Sneaky Snake

Monday February 11th, Genesis 2&3: 25 Although the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed. 1 The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the LORD God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, "Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?" 2 The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 3 except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die." 4 "No, you won't!" the snake replied. 5 "God understands what will happen on the day you eat fruit from that tree. You will see what you have done, and you will know the difference between right and wrong, just as God does." The serpent or snake is a common figure in the creation stories of both Egypt and Babylon. The first 11 chapters of Genesis were written during the latter part of the Babylon captivity, so the creation stories of the Hebrew people reflect the creation stories they had been hearing in the land of Babylon. The snake in these accounts is a sneaky creature that tries to rob humanity of the gift of eternal life. Here he again does his business by tempting them to eat of the tree of knowledge and tempt God not to destroy humans, the pinnacle of creation. Here the snake speaks the truth, only slanted a bit. God does understand what will happen and the humans won’t die in a literal sense. Their idyllic instinctual life will however come to an end. Change will happen, life will get harder and they will begin to think about things and move from instinctual to reasoned beings. Perhaps a bit closer to being created in the image of God, and for the first of many times in the book we call the Bible, God takes deeds that were meant for evil and turns them to good.