Adam, Eve, the Serpent & the Donkey
Shalom. My name is Grant Luton, and I’m the president of Torah Today Ministries. And I have been invited to share a special teaching with you from Genesis chapter 3 — one of my favorite passages, a very foundational passage to the word of God. And before we begin, I just want to thank you, Catherine Lee, for inviting me to participate. I just pray that this teaching is a blessing to you and to all with whom you share it. So thank you again, Catherine, for inviting me to participate.
Now, before we read this short passage in Genesis 3, I want to share with you an ancient study method used by the Jewish people. You know, the Bible is an utterly Jewish book. It was written by Jewish individuals, and it’s the product of God’s inspiration to these godly men. But these men thought in different ways than we do. They lived in ancient times — you live in modern times. They were from the Middle East — we’re from the West. They had a different kind of logic. Hebraic logic. And we tend to have this Greek Western logic. And the kind of logic we live by here in the West is great for sending men to the moon, or learning to build a house, or to build a computer — it’s wonderful for those kinds of things. But the Bible — the scriptures — use a different kind of logic. It’s called Hebraic logic. And we need to learn to use this kind of logic. And that’s a whole different teaching, and if I’m not careful I’ll get on this rabbi-trail and we’ll never get back to Genesis 3.
But here is the principle — I call it the Menorah Principle. And I’m going to bring this menorah (מְנוֹרָה) here — it’s a model of the one that was used in the Tabernacle, just smaller. We have to understand that God gave the design of the menorah to Moses on Mount Sinai when he told him about how to build the Tabernacle and how it was to be illuminated inside. And this was the source. There’s something very important here we have to understand: God’s motif for bringing light into the world — whether it’s physical light or, more importantly, spiritual light — it’s always done according to this pattern. Let me explain.
Let’s take the physical world. On the fourth day, God placed not one light but two lights. He placed one light to govern the day and one light to govern the night. Now, from our point of view here on earth, the sun and the moon are exactly the same diameter — that’s why when there’s a solar eclipse the discs exactly match up. But we know that the moon is infinitesimally smaller than the sun, and much closer, where the sun is millions and millions of miles away. But from our point of view they look the same size. They don’t serve exactly the same function, they don’t look alike — but God created two lights. So on the menorah pattern, there’s always some central truth that supports everything, and then from that central truth there are branches — one to the left, one to the right — and they balance each other out perfectly. So God wanted light in the world, so he put one light there to rule the day and another light to rule the night, and there we see the menorah pattern and how God created light on this earth.
So that’s just one quick example. But let’s look at the word of God itself — because God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. — Psalm 119:105
How does God’s word — the Bible — follow this pattern? Well, before Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) came — before the Messiah came — we had the Hebrew scriptures, Genesis through Malachi. After he came, he gave us the apostolic scriptures, Matthew to Revelation. And these balance each other out, and they both point towards Messiah. And Yeshua the Messiah — he is the one who is the central focus of both of these groups of scriptures. This is why I’m so passionate that as a Christian, we study the Hebrew scriptures — otherwise our menorahs can be lopsided, and we expend our energies trying to keep it balanced and to hold it up. But we’ll find that everything in the Hebrew Bible points to Messiah, and everything in the Greek Bible — the apostolic scriptures — points back to Messiah, and they speak to one another.
Now let’s take a particular story — and this is where I’m getting at with Genesis 3. One of the things you’ll discover, if you look for it — it may take some work, you may have to be a real detective — but you’ll find that every important truth and every important story in scripture, and I can’t think of any that aren’t important, you’re going to find another story somewhere which matches up to it. It’s like a pair of shoes. I could ask you: is your left shoe and your right shoe identical, or are they exactly opposite? The answer would be: yes, they’re identical — but they’re exactly opposite. Just like this side and this side of the menorah are identical but opposite.
Let me ask you a question. We’re all familiar with the story of where the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat, and a violent storm arose, and they were so frightened they feared capsizing and dying — and where is Jesus? He’s asleep in the bottom of the boat. All right — what’s the other story that is very similar? Some men are in a boat, there’s a violent storm, and the individual who is key to bringing that storm to an end is asleep in the bottom of the boat.
