What is dust?

Notice in Genesis after the serpent deceived Eve.

Gen 3:14  So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

We know that serpents do not eat dust, and there is an example in the Bible about this. In Exodus Moses went to Pharaoh to demand that the Israelites be set free. God knew that Pharaoh would not do this as God had hardened his heart.

Exo 7:8  Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

Exo 7:9  “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’ ”

Exo 7:10  So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

Exo 7:11  But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

Exo 7:12  For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

We see here that the serpent did not eat dust. The serpent ate another rod which was turned into a serpent.

The serpent is not to eat dust as food to live but the serpent’s food will be trying to corrupt or deceive man. As man is dust.

Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

Num 23:10  “Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!”

Psa 103:14  For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.

Who is the serpent?

The serpent brings the beginning of evil to man.

Gen 3:22  Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”

The serpent bore a child with Eve.

Gen 3:14  So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

Notice here that seed means child.

When Eve ate the piece of fruit, she was not eating, this is the way that the serpent puts evil into the world. How the seed of the serpent is passed on to man is possibly through sex, although this is not certain. When Mary became pregnant, the Holy Spirit came upon her. Perhaps this is what happens when the serpent wants a child born to him. Remember also that these are sons of God.

Eve said she had acquired a man from God, the serpent is a son of God.

Gen 4:1  Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”

Notice that Cain was of the wicked one.

1Jn 3:12  not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Is the serpent the devil?

In the following scriptures it says the serpent is the devil.

Rev 12:9  So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Rev 20:2  He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;