Hi Allan.
Regarding the talking serpent, it's best to take your eyes off of the physical serpent and consider instead whose voice it was that was actually speaking. In the book of Revelation it is written:
Revelation chapter 12 verse 9
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
That old serpent, a direct reference to the talking serpent of Genesis, is none other than the Devil and Satan who deceives the whole world along with the angels who followed him in his rebellion against God. Don't get me wrong. I do believe that there was a literal, physical serpent involved, but, again, we need to consider whose voice it was which was actually being heard in the account. It was, no doubt, the voice of Satan. You said on your
The Evil of Humanity thread:
There is something, no, someone, totally non-godly or ungodly in this world and that someone is none other than Satan our adversary. By reading the Genesis account, we can get a pretty good idea of his schemes and tactics and thereby guard ourselves from the same. What then are his tactics? Let's read the account:
Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 thru 7
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
This is where we are first introduced to
that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceives the whole world and his first character trait that we notice is his subtlety. To be subtle or
subtil is to be able to cleverly and indirectly accomplish something without necessarily stating your desired purpose. What was Satan's desired purpose in relation to Eve? Paul explained:
2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 1 thru 3
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Satan beguiled Eve, even as she testified herself in Genesis chapter 3 verse 13, and he did so by taking her mind off of the simplicity or singleness that is in Christ. In other words, in this world, there's really only one Person Whom we need to know and out of said knowing our whole lives are directly affected in relation to how we think and behave and that One Person is Jesus Christ. Satan, the god of this world, will do everything in his power to keep you from fixing your gaze upon Christ:
2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 3 and 4
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The entire Bible is about Jesus Christ. Yes,
in the volume of the book it is written of Him, Psalm 40 verse 7 & Hebrews chapter 10 verse 7, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament and no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost:
I Corinthians chapter 12 verse 3
Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Satan couldn't care less what you set your sights upon in this world as long as it isn't Christ. Before you read the Bible, pray to God and ask Him to reveal Christ to you by the Holy Ghost or by the Holy Spirit. Unless God opens your eyes to Who Christ is, the Bible will be nothing more or nothing less than perhaps an interesting read. May you truly find Christ in your reading of the scriptures.
John chapter 5 verse 39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
By the way, I didn't even scratch the surface in relation to the serpent and his tactics. If you'd ever like to discuss what some of his tactics are so that you might overcome the same, then I'd be thrilled to discuss the same with you as described for us throughout the Bible.
One last thing...
Switching from the spiritual to the natural for a moment, we read the following in relation to the physical serpent in Genesis:
Genesis chapter 3 verse 14
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
By cursing the serpent above all cattle and above every beast of the field, which, by the way, indicates that all cattle and every beast were cursed in some manner, quite possibly regarding their own physical traits, the serpent basically lost its legs which it once had and scientists themselves believe that serpents once had legs. I'm going to provide you a link which documents as much, but, of course, I do not believe for even a split second the evolutionary nonsense which is discussed therein nor do I believe the timelines involved. Here's the link:
Studying how snakes got legless - BBC News