Did you think of what it is? If you need to pause the teaching to think about it for a while, that’s fine. But for sake of time I’m going to go on — and of course it’s the story of Jonah. So we have Jonah in the Old Testament, we have Jesus in the New. We have two boats, two storms, two men asleep in the bottom of the boat. And you know what? We all go through storms in life, and we can’t always tell the difference between Jonah and Jesus. Sometimes we tend to keep Jonah on board and throw Jesus over — so let’s make sure we throw the right one out of the boat if we want to have peace in our lives. But there’s so much going on here between these two stories, and when you take those two stories and compare them, each story opens up further.
By your light we see light. — Psalm 36:9
It’s like the light of the Old Testament story provides light for the New Testament story, and vice versa.
All right — you get the idea. I could go on and on with this. But one you might want to try: it’s in Luke, I think it’s chapter 8. We have a story of Jesus healing two females. There is a young female who is 12 years old who is sick — she’s the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. And he comes to ask Jesus to come to his house to heal his daughter. While he’s on his way to this synagogue leader’s home, an old woman who’s had an issue of blood for 12 years comes up behind him and grabs the corner of his garment — and she’s healed. And then there’s a little encounter there, and a conversation. So you have an old woman who’s been ill for 12 years, and a little girl who’s been alive for 12 years. And when the old woman is healed, the little girl dies. One happens outside, one happens inside. One comes to Jesus, Jesus goes to the other. And you can go on and on and on comparing these two stories, and by comparing them you can get down to the crux of what they are both truly about.
But time is getting away — let’s get to Genesis chapter 3.
So let’s begin with verse 1. I’m going to read the first five verses. And it’s about a talking animal — a serpent — that comes and speaks with Eve.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) 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.” — Genesis 3:1–5
Now here is the question: what is the matching story in the Bible? Now I’ll give you a hint — the matching story here is not in the New Testament. It is also found in the Old Testament. Can you think of what it is?
There are only two speaking animals in the scriptures. Here’s the first one — the serpent. What other animal spoke in the Bible? Well, if you guessed it was Balaam’s donkey, you would be exactly right.
So now let’s go to Numbers chapter 22 and read this brief encounter. But before we read it, let me give you a little bit of background.
Balaam is a prophet — he is definitely a prophet — but he’s not a good man. Now I know that sounds kind of strange, that somebody could be given this amazing gift of prophecy. And the rabbis say that Balaam was a prophet on the level of Moses. It’s just that Moses was humble and righteous, and Balaam was not. But anyways, the leaders of Moab and Midian teamed up and they were afraid of the Israelites who had come out of Egypt, and they thought: what we could do is have Balaam come and curse them. So they offered Balaam all this money to come and curse the Israelites.
So Balaam goes — while he’s on the way, he’s riding his she-donkey. And God sends an angel with its sword drawn and puts it in Balaam’s path, so this angel will kill Balaam and stop him from going to curse the Israelites. Well, the donkey can see the angel but Balaam can’t. And in the first encounter, they’re going along the road — the donkey sees the angel and veers off into a field. Well, this really embarrasses Balaam, as he’s traveling with these messengers from the kings, and so he takes his staff and beats his donkey. He’s furious.
So they get back on the path and go on for a while, and they come to a place where there’s a stone wall on each side of the road. The donkey once again sees the angel, tries to go around, and smashes Balaam’s foot into the stone wall. So now Balaam is even more angry — takes his staff and beats the donkey a second time.
They go further. The road gets narrower. The donkey once again sees the angel ahead — there’s no room to pass — so the donkey just squats down and ceases all forward motion. And now Balaam is red hot. He’s angry. And he beats the donkey again.
And now we’re ready to read — Numbers 22, verse 28:
Then Adonai opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” — Numbers 22:28–30
So we have two stories — two halves of a menorah — two talking animals. And there are a number of similarities that go along with the fact that they are also very opposite stories.
For one — the difference between the two: the serpent comes along not to help Adam and Eve, but to bring death to them. But the donkey — its actions and its speech come forth to bring life to Balaam, to protect him, to save him.
Another thing that’s really interesting is that the conversations follow the same pattern. The serpent opens with a question — Did God really say? — and the donkey begins the conversation with a question — What have I done to you? And then in both cases, the human speaks back to the animal, and then the animal speaks back to the human, and that’s the end of the conversation. So they follow the same pattern.
Now here’s something very important which reveals itself only in the Hebrew. If you count the number of words in the Hebrew Bible that Satan speaks — that the serpent speaks to Eve — there are exactly 26 words. Not one more, not one less. And if you count the words that the donkey speaks to Balaam, there are exactly 23 words.
