Genesis 3:1-5, 14-15
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
With the first two chapters of Genesis we are treated to a pure display of the creative power, glory, and beauty of the Word of God. This is the Word of love and life, the Word of plenty and peace. By God's spoken Word, a universe was formed, light burst forth, land materialized, and all living creatures came to be. The vanguard Voice made rank on rank the host of heaven. And then, with this same Word, God approved and blessed all He had formed. From God's mouth comes the Word. His Word is first, and His Word is good.
But then the evil one presumed to speak. Out of that dirty mouth comes nothing good and nothing original.
Why the attempt at speech? Why doesn’t the devil employ venom? He doesn’t use constriction. He doesn’t swallow his prey. Could he not have overcome Eve by these or other means?
Except that Eve was not his primary objective. Satan must exceed God if he is to prevail. He must prove the power of his own word. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Ps. 33:6) “The universe was created by the word of God,” (Heb. 11:3) It is the Word of God the devil must surpass. He aspires to speak above the voice of God.
He dares to utter something. For if he is to surmount the Living God he must prevail against God's Word. The Word is God (John 1:1). That’s why the serpent gambles to open his mouth. He ventures to say something, but he is aphasic. That is, he has no breath, no heart, no lifeblood. He doesn’t really communicate. He can't. He has no word. He doesn’t connect. He offers nothing original, nothing genuine, and absolutely nothing good.
He has a dirty mouth, wordless and nasty.
You see, the devil doesn’t really speak. His mouth is dumb and dirty. He can only lie. His tongue will only contradict and challenge God's true Word because he can utter nothing but negation. It is impossible for Satan to speak a creative or living word. He can only lie. He knows only perjury and propaganda. His lies are not living words, not valid words, not true words—not The Word. His lies are an insult to speech and indignity to the magnificence of language.
Lies are not words; they are anti-words. Lies form nothing; lies build nothing; lies uphold nothing and suffer nothing. Lies are but spoilers and predators. Lies would only tear down what holy words have wrought.
Satan made dirty advances to Eve. He took liberties with her by the violence of lies. He seduced her with a travesty, by sham words, by fraudulent, false, deceitful words. The oily poison of lies came from that dirty mouth. First he cast doubt on the Word of God, then denied it flatly. But just to gainsay God is not enough. The serpent must now advance his own phony phonetic. He must say a word of his own that will outrank and surpass the definitive and authoritative Word of Christ.
Devil, it’s your “word” against His Word!
But the devil has no word! His accusations against the baptized are toothless and tongueless. His assertions are hollow and pointless for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The devil is cursed—to go hereafter on his belly, to eat dust all the days of his life. Dry mouthed, desert mouthed, cotton-mouthed. This cotton-mouth moccasin’s head is crushed and silenced by the heel of Him who is The Word, by Jesus the Word who said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
So, fear not the devil’s claims nor give attention to his lies. The Word of the Lord endures forever.
“Away from us!” the demon cried when Christ, the Lord, drew near.
“Our dark, disordered world is lost when You, the Light, appear!”
But Jesus spoke with God’s own pow’r; “Come forth!” was His command;
For evil cannot bear the Light nor sin the Truth withstand.
O risen Christ, God’s living Word, to us, we pray, draw near.
Come, speak the truth that cleanses sin with love that conquers fear.
LSB 541 © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100012157.
