There is a Snake in the Garden
Last week, we began a series on the Garden of Eden. Click to read Part 1: The Work of the Garden.
Here’s why we are talking about this:
When things are hard, it’s a time we can find ourselves longing for things to be "the way they are supposed to be." Which means the picture we have of "how things are supposed to be" matters.
When humans are formed on the sixth day of creation, The Creator blesses us, telling us to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion over what is around us. At the end of that day, as the Creator beholds all that has been made, They see something that is tov meod- exceedingly good.
Is blessing and goodness the same thing as idyllic perfection?
If we are longing to get back to the paradise of the garden, do we know what it is we are looking for?
Part 2: There is a Snake
Genesis 3 is the ever-famous tale of the woman eating the forbidden fruit. So much of that narrative is another blog post (or study) for another time. In the formidable weight of this passage and its aftermath, we don’t often talk about where it begins.
Now the snake was more shrewd than all the living-things of the field that YHWH, God, had made. It said to the woman… - Genesis 3:1a (Everett Fox Translation)
Why would there be a snake in the Garden of Eden?
We are still in the garden, and a snake is there with us. This was a snake God made, which means it was called tov meod, exceedingly good, right along with humans in Genesis 1:31.
If the snake is good, how does that open us to see the story differently?
Could the presence of the snake reveal the next phase of participation of life in the garden? Could the snake’s question be an invitation?
The snake says,
Even though God said: You are not to eat from amh of the trees in the garden… ! - Genesis 3:1b (Everett Fox Translation)
The snake suddenly cuts off his phrase, leaving it to the woman to complete the thought.
What if the snake provided an invitation for the woman to wrestle with how to fill in the blank?
Later in the biblical narrative, Jacob will be given the name Israel, which will become the name of the people who follow God out of Egypt. Israel means “one who wrestles with God and with humans and is able.”
What if wrestling is not a sign of being in the wrong place, but of making our way in what it means to be human?
Snakes come back into the narrative in Numbers 21, a passage we studied together with the cohort recently. (A study that prompted this reflection!) It’s the second generation of Israelites, on the edge of the Promised Land, ready to end their wilderness journey. They have won some battles and are ready to cross, but it’s not yet time. They, like the woman, become unsatisfied with the food they are being provided. In response, God sends snakes.
These snakes don’t talk, they bite. The people ask Moses for help, and Moses takes action, at the instruction of God.
So Moshe made a viper of copper, and he put it on a banner-pole, and it was: if a viper bit a man and he looked upon the viper of copper, he would live. - Numbers 21:9 (Everett Fox Translation)
God doesn’t get rid of the snakes. Instead, the people are provided a way to wrestle with what it means to live with them. Somehow, the snakes are now part of the story.
We might think this shows the retributive nature of God, punishing the people for their disobedience. But, just a few chapters later, the prophet Balaam describes the people using this imagery,
How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov,
Your dwellings, O Israel,
Like groves stretched out,
Like gardens beside a river
Like allows planted by YHWH,
Like cedars beside the water.
- Numbers 24:5-6 (Everett Fox Translation)
The people are called Israel- by an outsider. Their wrestling is visible. And so is their goodness- so much so, that garden imagery is used to describe their tents.
What if snakes and wrestling are not signs of being far from the garden, but of being in it?
I love the work of 40 Orchards. In so many ways, it feels like what I was put on the earth to do. It is also an ongoing wrestling match, with questions that never seem to end…
What’s our work to do in the social justice needs of the world? Who are the people lost in deconstruction who would find new hope in studying with the community of 40 Orchards? How will we keep developing our revenue streams to be more sustainable? When is the best place, day, time and rhythm to offer studies at this stage of the pandemic?...
Lisa and I talk about these kinds of things regularly. These questions are our snakes. Let me get more personal about the questions that are my snakes…
What if I’m leading people in the wrong direction? Do I know enough about the Bible? Am I enough? Am I really who God is calling me to be? Is there an identity I am missing living out? Am I failing the people in our community? Am I spending my time on the right things?
Snakes ask the kinds of questions that show we are in the right place, working through the things that matter.
These questions are invitations to wrestle with God and with humans and find that we are able. They are opportunities to co-create and trust at the same time.
There are snakes in the garden, and I’m learning not to be afraid of them.
Steph
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While you’re on our website, don’t miss the chance to check out our study opportunities.
We have some studies on potentially dangerous questions and an in-person outdoor experience all coming this summer. Click on our register page to learn more.