Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

A boy captures a frog and, as he’s holding it in his hands, it begins to speak.

“I’m an enchanted princess, and if you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful woman who will love you with all her heart.”

“Cool,” the boy says—and puts the frog in his pocket.

A little while later, the boy takes the frog out of his pocket. The frog exclaims, “Why didn’t you kiss me? It’ll be awesome!”

“Not as awesome as a talking frog.”

We tend to read today’s passage without noticing how absurd it is that the serpent speaks. This isn’t portrayed as a natural part of its craftiness. Something strange is going on here.

There’s no way this level of craftiness is possessed by an animal. I don’t understand how my dog thinks (if she “thinks” at all). It’s silly to imagine that my dog understands how I think better than I do—even if she did start talking. Someone (or something) else is putting words in the serpent’s mouth.

Also, it’s curious that the talking serpent doesn’t scare Eve off. That would send most folks running. What he says is scary too—but this is still the age of innocence, and Eve has no concept of evil.

But she’s about to learn.

There’s a word in this passage that reveals the serpent’s cunning—“indeed” (כִּי, “key” in Hebrew). It’s a multi-purpose conjunction that can mean “if,” “then,” “really,” or “indeed” among other things. Here, it’s an expression of skepticism. The ESV has it as, “Did God really say …?”

The serpent is incredulous that God would be so mean. This is deeply deceptive. The serpent is planting the thought in Eve’s head that God is not good.

Recall that at this point, the man and the woman are totally innocent (that is, naive). They have no concept of deception. They’d fall for every trick in the book. The scammers on the internet would eat them alive.

So, as we’ll soon see, Eve just corrects the serpent on the detail that God has banned eating from every tree. But the serpent has moved the needle. Eve is now thinking about God as the source of restrictions.

This creature is far more cunning than any internet scammer that has ever lived. He understands how Eve thinks better than she understands herself. He is guiding her down a path that she has no ideas she’s on.

Even though this is before the fall of man, something is already fallen. That something is controlling the serpent. That something is incredibly smart—and dangerous. The rest of scripture makes it clear who that something is—the devil himself. (See, for example, Revelation 12:1–9 and 20:1–2.)

Ignore this something at your peril.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. Saturdays' by Matt Richardson. Subscribe here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, are here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.