May 8, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“So, the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this- cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly. You will eat dust all the days of your life.’”

(Genesis 3.14)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I often wonder how carefully people read this section of Genesis 3, verses 14-19, and hear what is being said as it relates to judgment and salvation. In the verses that following this pericope, God will actually give them a sign to confirm the description of how living in the world will become. It is far different than the world in which they lived before the judgment. And there was a judgment adjudicated by God’s perfect love which fell on the just and the unjust. It was a judgment of serious consequences experienced, as I reflected yesterday, on every actor in the scene. And before we pass by too quickly, I would suggest that even God had a consequence. Because God is omniscient, God knew full well the paths of actions each one could take. He was prepared for it. When I speak of God, I speak of the Godhead, three in one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each one of the three was aware of the consequences. They were fully prepared for every possible scenario and where it would lead. What was that sign for which they were prepared? It was the sign of sacrifice- a life for a life. Each of the three characters, four including God, would experience the consequence of change:

Adam would have to toil from the soil and make his way in life instead of nature progressing by a process only to be monitored providing what was needed. (And God called it a curse because it was such a change of expected character.)

Eve would experience pain in giving birth to children and all the stresses of bearing them for nine months. There was a blessing offered and it was for deliverance of humankind from the eternal threat of the enemy. From her offspring, at some point in time, would come one who would utterly defeat the enemy by crushing its head (spiritually speaking, as we might guess reading backward into the story with Revelation in mind).

The Serpent is cursed above all livestock and wild animals to have to be confined to the earth upon which he been cast down upon. “Crawling on the ground” indicates a groveling and begging posture being made subservient and vulnerable to all other creatures. Equally, all the days of his life he will “eat dust.” It is a figure of speech even in Hebrew meaning to crawl without reprieve in such a posture. However, there is the sense of indignity implied as the dust rises from the feet ahead leaving the serpent behind only to strike at the heel of man. One day it will be the wrong heel and the man who was made from dust who returned to dust will return in power and glory.

I would offer another thought before I close this reflection as it can be understood that “the serpent is cursed above all livestock and wild animals” meaning they are cursed as well just not in the same judged condition. What that means in reality, one is left to presume. Does it speak to a soul-lessness existence? The serpent being mindful now of a final execution of spiritual justice. To “eat dust” might mean to be exiled not in life on earth but a living death from which even death is not a deliverance.

It would do us well to consider these conditions: toil from the soil, pain and suffering even in bringing life, resigned to an earthly condition with no hope for rising up again and a resignation to an unearthly life in eternal death and dying from which there is no escape. We, as followers of Christ, experience each of this in some form or fashion as we abide in a sinful condition. However, because of Christ who gave His life as an atonement for our salvation, we are not bound by sin but released by grace to pursue righteousness and eternal life on earth as it is in heaven.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.