Lent and the Serpent’s Curse

As we approach Holy Week and prepare ourselves to re-enter that brutal narrative of Jesus’ final days before death, I want to discuss one profound accomplishment of the cross of Jesus. Generally, discussions about the cross focus on the covering of sin Jesus provides in his sacrifice, but another element that should receive attention concerns the paralyzing blow that Jesus’ death has on the serpent, the Devil. The serpent is the root and symbol of deception. And so, the story of the Bible means the undoing of Satan’s deception to the world. This blow is given to us in Genesis 3.

Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

The serpent was cunning above all, so he is cursed above all. To be cursed is to be banished or isolated.[1] This is why when God send his people into exile it is a form of curse. The meaning of Genesis 3 is that the serpent is now cut off from being a part of the cattle and the beasts of the field. He is separated from the animals.[2] In Leviticus 11, there is a description of clean and unclean animals, and among them are listed the creatures that break the boundary of a human life and invade a human house.[3] Anyone who touches these animals is considered unclean. Out of the eight mentioned, six are animals that move on their belly. The serpent became an unclean animal, precisely because it invaded the human house—the Garden—and made it unclean. This curse in the Torah is a reference to the deception of the serpent and consequently the curse that followed that deception.

Another element of the curse is that the serpent would “eat dust all the days of its life.” The author is not referring to dry dirt. The idea of “dust” expresses “the deepest form of degradation.”[4] This is the picture of humiliation. This is a curse, but for us this is a promise that the enemies of God will lick the dust, as Psalm 72 states.[5] It is also a promise of final victory over the devil. Our Messiah defeated the evil serpent at his death, but he will defeat the devil and his demons once and for all at the end of history.[6] The reason Lent is so important for us is because through death he destroyed the one who has the power of death (Heb. 2:14). The promise of the curse is the promise that at the death of our Lord—fulfilled many centuries later– we will witness by the success of the gospel the utter humiliation of the devil. In fact, we live in the age of the serpent’s humiliation. Death, resurrection, and ascension sealed the fate of the evil serpent. In this curse the progress of the gospel implies the enemies of Yahweh licking the dust just like their father, the devil.

Verse 15 forms the famous proto-euangelion passage; the first gospel. This is an expansion on the curse of verse 14 detailing the way in which the serpent will be destroyed.[7]

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

Think for a moment that throughout this curse, the tempter is absolutely silent. There are no smart retorts; no subtle attempt to trick Yahweh; simply silence. And the separation God puts into place is this antagonism between Lucifer and humanity, to prevent humanity from blindly following Satan to destruction.[8]

The implication here is that the serpent has offspring who will war with the offspring of the woman.

Then we come to the final element of this curse, which seals the future of the serpent. As the serpent quietly sits listening to the curse he hears that his head will be crushed. The Book of Judges brings this theme to the forefront when it lists several examples of enemies of the gospel whose heads were crushed. You may remember most notably Jael crushing Sisera’s head with a tent peg (Judges 5:24-27). This is all, of course, a little reminder that the promise of Genesis 3:15 is alive and well. Again, not the precious moment imagery if we were expecting a sanitary Bible. The Bible is extremely violent. Yahweh does not allow his justice to go unanswered. He destroys and brings justice far as the curse is found. The devil has received this temporary blow at the death of Jesus. Lent culminates in the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent at the cross (Rom. 16:20). This curse on the serpent signifies blessings for God’s people.

 

[1] Trees and Thorns. JBJ. See also Cassuto’s comments on this text. The nature of exile can also be added to this concept. Exile is a form of death. The Israelites died in the wilderness both physically and spiritually, since they lived exilically.

[2] E.J. Young. 97

[3] The implications of this text are many. The unclean/clean motif is remarkably potent in the Bible.

[4] E.J. Young.

[5] Verses 8-9 -May he have dominion from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth!

May desert tribes bow down before him,

and his enemies lick the dust!

(Psalm 72:8-9 ESV)

[6] See Revelation’s description.

[7] I have preached an entire sermon on this verse.

[8] Trees and Thorns.