Do snakes eat dust?

Biologists do not agree with Bible that snakes eat dust

You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14)

I have yet to come across any snake that eats dust???? Maybe Daniel you can find one and I will be eagerly waiting for you to reply to this. :D :lol:

The Bible does not say that dust will be a part of diet of a snake. Bible talks of the serpent and its punishment. Serpent has nothing to do with any snake or do you believe in that?

God cursed the serpent and said that serpent will face humiliation (eat dust). It was used as a phrase and not as a diet. In my part of the world and in Middle East, if you have to curse someone you simply use these words, Dust in your mouth. Does it mean that the person will have dust in his/her mouth? It is a phrase of humiliation and does not correspond to any dietry habits.

God simply cursed the serpent by saying

So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust
all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:14)"

It is same, when you all athiests say that God gave birth pangs to women as a punishment. God simply increased the pain "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing" (Genesis 3:16)

You talked of biologists not agreeing with the Bible - I do not know which biologists you have studied. Snakes being although carnivores do taste dust in order to find their way around. They use their tongues to smell and by doing so and as they crawl on their bellies, their tongue picks up dust. The dust simply pass through their dietry tract. The dust particles are cleaned off the animal’s tongue. Most of the dust would therefore be swallowed and pass through the digestive tract. That is why it said that snakes really do eat dust.

I have read Genesis many times but have never seen this verse so critically. I must salute all these people who are trying to prove that Bible is not the word of God, as they see nothing but oversee salvation. In the same very chapter, prophecy of Jesus Christ is made

he will crush your head (Gensis 3:15)

Having eyes they see not and having ears they hear not.

In Christ

Sophie,

I have read a couple of your postings and I’m not sure you are seriously asking questions because you want to know the answer or because you want to make the Bible look foolish. Nevertheless, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and attempt to answer your question about serpents eating dust.

Daniel has already answered it from a cultural and biological standpoint. And while his answer is informative I would like to attempt to answer it from a spiritual standpoint.

The verse you get your question from is Genesis 3:14: “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life’” (NASU). The serpent was cursed because he had deceived Eve into eating the Forbidden Fruit. (She, in turn, gave the Fruit to Adam to eat, which he freely did, not being deceived.)

Your question comes from the fact that scientifically speaking, serpents don’t eat dust. So, is the Bible mistaken? Is this story just a fairy tale? No. In order to understand this curse upon the serpent one must first understand who the serpent is.

Revelation 12:9 reveals the serpent’s true identity. “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him"ESV). So, the serpent spoken of in Genesis was in fact a physical, visible manifestation of Satan, regardless of his outward appearance.

This helps us understand what the curse of the serpent eating dust means. 1 Peter 5:8 tells Christians (and non-Christians for that matter) to“ Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour” (AMP). (It should be noted in passing that Satan is spoken of as a lion. This is important because Jesus is described as a lion in Revelation 5:5. Satan is a deceiver and counterfeiter. He will take on any appearance necessary to lead people astray; even the appearance of Jesus.) Notice Peter tells us that Satan’s diet is man. But this is exactly what the Lord’s curse in Genesis points out. Speaking to Adam God says, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” Genesis 3:19 NASU). The curses God lays upon His creation begin with the serpent (Satan) eating dust and finishes with identifying that dust as man.

But does Satan literally eat man. No. Proverbs 6:26 says, “An adulteress hunts for the precious life” (NASU). The word for “life” used here is the Hebrew nepesh (this is a feminine noun which is important, but I won’t go in to that now), which is the word for soul. In other words it is the soul, not the body, which is hunted and sought after. And like the adulteress, Satan hunts for the “precious life”, that is, the soul of man to devour. How does he do this?

Man worships one of two ways, either through the spirit, which is acceptable to God (John 4:23-24) or through the soul, which God rejects (Matthew 7:21-23; Mark 7:6-7 for example). When man worships from his soul (will, emotions, intellect) outside the headship of his spirit as directed by the Holy Spirit, Satan is “fed”. Satan feeds on the soul of man, his “precious life”, which until a man is saved is nothing more than dust.

Sophie, there is much here I have left unsaid because of time and space restrictions, but hopefully it is enough to at least partially answer your question.

The dust that God charged the serpent with eating is us, man! We were formed from the dust of the earth.
He's here to sift us like wheat!

Thank you for joining CHRISTIAN TALK and sharing your thoughts on the topic.

God bless you