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As I began reading this passage one of the things that I couldn’t help but wonder was what the serpent did before it was cursed to crawl on it’s belly. Was the serpent actually a man before the curse? That couldn’t be, because right from the beginning the serpent is referred to as a serpent. I kind of got the impression that; at that point, perhaps the serpent was a work in progress, for lack of a better term. It kind of seemed that perhaps God was still trying to figure out what to do with the serpent. The problem with the idea of the serpent being a work in progress is that it bears an implication that God is limited. When I say limited, I do not mean limited in the sense of His ability to create but rather limited in His ability to foresee the outcome of His creation. Wouldn’t an almighty God know right from the beginning that a serpent should crawl on its belly?
I also have to wonder why it would be a serpent that would tempt Eve. I have heard it proposed that the serpent is a neutral party whose only purpose in the narrative is to present the temptation to Eve without reinforcing or taking away from the temptation. This theory proposes that the temptation of the fruit of the tree would have been enough in and of itself to lure Eve to go against God’s wishes. While that may be true it does seem to me that the presence of the serpent sort of speeded things along. Genesis 3 begins by pointing out that the serpent was “more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” The neutral party theory also kind of leaves out the possibility of the serpent’s presence being the result of a test from God or an act of deception from Satan. But to me it seems that those are the only two possible ways that the presence of the serpent could be explained. Why else would the serpent be there? If the serpent were there in the form of a test from God but not to add to or take away from the temptation but merely to present the temptation then why would God pick the craftiest animal He had ever created? For that matter why wouldn’t the mere presence of the fruit be enough? And if it were an act of deception from Satan would Satan really pick a neutral source to present the temptation. Personally, I think Satan would want to be as crafty as he possibly could because for one thing, he’s Satan, and another thing he no doubt knew what the eventual ramifications of Eve’s giving in to temptation would be. So the only way that the serpent could be a neutral party is if he were there by random chance and I just can’t believe that was the case.
Verse 15 of this passage makes reference to someone who will oppose Satan in the future when it say’s “he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” To me it seemed pretty clear that the “he” in this passage was referring to Jesus. If that is the case it certainly seems to support the idea that the serpent was there because Satan wanted to deceive Eve.
I have also heard it proposed that the snake could be considered neutral in the sense that he didn’t lie in his presentation of the temptation. But, to me whether or not he lied is beside the point. It is possible to be deceitful without fabricating a lie. Deceitfulness can come in the form of truth being concealed. For example is it not deceitful for a car salesman to only tell a potential customer about a car’s good mileage, power steering and new tires but neglects to mention that the brakes are worn and that it goes through two quarts of oil per week?
As the passage goes on another question arises to me. In verse 16 God says to Eve “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing…” I couldn’t help but wonder what childbearing would have been like otherwise. Would it have been just a simple process? As somebody who has been fortunate enough to witness the birth of my own child I have seen what an excruciatingly painful, albeit beautiful and miraculous, experience it can be for the woman. I wonder what aspects of childbearing would have been different. Would the incubation period be the same? Would there have been miscarriages? It is interesting to me that Eve’s curse was in line with the “traditional” role of the woman to be a good mother and wife and that Adam’s curse was in line with the role of the traditional male to be a good provider.