Sermon Tone Analysis

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Have you ever wondered why certain things are associated with bad things.

Why do people say that walking under a ladder is bad luck.

Is it just a saying to stop people doing the stupid thing of walking under the ladder, knocking it over and having something or someone fall on their head?

Or is it a saying born of experience, did someone walk under the ladder and things did fall on their head?

Bad luck or stupidity?

Or what about snakes?

Are they seen as bad because snakes bite people and people die?

Now we all know that not all snakes are poisonous, only a few are really aggressive and we all know that most snakes will run, crawl, slither away if given a change.

But why do we associate snakes with evil when in ancient oriental culture snakes were seen as symbolic of life, wisdom and chaos.

In Aboriginal culture the rainbow serpent is seen as a creative spirit.

Yet in Western thought the snake is associated with evil.

But if we believe that God created all things and especially all the animals how can an animal he created be evil?

Or let’s ask the even bigger question behind this question; if God made everything good how come there is evil in the world?

To answer this question we have to start at the beginning.

God created and he said it was good.

Good as in having desirable or positive qualities; especially those suitable for a thing specified.

So when God says it is good in Genesis 1:9 of plants on day 3

And in Genesis 1:19 of the separation of night and day on day 4

And in Genesis 1:21 of the creation of sea creatures on day 5

And in Genesis 1:25 of the creation of land creatures on day 6

And then in Genesis 1:31 after he has finished creating people and giving them the command to rule over all creation God said it was very good.

So creation, including snakes, is good.

The things God created have desirable or positive qualities suitable for what they were created to do.

God designed creation to do what he intended.

Then in Genesis 2:18 God says it is not good for man to be alone.

Do you see the issue here?

Over and over again God has said that it is good.

But man being alone is not good.

Something is wrong.

Animals are great companions and very useful servants but they are not the perfect companions for man.

So God makes woman.

So woman is the answer to the loneliness of man, so woman is good.

Following so far?

When God created Eve and presented her to Adam, like at a wedding, we see a beautiful picture of the biblical idea of marriage.

In verses 18 to 25 of Genesis 2 and in verses 27 to 28 of Genesis 1 we see God’s ideal for the relationship between a husband and wife.

It is for procreation, companionship and complementing one another.

Genesis 2:18 could be translated as the helper who matches him.

The famous commentator Matthew Henry when writing about God’s choice of creating Eve from Adam’s rib said, “Not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

Perhaps this reads a little too much into the rib, but it expresses well the biblical ideal of marriage.

Quoted in New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., pp.

62–63).

Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.

So God brought life and it was good

But

Sin brings death or to put it another way why was the snake evil?

Why a snake?

Why did a snake appear and tempt the woman.

Now there are many reasons that people have proposed as to why the snake was evil.

Early Christian and Jewish commentators identified the snake with Satan.

But how can this be when God had just created all the land creatures and said that they are good.

What we need to understand is that Genesis 1 to 3 is dealing with a whole range of ideas.

It is showing us that God created.

It is also showing us that other religious beliefs of the time are totally inferior.

When Moses wrote down the account of Genesis, most probably during the 40 years in the desert after Israel left Egypt, he was doing far more than simply recording history.

He was giving the people of Israel an explanation of why God is superior to all the pagan religions they had encountered.

He was giving them a foundation so that they wouldn’t fall for the temptations of the pagan religions in the land they were about to conquer.

The Canaanite religions of the day included a serpent as one of their symbols.

Genesis 3 presents a choice.

Follow the path of the serpent, who will once again lead you into temptation or follow the Lord by obeying his commands.

Another possible allusion is to show the inferiority of the creation myths of the Babylonian Kingdom.

The Gilgamesh Epic which is contained on twelve Babylonian tablets records the story of creation and Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality.

Unfortunately when he finds the plant that gives eternal life it is taken from him when a snake eats it.

Interestingly the 11th tablet records a version of Noah’s flood.

An account which is repeated in many ancient civilizations from India to Hawaii to China to the Middle East.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988).

Gilgamesh Epic.

In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 868).

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Another possible idea is that the snake represents the things which are unclean.

The Old Testament law in Leviticus 11 listed a range of animals which were unclean, against God’s will for the people.

The snake being an animal that crawled on the ground was as far as you could get from something which was clean.

In the Old Testament world with all its symbolism the snake is an obvious choice for an anti- God symbol.

Wenham, G. J. (1998).

Genesis 1–15 (Vol. 1, pp. 72–73).

Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

Or quite simply the creature described here is the one who rebelled against God, the one known as Satan, who appears in many forms and in this particular situation in the form of a snake.

But what about evil?

Genesis doesn’t actually answer the question of where evil came from.

The New Testament does that.

Genesis tells us where evil didn’t come from.

Evil was not inherent in man.

And God didn’t set Adam and Eve up to fail.

Kenneth Matthews in the New American Commentary puts it brilliantly when he says;

“The tempter stands outside the human pair and stands opposed to God’s word.

His career is obscure to the author of Genesis 3, who can only speak of the snake’s destiny (3:14–15).

As we find elsewhere in Scripture, little is said about the source of evil.

Old Testament thought consistently affirms God as the ultimate cause of all things, even the existence of the serpent (3:1), but it never attributes evil to God.

He is not morally responsible for the sin of the first couple nor is he culpable for the serpent’s deceit.”

Mathews, K. A. (1996).

Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol.

1A, pp.

226–227).

Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The words of an extra Biblical book known as 4 Ezra 7:118: put it well

Jesus identifies Satan as one who seeks to usurp the place of God.

He even sought to tempt Jesus by offering him all the kingdoms of the earth.

Matthew 4:8–10 (NLT)

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

“I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him.

“For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

So the source of evil is the rebellion of a created being.

Only a created being is capable of free will.