Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. This is how the serpent is introduced in Genesis 3:1. We discussed in our last post why Satan is called the Serpent. He apparently was of the inner court of the LORD and was created by God in perfection until iniquity was found in him. His sin is pride and envy in that he believed he was so perfect he could be equal with God. He is the father of lies and was a murderer from the beginning.
We will discuss in this post the significance of why Satan is described as a “serpent more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” (NKJV). The term cunning is also translated as subtle, crafty, clever or shrewd. It means to be more knowledgeable, wiser, more intelligent, more experienced, and more deceptive than anything God has created on Earth, evidently including Man.
Genesis introduces the serpent as an intelligent living being that existed either prior to or simultaneously with Man. Was the serpent created by God? If so, was he created before or during the creation previously described in Genesis 1? The text does not tell us.
On one hand, he is more cunning than any beast of the field that God has made. On the other hand, he seems to be above the created Earth and its inhabitants and has access to Man in the Garden of Eden. The text does tell us the serpent presents himself as being superior to man in his knowledge of God, good and evil and spiritual things.
However, as I presented in my previous post, the Bible provides evidence the serpent pre-existed the creation of the heavens and the Earth and was a member of the inner-court host supporting God on His Throne. The implication is that God created the serpent and all the hosts of heaven as they served God. God made the serpent so perfectly, the serpent became obsessed with his own beauty and perfection and purposed in his heart to ascend the Throne equal to God.
The Serpents Evil Plan
In Genesis 3, the serpent is the initiator of the dialogue with Eve with the purpose of deceiving Man and causing their fall and destruction. The question arises as to why he wants to kill man.
Maybe it is because Satan wants to disrupt anything of God. Maybe it is because God has rejected Satan and cast him out of heaven. Maybe it is because God created man to rule and reign with God in place of Satan and his fallen angels. Maybe it is a combination of all. Either way, the serpent is clearly the enemy of man and the enemy of God.
The serpent evidently did not know that Man was going to occupy a favored spot in the presence of God regardless of whether Man fell or not. The serpent evidently did not know that in the process of redeeming Man and reconciling Man unto Himself, God would ultimately destroy the serpent.
This destruction will be at the pleading of the Saints who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. At the end of time and the beginning of the immortality of Man, the Saints will know the full consequences of evil that comes through rebellion against God, and will petition God to destroy Satan and his works of evil violence.
So, why does the Bible introduce the Serpent as more cunning than any beast of the field? I personally like to use the word insidious in the place of cunning, subtle or crafty. According to Merriam-Webster.com and Oxford Languages (combined), insidious is defined as having the nature and intelligence to develop a deceptive scheme that unfolds so gradually as to be well established before becoming apparent to the victim that they are entrapped and facing harmful effects. That is exactly what the serpent did to Eve. Once Eve was trapped Adam either was deceived by Eve or blatantly disobeyed God.
The Divine Trap: The Redemption of Man
The irony is that the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field and set out to entrap Man. However, he was not more cunning that the LORD God and was instead entrapped in a plan of redemption set in motion by God. Through Satan’s deception and Man’s resulting disobedience, God’s plan of redemption would result in the reconciliation of Man to God and the eternal destruction of Satan, the serpent, at the pleading of the saints.
The Confession of Man but no Sign of Repentance
This becomes apparent in Genesis 3, when God calls out to Man and gives them the chance to acknowledge their transgression and also the chance to repent. Man did confess to their transgression, but never did repent. Instead, Adam blamed Eve and blamed God for giving him Eve. Eve blamed the deception of the serpent.
Arguably, Eve was deceived, but Adam blatantly disobeyed God. This argument is supported because the command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was given to Adam prior to the creation of Eve. Adam was responsible for ensuring Eve complied with the prohibition.
God Renders Judgment
However, God never dialogued with the Serpent. Instead, God spoke judgment upon the head of the serpent. In fact, after hearing from Adam and Eve, God first pronounced judgment against the serpent, then Eve and then Adam.
The judgment of the Serpent is stated in Genesis 3:14 and 15: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
When we analyze the meaning of this judgment upon the Serpent, we can sum it up as Satan has been cast out of heaven and to the Earth. Having been among the inner court of the Almighty God, he is now lower than the simplest of animal life on Earth.
He will war with Man all the days of life on Earth and will cause much harm to Man (i.e., he will strike the heel of Eve’s Seed as represented solely in Jesus Christ and His Church). In the end, however, the Seed will crush the head of the serpent, meaning eternal death in the Lake of Fire.
Conclusion
Having confessed himself to be wise, the Serpent became a fool! “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field. In other words, cunning is as cunning does and you reap what you sow.
The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field that God had made, but he was not more cunning that God. The result of the serpent’s insidious plot against Man is the redemption of Man to God and the total destruction of Satan, who was Man’s adversary.