The Hidden Meaning Of Dust

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.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[e] and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for[f] your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

In Genesis 3, the serpent is cursed by God with eating dust.  In Genesis 2, God forms man from the dust of the earth, & in chapter 3, man is told that from dust he came & to dust he shall return. 

Tim Kay points out that, given the nature of the serpent & what it represents (Satan, demons, & all their works), there’s a certain irony to this insofar as dust, in the context of Genesis 3, represents death.  The serpent, Satan, feeds on death. 

I would also add that, since Adam was formed from dust & since the surrounding text points forward to the Seed who would defeat the serpent & bruise its head, the text also serves as a reminder that, in both life & in death, humanity has authority over the serpent.   

O LORD, Hear our prayer(s)!