The dual symbolism of the serpent

Over Thanksgiving I was sitting in my parent's living room wondering why the symbol of the snake is used for both the Savior (see Numbers 21: 8-9) and for Satan (see Genesis 3).

It seemed odd that such a symbol could represent both. So I decided to ask Google and came across a talk written by Andrew C. Skinner, a BYU faculty member. This is what he had to say about it:

[W]hat of the serpent image as a symbol for Christ? If the serpent was a legitimate emblem of the coming Messiah, how and why did Lucifer usurp the serpent symbol after Adam and Eve were placed on this earth? In a roundabout way, the Prophet Joseph Smith may have provided a clue regarding the origins of serpent imagery as a symbol for Christ and why Satan appropriated it for his own.When speaking of the dove as an identifying symbol of the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith said, "The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove."(History of the Church 5:261)

A possible implication of this statement is that other signs, symbols, and tokens may have been instituted in premortality to represent deity, but the one that Satan absolutely could not imitate was the dove. However, as the preeminent counterfeiter and deceiver, Satan could and does usurp other signs and symbols properly applied to God in order to try to legitimize his false identity as a god. This is why Satan chose to appropriate and utilize the sign of the serpent as the best means of deceiving Eve as well as her posterity.

The scriptures help us to see that Satan imitates and perverts every divine truth; every godly concept, principle, or practice; and every good and positive symbol, image, sign, and token in order to deceive and manipulate the souls of men. This even includes appearing as an angel of light (see Alma 30:53; D&C 128:20). By usurping and manipulating the symbol of the serpent, Satan tried to validate his false identity and his lies, insisting that following his ways would elevate our first parents to the status of the very God represented by the true image of the serpent (see Moses 4:10–11). Satan came to Eve clothed, as it were, in the garb of the Messiah, using the signs, symbols, and even the language of the Messiah, promising things that only the Messiah could rightfully promise. "(And [Satan] spake by the mouth of the serpent.) . . . And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as the gods" (Moses 4:7, 10–11). In reality only the one who worked out an infinite atonement could legitimately make these kinds of promises. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Satan is justly called a liar from the beginning (see Moses 4:4; D&C 93:25).

Because Satan appeared as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, thereby adopting a symbol of the Messiah, it seems plausible that, like the sign of the dove, the sign of the serpent had been instituted in premortality as a symbol of deity, particularly Jehovah (see Exodus 4:1–5; 7:10–13; and Numbers 21:5–9), and later on as a symbol of Jehovah-come-to-earth, or in other words Jesus Christ (see John 3:14–15), the true God of life and salvation.

So, there you go. In short he is suggesting that other signs and symbols were given premortally, but that Satan being the Great Deceiver has taken those for use as his own. Knowing the symbol of the serpent belonged to the Savior FIRST helps us makes sense of how Eve could be deceived when the serpent appeared to her. There would have been no other reason to believe otherwise.

And why a serpent to represent the Savior?

Snakes were regarded as having medicinal powers to heal and make whole. Jesus Christ was often referred to as the great physician. Also, as a snake sheds its "old" skin leaving behind a body with "new" skin this is seen as a sort of rebirth and renewal. In essence this is what the Savior does for us. He helps us to put off the "old" man and become a "new" creature through him.