A Final Note on Lucifer

"The LORD God said to the serpent,

Because you have done this,

Cursed are you more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you will go,

And dust you will eat

All the days of your life..."

Genesis 3:14

For those of you who were at study today, there is one more suggestion I want to make regarding Satan. The verse above is the first half of his curse and it is because of these words the assumption is made that the serpent was a snake. Now, while that may be true because snakes slither on their bellies and probably eat their share of dust, I want to think about what the meaning of these verses could be if the other option were true - that the serpent was simply a name for Satan and this part of the curse was meted out in Satan's life.

For starters, I struggle thinking that a snake was cursed to crawl on its belly because of Satan's sin - did the snake have a will? Did the snake have the choice of whether or not Satan would take up residence and tempt Eve through its skin? It just seems like these curses were brought upon the three characters who had responsibility in the fall and does cursing the snake fit in?

The second half of the curse (about bruising the heel of the Messiah and having his head crushed) is undoubtedly about Satan. So what if the first half is about Satan as well? What if he was cursed to crawl on his belly? What if his wings were clipped or his legs and/or arms were removed? Is it possible that Lucifer was handicapped in the garden? That would certainly feed his anger toward God, wouldn't it?

Okay, today's lesson was long enough...I just forgot to add this little tidbit and wanted to give you one more thing to think about...as if you didn't get enough this morning...