Hi, Peeplezs!
Wal, ah done been cogitatin' a bit on yore question about thet thar snake in the Garden of Eden, an' thunk me sum thots about it. Ah'll run 'em by yu an' see if'n they makes any scents.
These words to Satan (the snake) would be the first meeting of the various parties after Satan caused Adam and Eve to sin, and tension and feelings would be running high. The Biblical account would pretty much be a cut and dried reporting of events and language, and most of the color, innuendos, and interplay - such as facial expressions, body language, etc., would be left out. Sometimes these things make quite a difference and will explain a lot.
For instance, you can say the same thing to a woman, and get a totally different reaction depending on how it's phrased: "When I look into your eyes, time stands still" will probably get you a kiss, but if you tell her "Your face would stop a clock", you might have to duck. They mean the same thing, don't they? Now try to translate them into a different language and keep the innuendos intact.
So my thought is that maybe we should hop in our time mosheen and go back to the Garden of Eden and look at it as if we were there. Of course, there were only two people then, so we'll have to be something else. You'll be a butterfly on a leaf and I'll be a honeybee on a flower - okay, okay! If yer gonna be that way about it, yu can be the honeybee and I'll be the butterfly!
We look at each other. "Hey, look! Something's up over there on the other side of the meadow!" Naturally, we buzz and flap our way over there to get a better look.
To our surprise, Creator is highly displeased! We've never seen him that way before! Lucifer, his foreman over the construction of the earth, appears self-satisfied and defiant, and those two new critters, "people" I think they're called, although it runs in my mind that they are also known as "hoomin beans" or some such thing, are both lookin' like they swallered a bug.
We soon find out why. It seems that Lucifer chose a real cautious varmit (the snake, which would add to his credibility) and, using it like a ventriloquist's dummy, proceeded to fill the "hoomans" clear full of a load of smelly stuff, eggzactly whot, I'd rather not say. That, in turn, caused them to do something they weren't 'sposed to.
Then we find out what: After questioning Eve as to what they were forbidden to do and getting a correct answer that they would die if they ate the fruit of one certain tree, he states flatly, "You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad."
Now, that's something anyone would take personally! In those few words, Lucifer told Eve that:
- Creator was a liar and deceiver.
- He was selfish and stingy with his largess.
- He was not perfect like he said he was and therefore unworthy of their loyalty and worship.
- They had a right to more than they were given.
- They should not be satisfied with Jehovah's headship or laws.
- There was a better way and that he Lucifer (later, Satan), would be their benefactor and show it to them.
If someone pretending to be an authority snuck in behind our backs and told our families something like that about us, I reckon we'd be all bent out of shape too! The difference would be in our reactions. You and I would probably say with some enthusiasm: "Why, you @+%)*&^)$#&^%(*+%$!!!!!", then haul off and bust him in the proboscis.
However, Creator has more couth than we do. He's angry, but that is well under control, because he is also powerful and has no need to feel vulnerable, so we could expect that his answer would be unhurried, dignified, and directly to the point. He will pronounce punishment and then waste no further time and effort on this slob. He doesn't even give the fool the honor of being directly spoken to, but he talks to the snake instead!
And what a punishment! What he's saying in so many words is roughly this: "You pretended to be a snake, eh? So be it. I'll give you the qualities of a snake. You won't be able to do anything without using stealth, deception, and lies, just like a snake in the grass. You will be hated and avoided by most of the rest of creation and, just like I'm taking the legs off this snake so that he has to crawl on his belly, you too will be brought low in relationship to everything else." (It don't pay to mess with Creator!) You have to admit the punishment fits the crime!
And was he brought low? Yu betcha! Sure, he has manufactured a reputation for himself that is like John Wayne toilet paper (rough, tough, and takes crap off nobody), but the reality is far different. Consider this:
1. All we puny humans have to do is stand up and resist him and he runs like a scared jack rabbit. (James 4:7)
2. We have the authority to get sustenance from the animals, but he has to not only ask permission, but needs to beg for it too. (Luke 8:30-33)
3. And best of all, we humans have the authority to expose him for what he really is, and make him a laughing stock in the eyes of the entire universe. (Proverbs 27:11)
Okay, peeplezs, it's yore turn. Poke holes in it. (Grin)
