Step on the Devil's Head - it just feels so right!
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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.”
There is something about snakes - the average person does not like them, no matter how colorful they may be, no matter how graceful they move. People don’t like snakes. An 2017 article in Medical News today stated that we are hardwired to dislike snakes and spiders. “Similar to primates, mechanisms in our brains enable us to identify objects as 'spider' or 'snake' and to react to them very fast. This obviously inherited stress reaction in turn predisposes us to learn these animals as dangerous or disgusting."
The passage is interesting in that it presents the serpent as the primeval antagonist who is responsible for our fallen state. For Moses to pick that animal over lions, tigers or bears would indicate that modern scientists are only confirming what we have always known.
Why did Satan pick this animal? The opening of chapter 3 describes the serpent as “crafty.” That does sound like an apt description of our adversary the devil. The fact that snakes generally attack from below and could be killed by stomping them is unique among the predators. Given the degree of hostility that we feel against serpents, the promise that the offspring of the woman would bruise his head would certainly be received with joy and hope.
If only we viewed Satan the way we view serpents, perhaps it would be easier to resist him. Praise God that Jesus views Satan the way we view serpents. He showed no mercy, gave no quarter, and did not rest until He destroyed the one who had the power over death, by dying on the cross. What seemed to be the serpent’s greatest strength, the Messiah used to defeat him, just as the prophecy foretold.