Now you would think they’d be the same — or, because God is the one communicating through the donkey, there would be more words. Why 23? And this is extremely important.
When you look at what Satan did — he only spoke. After all, serpents don’t have hands and legs and feet. They can’t do anything. All they have is a mouth. And the enemy is no different. All he has is a mouth — and he knows how to use it. So he can inject the poison of his lies into our lives. He couldn’t reach out and take the fruit from the tree and slice it up and feed it into Eve’s mouth. He did none of that. It had to be her hand that reached out, had to be her hand that brought the fruit to her own mouth, and it was her hand that gave the fruit to Adam, who was there with her. Satan took no actions — because he really can’t.
And if you think about it, the actions that Satan takes in this world — those actions are really taken by people who believe his lies. And in every area of our life where we believe his lies, to that degree we are under his satanic rule. We’re his servant.
I think this is why Yeshua says over in John 8:
If you continue in my word, you will be my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. — John 8:31–32
Knowing the truth of God’s word sets us free from the enslaving lies of the enemy. And every place in your life or mine where we are believing something that is not true — to that degree we are not in alignment with what God wants, but we are aligning ourselves with our enemy. He doesn’t have hands and feet. The only hands and feet he has are the ones that we give him to use.
So the enemy — Satan, the serpent — speaks 26 words. The donkey: 23. Why?
Remember what happened before the conversation between the donkey and Balaam. The donkey took three actions — he took Balaam out into the field, he ran his foot into the wall, and then he just squatted down under him. And then he speaks 23 words. You add that together — it comes out to 26 things. And look at the difference: I said Satan can’t really do anything.
In fact, 1 John 5:18 — John writes:
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning — but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. — 1 John 5:18
Oh, we still goof up. Proverbs even says that the righteous man falls seven times — but he gets back up. So yeah, we goof up. But we don’t make a practice of sin. If you’re a believer, if you’re a disciple of Jesus, sin is not something you continue to practice and make a part of your life. So it says: he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. As long as we are devoted to God — even though we goof up — if we’re devoted to him, we are protected from the enemy touching us. He’ll still lie to us, he’ll still try to deceive us. And this is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5:
We take every thought captive to the obedience of Messiah. — 2 Corinthians 10:5
We take thoughts and we interrogate them — to find out: where did you come from? What are you doing here? And we decide: is this thought from the enemy, or is this thought from God? Don’t assume you can tell right away, because our enemy is a great deceiver, and he could make his voice sound like God’s.
Here are a couple things that will help you discern the voice of the enemy. He has two modes. First of all, he’s going to try to get you to sin — and the way he does this is by pressuring you, raising your emotions, lying to you to think: if you don’t do this thing now, you’re going to miss out on something. You’ve got to do it — and besides, God won’t mind. In fact, it may be his will. And if it’s wrong, he’ll forgive you. Just — you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it. And there’s this pressure he uses, to push us mentally and emotionally towards something that is wrong.
And then once we do that wrong thing, he now becomes the accuser of the brethren — oh, you’re such a loser, why did you do that, what were you thinking? He uses pressure to push us into sin, then once we sin, he uses that pressure to crush us into the dirt, using guilt and everything he can to accuse us. And when he does this, there’s no feeling of hope.
This is how we recognize the enemy’s voice: we feel like we have to act now — or we feel like there’s no hope. That still small voice — which in Hebrew means a thin whisper — God’s voice, unlike Satan’s voice, is easy to ignore. Satan’s voice is so assertive and imperative — you’ve got to do this! God’s voice — it’s just easy to set aside. That’s how you know it’s him.
And also — when we do fail — his voice, once again, speaks. There’s always hope. He’ll encourage us: Get up. I’m not done with you. But I’ve done such a horrible thing — Well, yeah. But you know what? Everyone I’ve ever used in this world, except for Jesus, has done horrible things. And I used them anyway. Where sin abounds, my grace much more abounds — which is not an excuse to sin. Pick it up. Let me dust you off, and now you’ll be a little wiser. And let’s keep walking together. Go and sin no more. So loving, so gentle.
But oh — Satan’s voice is so loud and so noisy.
Let’s get back to our story.
