Chapter 3 opens with a very interesting statement. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'" (Genesis 3:3)
Were animals able to speak prior to the fall of man? That is one theory for what happens in our passage today. Some examples of ancient literature suggest that they could. In the Book Of Jubilees, sometimes referred to as the "Lesser Genesis", which was written somewhere around 100 BC, the unknown author claims that all animals in Eden could talk. It is recognized as a canonical book primarily only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Jews, but it was a well known book in New Testament times. The Book Of Jubilees, when discussing the fall of man, makes this statement: "And on that day was closed the mouth of all beasts, and of cattle, and of birds, and of whatever walketh, and of whatever moveth, so that they could no longer speak; for they had all spoken one with another with one lip and with one tongue." Flavius Josephus, a Jewish priest, scholar, and historian who lived around 37 AD to 100 AD, wrote in his book The Antiquities Of The Jews that God "deprived the serpent of speech" because it deceived the woman, indicating that the serpent may have naturally possessed the ability to speak. This might explain why, if Josephus and the author of Jubilees are correct, that the ability to speak was removed from the entire animal kingdom at this time. This may have been necessary in order to prevent Satan from using the animals in his plots against mankind.
Being an animal lover, I find the idea fascinating that in the beginning the animals could speak with man and with each other. I had a dog named Belinda for fifteen years who desperately wanted to be able to talk to me. She created a little language of her own, developing various mumblings, whines, snorts, and barks to communicate with me. She would look me in the eye and make a series of noises that were as long as one or two sentences. People who witnessed this were amazed and amused by it. Most of the time I knew exactly what she wanted to do or what she wanted me to do based on the particular sounds she made. She trained me well! She's the only "talker" I've had among my dogs, but some of you may have had pets that communicated with you by various noises and you know what I mean. Were the animals once able to speak? Do they somehow know this? Do they still have the desire to communicate with us? We don't know the answer but if they all did talk at one time, then I hope that when the Lord restores the world to its former glory He will restore speech to the animal kingdom.
The other theory regarding the serpent's ability to speak is that the snake was inhabited by Satan for a short time for the purpose of tempting Eve. Satan knew he would have to verbally persuade her to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He may have already tried to tempt her in her mind but had been unsuccessful. He needed to be able to lay out his argument in verbal form. He needed to be able to confuse her and then to convince her that God was keeping something desirable from her by not allowing her to have the fruit. If it's true that Satan merely possessed the serpent for a short time, the serpent must have been a willing participant, for later on in our chapter we will find the Lord punishing the serpent for his part in this tragedy. I don't think the Lord would punish the serpent if the serpent were incapable of refusing to be used by the devil.
The serpent needs to engage Eve in conversation and he does so by asking her a question that has misinformation in it. This causes her to want to correct what she thinks is a misunderstanding. The serpent asks her if it's true that God has forbidden her and her husband from eating from any tree in the garden. We know there is only one tree from which they are forbidden to eat, and Satan knows it too, but he also knows that Eve will feel compelled to answer him. "The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3) In Genesis 2:16-17, the Lord told Adam (prior to the creation of Eve) that he must not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God made no mention of whether or not Adam could touch the tree, but Eve likely received her warnings about the tree from Adam and perhaps not directly from God. It could be that Adam told her it was best not to even touch the tree, lest she be tempted. Or she may have assumed that if eating the fruit was going to bring death into the world, touching it wasn't a good idea either. Or possibly the Lord did say not to touch it and the author of Genesis didn't mention this in Chapter 2. When something is wrong for us, it's best to have as little contact with it as possible. I don't think Eve was actually wrong when she stated that they weren't to touch the tree or its fruit. I think she instinctively knew that to spend much time in the presence of this tree and its fruit was a bad idea.
I saw a news article some time back about a study that had been done on the shopping habits of people who shop in person in physical stores. The study found that people who touch the merchandise are more likely to follow through with a purchase. I told a friend about the article while we were shopping together in a store. She and I are both "touchers" of the merchandise. If I pass by a display of blouses I think are pretty, for example, I can't just stand there and look at them for a minute. I will touch them. I don't know why I have to touch them. I can plainly see what they look like while they're hanging on hangers on a display rack, and yet I feel compelled to touch them anyway. The shopping study found that people like me, who go so far as to touch the merchandise, are more likely to buy something in the store that day. I can't say whether that's personally true for me. If I've gone shopping for clothes, then obviously my intention is to make at least one purchase, so I don't know whether touching the merchandise influences me or not. But suppose I just accompanied someone else to the store and I didn't have any intention of making a purchase for myself? Would touching the merchandise make me feel more tempted than just looking at the merchandise? Maybe so. It makes sense.
It made sense to Eve too. So far she hasn't laid a hand on the tree or its fruit. I'm not sure she's even taken a clear look at it up til now, because in our passage tomorrow she will suddenly realize how pleasing to the eye the fruit is. Eve may have been so afraid of this tree that up until the serpent tempted her, she had never looked fully at it. She probably was in the habit of passing by it quickly with downcast eyes. But in Chapter 3 we find Satan getting her to let her guard down enough to take a closer look at the fruit of the tree. Then, when he sees the gleam in her eyes, he's going to slyly talk her into all the supposed benefits of the fruit. He's going to use language that causes her to doubt God's good intentions for her. And when that doubt creeps in, he sees his chance to strike.
Join us tomorrow as we take a further look into the conversation between Eve and the serpent and as we study the methods the devil uses to tempt. We will talk about things that may help us to avoid falling for his lies. He might have been the most crafty thing in the garden, but he's no match for the Lord to whom we belong, and we have a source of power within us that is able to give us strength when we need it. No matter how strongly the devil comes against us, we need to remember: "Greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
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