Genesis 3:14

THE CURSE OF THE SERPENT

"And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou 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."

God tacitly acknowledged the greater blame in the situation as belonging to the serpent, therefore the curse fell on it immediately. The blameworthiness of the serpent which appears here requires the understanding, either that the serpent is truly identified as Satan, or that the curse fell upon Satan's instrument as an instruction both for Satan and for mankind of the inherent disaster inevitably associated with Satan's use of anything whatsoever. If the latter is true, it is no greater a theological problem than Jesus' cursing of the fig tree, or of God's cursing the ground "for Adam's sake" a few moments later. Henceforth and forever, the lowly serpent, hated and ruthlessly exterminated by the people of all nations, would serve as a suitable and "visible symbol of God's displeasure with sin."[17]

This part of the curse apparently fell upon Satan's instrument in the seduction, but the next part of it fell upon the Evil One himself, a being visible in the terminology of the famed Lord's Prayer, given upon the authority of Jesus Christ himself.