Satan couldn’t do anything to Eve except lie to her. But God — through this donkey — did three things. He served Balaam without Balaam realizing it was God serving him.
And here’s something else I find fascinating. The first words out of the donkey’s mouth are the words: What have I done to you? In Hebrew — it’s three words. Do you know that question is asked two times in the Bible? The first time is here, by the donkey saying to Balaam: What have I done to you? Review your history. Remember what you know about me — this is not the way I normally behave. So if I’m doing this now, there must be a purpose to it. Remember our history together.
And God wants us to do the same. When things don’t seem to be going smoothly — when things seem to be going all wrong — don’t blame God. Ask him: Father, why is this happening this way? Acknowledge him, review your history with him, and stop for a moment and ask him what’s going on.
The other place this is found — guess who is asking the question? It’s Micah 6:3, and God is speaking to the prophet:
O my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me. — Micah 6:3
Fascinating, isn’t it? It’s not that God is quoting the donkey — I believe the donkey, through God’s Spirit, is actually prophesying. He’s talking to Balaam: What have I done to you? And then God to his whole people: What have I done to you? And sometimes I think we blame God for things that are unpleasant instead of giving him credit for being active in our lives. And he says: What have I ever done to you? What have I ever done to bring damage into your life?
Now this is an important question that would take the last few minutes of our time together to follow up on some of the things that happened after Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin and death into this world — some people look at what was done and then they’re almost tempted to accuse God of being too harsh. Because they say: look, God cursed Adam and Eve for what they did.
And I find most believers believe that — that God cursed Adam and Eve. Do you know he didn’t curse them? I defy you to find one place in the Bible where God cursed Adam and Eve.
Now he did curse a couple things. He cursed the serpent — in verse 14 it says:
Adonai God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, arur (אָרוּר) — cursed are you above all livestock.” — Genesis 3:14
And God cursed the ground — in verse 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,’ arur — cursed is the ground because of you.” — Genesis 3:17
There’s not one word of curse against Adam — not one word of curse against Eve. He cursed the serpent and he cursed the ground.
And that word arur (אָרוּר) for curse is an interesting one. You’re very familiar with it, actually. When Noah left the ark — the ark was resting on a mountain. What was the name of that mountain? Ararat (אֲרָרָט). It means curse. In other words: though the world had been cursed, God — through the ark, which is a picture of Messiah — went above the curse. He conquered the curse.
Now you might say: yeah, but God caused pain to Adam and Eve. Yes — yes he did. That’s true. But it’s not a curse.
He tells Adam that because he listened to his wife:
…in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. — Genesis 3:17
In other words: the ground will still bring forth life-giving food, but it’s going to bring forth that life in pain. Adam, you were taken out of the dirt — the dirt has been cursed — but it will still give life. It’ll only come forth through pain.
And then to Eve he says in verse 16 — the verse before — to the woman:
I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. — Genesis 3:16
And it’s like saying: Eve, you came out of Adam, and you’re going to continue bringing forth life — from the body of the man and from your own body — into the world. You’ll still bring forth life. But it’s going to be through pain.
Now there’s something powerful we can learn from this. The first mention of pain is in the context of bringing life — from the mother’s body, bringing life out of the dirt. In other words: the bringing forth of life is preceded by pain.
Now let’s reverse that around. What we can do is this: we can perceive that all pain is birth pain. All pain in your life is just the prelude to God bringing forth something new, something living, something life-giving — if we could only learn that lesson. And I know that all the good things that God has brought into my life — each one of them was preceded by a time of some pain, sometimes intense pain. But this promise, this principle — that all pain is indeed birth pain — has sustained me. I want it to sustain you as well.
You know, Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. And I don’t think I want to wear a suit made of fig leaves — I don’t think it would last very long; they’d just shrivel up. So God took the life of animals and made animal skins for them.
Which reminds me — Jesus cursed something in the Gospels. Over in Mark 11:12–14, 20 it tells us that Jesus cursed something. You remember what it was? It was a fig tree. It had a lot of leaves — but it was fruitless.
That connects with this again. You see the fig leaves first mentioned here in man’s attempt to cover his own inadequacy — and then over there you see Jesus curse something: it’s a fig tree. I think anything we try to cover ourselves with, other than the sacrifice of Messiah, is something that God’s just going to curse in our lives. Whatever it is we resort to to bring righteousness and to bring a covering for our sin into our lives — it’s doomed to failure. There has to be shed blood. There has to be the life of Messiah. There has to be the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus that brings that life and that covering for us.
