‘And the Lord God said to the snake, “Because you have done this, cursed are you beyond all cattle, and beyond all wild animals. On your belly you will go, and dust will you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” '
Did the author really think that the snake had once had legs, which were now removed? Of course not. Otherwise what about the harmless worm? That too moves without legs. Rather then he is now turning the snake into a symbol of what would happen to the one who had used the snake as a tool. We notice here that of all the culprits it is only the snake which is cursed. If it had only been a misguided creature, lower than man, this would be inconceivable. It can only be that, at this stage, for reasons we cannot fathom, the master is seen for the present as out of reach. So the curse is pronounced on the tool. (Just as it will be the ground from which man was taken that will be cursed and not the man).
“Beyond all cattle.” ‘Micol - ‘from all', therefore as distinctive from, compare Genesis 3:1 where he was wise beyond all. Because he was wise beyond all he is now cursed beyond all. The wisdom and the curse belong to another.
The majestic movements of the snake are now depicted in terms which demonstrate his master's fate. ‘On your belly you will go, and dust will you eat'. How different things can look from a different perspective. It is not the snake's movements that have changed, it is the interpretation of them. The author knows that the snake does not actually eat dust. The ‘eating of dust' is a symbol of defeat and humiliation (Psalms 72:9; Micah 7:17; Isaiah 47:1; Isaiah 49:23) and crawling on the belly was widely known as something expected by kings of their humbled foes (see also Psalms 44:25 where it symbolises affliction and oppression).
So from now on the snake will be humbled and defeated. Once he was seen as moving gracefully along the ground, but now he is seen as ‘crawling on his belly', and man will attack the snake wherever he sees it, and the snake will equally retaliate. But it is the man who, though grievously hurt, will finally come out on top. And from now on the ‘unseen enemy' will also attack man, and with the help of God will be fought against, humiliated and defeated, and be made to crawl and bite the dust.
The symbolism is significant. Every time man sees a snake he will be reminded of the subtlety of sin, and how it creeps up and strikes suddenly. He must take as much care in watching out for sin as he does in watching out for snakes.
‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will snap at your head, and you will bruise his heel.'
Man's future constant battle with snakes, which is a totally new departure in that almost perfect world, is also seen as a picture of man's constant battle with evil, the evil that will meet him at every turn and constantly snap at his heels. But it is significant that that battle is seen in terms of final, though hard won, victory for man, for that is surely what the bruising of the head must signify. The head is the major part, the heel the tail end. It will be a hard and difficult time but in the end it is man who will gain the victory. But only God knew Who the Man would be, and what He would have to go through, to achieve that final victory. Note that the battle is between snake and man, and the unseen enemy and man. God is sovereign above it all, until He steps down and becomes man.
The words for ‘snap at' and ‘bruise' are only slightly different. The first comes from a root shuph as a variant of sha'aph, ‘to snap at, snatch'. The other from shuph (Akkadian sapu) ‘to trample on, bruise'. Thus there is a deliberate play on words.
Are we to see here a reference to the coming of One Who will defeat the Serpent? The answer is ‘yes' and ‘no'. What is declared is that man will finally triumph, and the implication is of triumph over the unseen evil behind the snake. It is only later that it will become apparent that this must be by some Special Man. But it is implicit for otherwise why will it take so long? A special, unique man, the seed of Adam, must be in mind to achieve the final victory. The Serpent will be defeated by the ultimate Man.