Volume 35: Reading The Words, But Missing The Message

READING THE WORDS, BUT MISSING THE MESSAGE

One of the easiest ways to misunderstand the Bible is to assume that every word must describe something physical in exactly the same way we use that word in everyday conversation.

The Bible is true. But truth can be communicated through history, poetry, prophecy, metaphor, symbolism, personification and zoomorphism—using animal imagery to describe human or spiritual beings.

Jesus said, “I am the door” (John 10:9). Nobody goes looking for hinges.

Jesus said, “I am the vine” (John 15:5). Nobody expects leaves growing from His arms.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). And when He spoke about eating His flesh, He later explained, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:53, 63).

So when we come to Genesis, we should bring the same biblical understanding with us.

DARKNESS THAT CAN THINK?

The Gospel of John takes us back to Genesis with the words: “In the beginning…” (John 1:1).

Then he identifies Christ with Light: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

Then something interesting happens: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5).

Physical darkness cannot comprehend anything. John is using personification—speaking about darkness as though it possesses personal characteristics.

Light becomes more than illumination. Darkness becomes more than the absence of photons.

Throughout Scripture, light represents life, truth and God’s revelation of Christ, while darkness represents the works of wickedness and characteristics in opposition to God.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

Paul describes people being delivered “from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13).

So when Genesis begins with darkness and God declares, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), we should recognize that the rest of Scripture develops light and darkness into enormous spiritual themes.

THEN COMES THE SERPENT

Genesis 3 introduces “the serpent” speaking to Eve (Genesis 3:1).

Before automatically imagining an ordinary garden snake having a conversation, compare Scripture with Scripture.

Jesus looked directly at human beings and said: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers” (Matthew 23:33). They were obviously men.

John the Baptist likewise called people a “generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7).

This is zoomorphism. Animal imagery communicates something about the character or nature of the person being described.

Most importantly, Revelation identifies Satan as: “That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (Revelation 12:9).

And again: “That old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan” (Revelation 20:2).

The Bible itself therefore connects serpent imagery with Satan.

Scripture also shows us that spiritual beings are not limited to appearing as we might expect. Angels appear as men in Genesis 18–19. Hebrews says people have “entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). Paul even says, “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Now compare Genesis with the Bible’s unmistakable talking-animal story.

When Balaam’s donkey speaks, Scripture goes out of its way to tell us exactly what happened:

“And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass” (Numbers 22:28).

Peter confirms that this was an actual speechless animal miraculously given a human voice: “The dumb ass speaking with man’s voice” (2 Peter 2:16).

Genesis never says God opened a snake’s mouth. It never says Satan crawled inside a snake. Instead, the rest of Scripture eventually identifies Satan as “that old serpent.”

That difference should make us think twice before reducing Genesis 3 to a children’s picture of a talking garden snake. The devil is far more diabolical, subtle and cunning. His aim is not merely to frighten you, but to allure you—to make rebellion look reasonable, disobedience look desirable, and distrust of God feel justified.

AND THEN THERE IS THE “FRUIT”

We should exercise the same care here. Genesis says Eve “took of the fruit thereof, and did eat” (Genesis 3:6).

But Scripture repeatedly uses both fruit and eating to communicate realities far beyond physical digestion.

Jeremiah said of God’s words:
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Ezekiel was commanded: “Eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:1).

Jesus called Himself “the bread of life” (John 6:35) and spoke of eating His flesh (John 6:53).

And what about fruit? Jesus said: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). And He wasn’t discussing agriculture.

Paul wrote: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith” (Galatians 5:22).

Love isn’t an apple. Joy doesn’t grow on branches.
Peace doesn’t have seeds. Fruit describes what something produces and the character that comes from its source.

So we should be very careful about reducing humanity’s fall to the superficial idea that somebody simply ate the wrong piece of produce.

Genesis itself tells us something much deeper happened. Before the act, God warned:

“In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

Afterward: “The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7).

And God declared: “The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil” (Genesis 3:22).

Something involving knowledge, character, disobedience, shame, spiritual separation and ultimately death has occurred.

The New Testament tells us exactly what brought death: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12).

Paul says it again: “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19).

Paul does not blame humanity’s condition on the nutritional properties of forbidden produce. He blames sin and disobedience. It was rebellion.

Adam and Eve accepted something God prohibited. They believed another voice over God’s voice. They reached for knowledge on terms God had forbidden, and the fruit of that decision was death.

That is why understanding figures of speech matters when studying the Bible.

If we make every biblical image literal, we can actually miss the literal truth the writer is communicating.

The serpent is more than zoology. Fruit is more than agriculture. Eating can communicate participation.
Light is more than illumination. Darkness is more than nighttime. And nakedness becomes more than the absence of clothing.

Genesis is telling us how humanity moved from innocence to shame, from obedience to rebellion, from fellowship to separation, and from life toward death.

The first revelation of the beginning, recorded by Moses in Genesis, mirrors the prophetic imagery of the final revelation given to John. Genesis and Revelation stand like bookends around the biblical story, both filled with symbols, metaphors, personification and vivid spiritual imagery—trees, rivers, serpents, beasts, light, darkness, life and death. Genesis reveals how the conflict began; Revelation reveals how it ends. Neither should be flattened into the language of a newspaper article.

And sometimes, if all we see is the snake, the fruit, the tree and the naked bodies, we have carefully read every word—and completely missed the message.