Which brings me to my last point. After this, God evicts Adam and Eve from the garden. That seems harsh. Well, let’s read the passage — go down to the end of the chapter, starting with verse 22:
Then Adonai God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever —” therefore Adonai God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life. — Genesis 3:22–24
Why did God do this? Why didn’t he let Adam and Eve eat of the tree of life and live forever?
Well, there’s a time when we will all eat of the Tree of Life. In fact, Proverbs tells us:
She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed. — Proverbs 3:18
But here’s the reason he did not want them to eat of the Tree of Life then — they were going to have to suffer the consequences: bringing forth food in pain, bringing forth children in pain. And with the aid of the Tree of Life, they would live forever — a life of pain.
So removing them from access to the Tree of Life for a time was an act of mercy and of love. Because God realizes: you’re going to have to go through a death. And I told you that the day you eat of that tree — dying, you will die:
Mot yamut (מוֹת יָמוּת) — dying, you shall die. — Genesis 2:17
The death process began. So what God did is basically tell us through his word: Yeah, you have to die. But I have something that is good news for you — I’ve conquered death. Death’s not the end. Death is temporary, but life is eternal. And when you come back to life, I’m going to give you a life that’s pain-free. I want you to live forever — but not an eternal life of pain. I want you to live a life free of pain and suffering. So it’s worth going through death. It’s worth going through the pain of this life — because after all, all pain is what? All pain is birth pain.
And then if you go to the end of the Bible — the last two chapters of Revelation — once again we see the Tree of Life. And it talks about how the Tree of Life is there, bearing fruit year round. And its leaves — its leaves, unlike the fig tree leaves — are for the healing of the nations.
[Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. — Revelation 22:1–2]
So again you see the story that starts at one end of the Bible come around full circle to the story that ends the Bible.
Well — I’ve thrown a lot of things out in this teaching. I hope there is something in there that you’ll find a blessing — something you’ll find useful in your studies. And thank you again for allowing me to share with you. Thank you again, Catherine. God bless you and all of you who are listening to this teaching, and I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם).
Menorah (מְנוֹרָה) — “Lampstand”; the seven-branched lampstand designed by God and given to Moses on Mount Sinai for the Tabernacle. In this teaching, the menorah serves as the structural principle for how God reveals truth: a central stem with balanced, opposite-yet-identical branches on either side. Everything in scripture follows this pattern — Hebrew scriptures and apostolic scriptures balancing on either side of Messiah, the central flame. — Strong’s H4501 · Sefaria: Menorah
Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; the Hebrew name of Jesus the Messiah. The central stem of the scriptural menorah — everything in the Hebrew scriptures points forward to him and everything in the apostolic scriptures points back to him. — Strong’s H3442
Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) — “Lord, Master”; the Hebrew title used in place of the divine name YHWH (יְהוָה) when reading the scriptures aloud. Appears in Genesis 3:1, 14 and Numbers 22:28 in the passages read in this teaching. — Strong’s H136
Arur (אָרוּר) — “Cursed, accursed”; the word for curse used in Genesis 3:14 (against the serpent) and Genesis 3:17 (against the ground). Critically, this word is never used against Adam or Eve — only against the serpent and the ground. The same root appears in Ararat (אֲרָרָט) — the name of the mountain where Noah’s ark rested — meaning “curse.” God through the ark (a picture of Messiah) rose above the curse. — Strong’s H779
Ararat (אֲרָרָט) — The mountain on which Noah’s ark came to rest; its name shares the root of arur — curse. The ark resting on the mountain of the curse is a picture of Messiah conquering the curse. — Strong’s H780 · Sefaria: Ararat
Mot yamut (מוֹת יָמוּת) — “Dying, you shall die”; the emphatic Hebrew construction in Genesis 2:17 using the infinitive absolute. The doubling of the verb expresses certainty and intensifies the warning: not merely you will die but dying, you shall surely die — the death process begins at the moment of sin. — Strong’s H4191
Cherubim (כְּרוּבִים) — “Cherubs”; angelic beings placed at the east of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life after the expulsion of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:24). Their presence at the gate of Eden points forward to the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant — both guarding access to the presence of God and the source of life. — Strong’s H3742
Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965
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