The Serpent and The Messiah (Click for PDF)

By Dionysis Theodorou

February 21 2002

Ancient Hebrew Literature

 

There is no doubt that the most written about book in the history of mankind is the Bible; so to write something unique about the first three and probably most controversial chapters is a highly unlikely event.  Nevertheless I will attempt to impart to you my understanding and my humble perspective.

 

I have a very literal understanding of the first two chapters of Genesis, which speak about God creating the heavens and the earth and everything that is therein in six days.  I figure that God being omnipotent is able to create heaven and earth and everything that moves in the heavens and in the waters and on the earth in six seconds or in six nano-seconds if He so pleases.  He created man in His own image, and He put him in charge of all His creation.  He told him that he would have to obey Him; and I believe that His authority was evident to Adam and to Eve, because after they transgressed His commandment they were afraid to confront Him, and they hid from Him.  

 

The first three chapters of Genesis do not really seem to give us much about the character of God; but we can infer from the things that He does, that He does care about His creation.  That He cared enough about Adam’s loneliness to make Him a mate shows that He has loving caring emotions about His most precious creation.  I get the impression that He placed them in the garden to tend to it and enjoy their time and their relationship with God.  This was the beginning of a beautiful time, and of a beautiful relationship of friendship, love and growth for man.  There is no indication in the text that they would be left in a state of stillness or that they would be caught in a moment of time with no forward motion.  In fact after He created every living thing He said the words “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.”  The same words were spoken to Adam and Eve, suggesting that it was only a matter of time before they would reproduce and live and grow in this blissful state with God for all eternity.  

 

The serpent, which was more subtle than all the creatures that God created, was the one that would tempt Adam and Eve and cause them to disobey God.  This seems to be the same character that comes to God and accuses Job who is righteous and upright that he might find some way of harming him.  This character always tries to separate man from God; and constantly finds ways to undermine and distort God’s word.  After the serpent succeeds in causing Adam and Eve to disobey God they start dying: they are now mortal.  They are discovered and they are ashamed and afraid of God.  God curses the ground for Adam’s sake, curses the serpent and puts enmity between him and the seed of the woman, adds pain to childbearing, and throws them out of the garden of Eden lest they reach out and eat of the tree of life and live for ever in this fallen state of death.  This cannot be the end of the story: this is only the beginning: this is Genesis.  

 

Drawing from my earlier conclusions, it would follow to say that enmity now exists between the enemy of God and the seed of the woman.  Man being God’s prize creation, the one that was created in His own image, has to be the one who will finally defeat the enemy of God.  He will be the one who will defeat sin and death and bring eternal life back into the world.  He will be the one who will bring man back to God in a restored and forgiven state.  This one will be perfect in all His ways and the tempter will have no power over Him.  With the tempter destroyed, there will be no possibility of disobedience and man will be forever obedient to God living together with Him for eternity.

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