Bible Reading #191 - Cursed is the Serpent

Cursed is the Serpent

Genesis 3

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 14-15) "So the LORD God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the wild or domestic animals. You will crawl on your belly. You will be the lowest of animals as long as you live. I will make you and the woman hostile toward each other. I will make your descendants and her descendants hostile toward each other. He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel.' "

My Thoughts

You probably know of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It was Satan that came to Eve to tempt her into disobeying God. He came in the form of a serpent. According to the Bible, serpents, at the time, must have had legs. God said he would crawl on his belly as long as he lives, which is exactly what snakes do. So I believe we are talking about snakes here. --Apparently there is no difference between snakes and serpents anyway. I just found out as I'm typing this.--

So I have a question. Are snakes evil or cursed and should we be avoiding anything to do with them because of this? Honestly, I don't believe we should be avoiding snakes, except in the obvious case that they can be dangerous. I mean that to have a picture of a snake or a pet snake or a stuffed animal of a snake is not going to be frowned upon by God. No matter what, it is still one of God's creatures. If it was that bad, He could have just made them non-existent, but He didn't.

Nothing bad is from God, so if snakes, being one of His creatures that He created, were somehow evil, then that would make it one of His own creatures being inherently evil to us because He made it so. That is not the case. We all have sin in our hearts because of what Adam and Eve did and Satan's tempting of them. Sin comes from Satan, not God. So people are not inherently evil because God made it so. We inherently have sin in our hearts because of Satan.

God may have cursed the serpent and made it crawl on its belly, sure. He also cursed the woman and made child labor painful. Not to mention the man, who has to work the ground which is cursed because of him, to get his food. If we assume that snakes are now inherently evil and something to be feared or frowned upon, we have to assume the same thing of women and of men. That's why none of this makes sense to me.

Isn't he cute????

Some people think of snakes as coming from Satan or having to do with him. I have a shirt with a snake on it, and I was actually worrying about wearing it to college, which was a Christian institution. It shouldn't be that way. I also had a pet snake at one point. They are not something we should be that paranoid about. I understand being afraid of them for other reasons or being paranoid if you're in the wild where they are. I wouldn't want to be attacked by a snake, especially a poisonous one.

To wrap this up, yes, God cursed the serpent/snake. No, snakes are not evil or to be avoided, except due to danger. God also cursed child labor for women because of Eve and the ground because of Adam. Snakes are another one of God's creatures and they add to the beauty and diversity of this world. 

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Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Let me know your thoughts on this reading as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!