you. You are cursed more than all of the livestock and all of the wild animals. You will crawl on the ground. You will eat dust all of the days of your life.' "(NIrV)
At first glance, this seems to imply that snakes began their life of crawling in the dust after the Fall. Consequently many Bible students assume that prior to the Fall, snakes had legs for walking as other animals do. These students mistakenly teach their assumptions as Biblical truth. But the Bible never says this. We must be careful to distinguish between clear teachings of Scripture and our personal opinions concerning matters about which the Bible is silent.
But there is another, more serious error in this interpretation of Genesis 3.14. To whom was God speaking when He made this curse? An animal? No! The context of this story makes it clear that "The Serpent" here was the great fallen angel named Lucifer.
Revelation 12.7-12 describes what happened in the spirit-world prior to the events in the Genesis story. Verses 7-9 give us this helpful explanation: "There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon wasn't strong enough. He and his angels lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down to the earth, and his angels with him. The dragon is that old serpent called the devil, or Satan. He leads the whole world down the wrong path." (NIrV)
In Genesis 3.14 did God punish an animal for Satan's mischief? No. Rather, God uses the picture of the life of a snake to describe His punishment of Satan. In the next verse, God continues that same picture to describe Satan's future battle against Christ, and Christ's victory over Satan -- [God said,] "I will put hatred between you [Satan] and the woman. Your children and her children will be enemies. Her son will crush your head. And you will crush [or bite] his heel." (NIrV)
~~Pastor Ron