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Colossians 2:13-14:Did it ever stand against anyone, unless they tried to be totally justified by it (which is to have faith in ones self) and not by faith in God?
And satan is a metaphor for fleshly man. Didn't Christ call Peter satan when Peter offered a fleshly response to Jesus stating His mission?The snake is a metaphor for Satan. God is not punishing snakes, but Satan.
"Dust" is what God called man:The curse of the serpent can also be seen as prophetic relating to Genesis 3:15. Where the phrase "on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life" (Genesis 3:14) may not only be a physical description of the serpent's new state but a metaphorical one.
In this sense, the prophetic judgement is that the offspring of Eve (humanity) would have dominion over the serpent and its spiritual descendants (evil forces). The phrase "you shall eat dust" could mean the serpent's defeat and humiliation, as well as its eventual destruction. The serpent would be brought low. The serpent, once a lofty and cunning creature, tempting and deceiving would be brought low.
This makes sense to me in light of Micah 7:17 and Psalm 72:9 which has similar imagery. God will humble his enemies.
"And 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."
So, in this sense, the curse is not only a punishment but also a prophetic declaration of the ultimate triumph of the Promised Seed (Jesus), who would crush the serpent's head. Jesus would humble and defeat his enemy.
That's an interesting perspective. Yet we do see the serpent intent on destroying Adam an Eve, albeit with a lie even before being cursed."Dust" is what God called man:
Genesis 3:19 KJV — In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Satan is a dust eater, i.e., he destroys mankind.
Psalms 103:14 KJV"Dust" is what God called man:
Genesis 3:19 KJV — In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Satan is a dust eater, i.e., he destroys mankind.
The Old Covenant with all it's laws and works has not literally disappeared so maybe this is referring to the New Covenant giving us a "better" Spiritual understanding of God and salvation. What thinkest thou? : )
Yes, but perhaps it wasn't quite as adversarial on Satan's part. In other words, something changed in Satan's position in God's universe when he deceived Eve. Maybe he was even restrained by God from tempting Adam, but got around it by deceiving Eve.That's an interesting perspective. Yet we do see the serpent intent on destroying Adam an Eve, albeit with a lie even before being cursed.
Yes, but perhaps it wasn't quite as adversarial on Satan's part. In other words, something changed in Satan's position in God's universe when he deceived Eve. Maybe he was even restrained by God from tempting Adam, but got around it by deceiving Eve.
Satan was cursed for his role to become a "dust-eater", but he wasn't that before. If it refers to human beings, then he brings death to them, it sounds like, but before that wasn't his role. And if he was in the garden just after creation, when God called everything "very good", then he must have had a "very good" role in the garden. It doesn't seem like his role was to tempt Adam and Eve, and Adam's sin was the one that brought death to the world, not Eve's. So I'm just wondering what role that was, and if he had some restraints put on him in his role, such that he might think he can violate those restraints in a "subtil" way, since the serpent was the most subtil of all the animals in the garden. Remember that Satan was not allowed to go beyond the restraints put on him when he tempted Job--first he wasn't allowed to touch Job himself (only his stock, servants, and children--Note that Job's wife was probably spared from the first ordeal because she was "one flesh" with Job), then he wasn't allowed to take Job's life. I doubt that the serpent in the garden was allowed to take the life of either Adam or Eve, but he ended up doing just that by getting them to eat of the tree, i.e., they killed themselves.
What do you mean by the above? I don't quite follow?
Somewhere in Bible, Jesus states that He saw satan fall like a star from heaven. We also know there was a great battle between the "good angels" and the"bad angels." I have often wondered if this ties in with the account in Genesis.Genesis says that the snake, or serpent, was an animal. It was smarter than other animals, but still an animal.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild
animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman,
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?
Genesis 3:1 NIV
Yes, it says the serpent was a wild animal. If I say that the snake in the Garden of Eden story is an animal many people think I an introducing some kind of newfangled revisionism. They have been told that the serpent is the Devil, Satan. At the end of the same chapter, God pronounces punishment on the serpent, to be borne by all other serpent until the end of time.
So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have
done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the
wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat
dust all the days of your life.”
Genesis 3:14 NIV
At the end of Genesis 3, the serpent is still a wild animal. The serpent is cursed to lose its legs, and crawl on the ground.
Everyone tells me that the Devil tempted Eve. I’m not sure if the Devil turned himself into a snake, or if he possessed the snake and spoke through the snake. Either way, this poses a question. If it was the Devil who tempted Eve, why did God punish the serpent?
First, humans are also animals. We are the most advanced (that we know of) among them, but we are in the same ontological category as the lower animals.The snake is a metaphor for Satan. God is not punishing snakes, but Satan.
We were made in the image of God and God breathed the breath of life into Adam and Eve. Everything in the universe is connected. We are made up of the same atoms as everything else.First, humans are also animals.
You can take it that way, but in his usual habit of discourse, Jesus had a larger view and was addressing Satan for whom Peter conveniently fit his purpose at the moment. Peter was clearly not Satan, nor was his subsequent behavior cognizant of such recognition. If any of the inner circle fits that characterization it would have been Judas.And satan is a metaphor for fleshly man. Didn't Christ call Peter satan when Peter offered a fleshly response to Jesus stating His mission?
Somewhere in Bible, Jesus states that He saw satan fall like a star from heaven. We also know there was a great battle between the "good angels" and the"bad angels." I have often wondered if this ties in with the account in Genesis.
Suppose that the temptation of Eve was the trigger point for the battle between the angels. We also know that satan was given dominion over our fallen world. He is the prince of the power of the air here. But God did not intend that dominion as a reward. It's more like a punishment.
Satan was second in heaven only to God. But he was thrown down to earth (to eat dust all the days of his life, metaphorically speaking). It has been said that satan hates us humans, that he prowls the earth seeking whom he may devour.
What brought about this rage in him? Well, if he lost his exalted position in heaven and has been demoted to tempter for all humanity (a position that would not have been necessary if not for the temptation of Eve), a position that could be likened to "crawling on his belly" compared to his former exalted status, that would go a long way toward explaining his hatred of our kind.
Suppose furthermore that when God pronounced punishment on satan, he stirred up rebellion amongst the angels and tried to take heaven by force. The loss of that battle would be the occasion when Jesus saw satan plummet to the earth.
Perhaps satan did speak to Eve through some sort of serpent. God could have pronounced judgement upon him using the metaphor of a serpent as a further message to satan that God was up to his tricks.
It all hangs together, I believe, but of course it's only surmise and we will never know the truth of that, or many other things, until we are on the other side.
First, humans are also animals. We are the most advanced (that we know of) among them, but we are in the same ontological category as the lower animals.
Second, Satan is an angel. They are "a little more" advanced than humans (scripture says). Angels are in the more general category of what nowadays we call ETs. Satan "fell like lightning from heaven". That is, he "crash-landed from space" (unless he was residing in the troposphere!). There is considerable talk in the UAP-UFO community about reptilian ETs. Snakes do not have intelligence; Satan does. My working hypothesis is that Satan is a reptilian ET.
There could be at the root of this question a translation problem. There is no word in Hebrew for the modern classification of reptile. Snakes are reptiles and if there is a class of ETs who are reptilian, then Satan could be one of them.
Ezekiel 28What brought about this rage in him?
Ezekiel 28
17Your heart grew proud of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor;
so I cast you to the earth;
you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor;
so I cast you to the earth;
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