And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Gênesis 3:15 American King James Version
We have seen in the previous post that the text of Genesis 3:15 is a prophetic parable. Let's learn about the meaning of each picture in order to understand the content and purpose of the message. In this post we are analyzing the symbolism of the serpent.
The speech
The prophecy addresses the serpent, according to Genesis 3:14,15 (verse 14: "Then the Lord God said to the serpent ...").
The characters are the woman, the serpent, the woman's seed and the serpent's seed, in addition to God Himself.
Four statements are made in the prophecy:
God will put enmity between the serpent and the woman;
God will put enmity between the serpent's seed and the woman's seed;
The woman's seed will strike the serpent's head;
The snake will strike the heel of the woman's seed.
Who does the text talk about?
As explained in the last post, this message is said by metaphor, so the serpent is not, ultimately, the poisonous reptile, but an astute and evil being, figured by that reptile.
As for the seeds of the woman and the snake, we will see in the next posts on to which people they apply. Let's now take a look at the figures of the snake and its poison.
The snake.
The Bible, as a single, cohesive book, must explain itself.
The serpent is identified in Revelation 12:10 and 20: 2 as the Devil, Satan, accusing the children of God, deceiver of the whole world, also figured as the great dragon and the ancient serpent (below, words underlined in the verses).
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. Revelation 12:9,10
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. Apocalipse 20:1-3
Satan, the ancient serpent.
The expression ‘ancient serpent’ mentioned above refers to the serpent which tempted Eve at the beginning of human history (Genesis 3:1-5, 11-14).
Eve saw the serpent as the most astute of any beast of the field which the LORD God had made (Genesis 3:1), however that animal was just an instrument used by the very astute being, which was Satan, the tempter (2 Corinthians 11:3).
The serpent’s antiquity also reminds that during all time, since Eve, the Devil has been the one who has been fighting against mankind, until he will be totally contained in the time of the Apocalypse.
The text of Revelation shows that the action of Satan on the inhabitants of the Earth is not absolute and that it will stop at the end of times.
The poison of the serpent
An earth serpent’s poison has the effect of killing human beings. The figurative meaning of poison is sin, which causes both physical and spiritual death.
The decision to sin is made by a human being, that is why he is responsible before God; but the accuser's purpose is to lead men away from God and for that he uses deception and temptation (Revelation 12: 9,10), in order to make them sin. In this way, the figures of the serpent and its poison are intrinsically linked to temptation and sin.
This is noticeable in the sequence Numbers 21: 5-9; John 12: 3-33; Galatians 3:13; and 2 Corinthians 5:21. Through those verses we see that the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert is a figure of Christ, who took our sin on the cross and suffered the punishment we deserved, so that all who believed in him could be forgiven. Therefore, the serpent also represents sin; and its poison, the destruction and death caused by sin.
What sin is
In a first approach, in its visible form, sin can be understood as every act that the human being practices, consciously and intentionally, which is contrary to the justice and love of God, and whose effect is evil against others. That is what one might understand from Isaiah 1: 16-18, on a superficial reading.
But, in a more spiritual approach, sin, in its essence, is something that dwells in the human being and constitutes a disposition to distance oneself from God and, in the opposite way, to seek things that satisfy only oneself, like pleasure, greed, revenge, fame, power, wealth, and stuff - Mark 7: 20-23.
Thus, the practice of evil by man is a consequence of his turning away from God. The solution is to return to God first (Isaiah 55: 6,7).
The practice of a religion without an inner change is not enough to change this picture (Isaiah 29:13). This was the essence of what Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount, in chapters five to seven of the Gospel of Matthew. Inner change depends on a return to the Creator, from whom all good originates - love of neighbor, kindness, justice, peace, security, and everything else that comes from God. He himself works the transformation within man (Titus 2: 11-12; 3: 3-4).
Sin causes destruction, to a greater or lesser extent, both to the person who practices it and to those close to him. Its consequence on the sinner is tribulation, lack of peace, physical and spiritual deaths and divine judgment (Romans 2: 4-11; 3:23; 6:23; Isaiah 1:28). Thus sin is figured in the metaphor as the serpent's poison.
The Promise of Redemption
Adam and Eve's situation was bad for them and their offspring. They had decided to live selfishly, without the obedience due to the Creator and without commitment to his justice; by their act of rebellion against God they assumed the consequences of their sin: death.
They and their descendants, the entire human race, were condemned to death (this is reflected in all of us, descendants of Adam and Eve - Romans 5:12).
Divine intervention came in their favor through a new covenant, by which God would send a Savior born of the human race itself.
That is the promise made by God in Genesis 3:15, recorded in the last part of the verse: the Savior would crush the serpent's head. That is, He would undo the work of Satan done against humanity, which led everyone to the death sentence.
The Savior's coming then became the hope of Adam and Eve and of all men since that time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
<https://www.bibliaonline.com.br/akjv/index>. Bible online American King James Version. Consulted on 13/05/2021.
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