I'm still studying the Free Will subject so please bear with me if I ask so elementary question/s about this.
Gen 3:14 - And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle..."
Question: What did the serpent do that God cursed him? If it is "beguiling Eve", didn't he just do what he was designed to do?
From the Lake of Fire Series(Free Will, part c), Read below this excerpt regarding Satan and events in the Garden of Eden.
ONE OF THESE CREATED WICKED FORCES WAS A SERPENT
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1).
This God-created serpent deceived Eve (I Tim. 2:14). God “made” “the serpent” who “deceived” Mother Eve. Notice that God did not create something called “Lucifer,” that was “…more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” If this “serpent” is indeed, “the Devil,” then the Scripture plainly tells us that this was a beast “…which the Lord God had made.”
God told Adam and Eve:
“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
Satan the Serpent, however, said:
“Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:3 & 4).
The Old Serpent, the Devil, LIED!
Now then, was there ever a time when the Devil was not a liar?
“Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).
Satan the Devil was a liar “…from the beginning.” But didn’t he once “abide IN the truth” before he became Satan? Never.
The phrase, “…and abode not in the truth…” is proof against any such theory. Someone suggested that Satan once did stand in the truth, and this verse is telling us that he “…did not continue standing in the truth…” That is not what this phrase is stating. Notice a few other translations of this phrase:
Young’s Literal Translation: “…and in the truth he has not stood….”
Green’s Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: “…and he has not stood in the truth…”
Emphatic Diaglott Interlinear: “…has not stood in the truth…”
No, Satan the Devil has never stood in the truth. He was a liar and a murderer “…from the beginning.” And so we have proof that God created Satan just as he is.
About five times a year I get a long email from someone trying to prove to me that the “serpent in the Garden” was not Satan, but Adam’s carnal mind, or some other such thing. God tells us, however, who Satan really is: “that old serpent." Proof:
“And the great dragon was cast out, that Old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan” (Rev. 12:9).
Is this not the same “crooked serpent and dragon” mentioned in Isa. 27:1 which God will yet punish:
“In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isa. 27:1).
The word “liviathan” means: “SERPENT.”
The word “dragon” means: “figuratively the constellation of the dragon; a sea SERPENT.”
God is not going to “punish” a constellation in the sky or a fish in the sea. This is speaking of that great and wicked spirit: Satan, the Devil, that Old serpent, the dragon, the crooked serpent, the destroyer, the accuser, the Adversary.
Did “…the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan…” (Rev. 20:2), form himself out of a perfect angel/cherub, or did God form this serpent as he now is? Answer:
“By His spirit He [God] has garnished [adorned] the heavens; His hand has formed the crooked serpent” (Job 26:13).
God did not form a perfect cherub named Lucifer who then became the crooked serpent.
Satan was not an “Angel of Light which transformed himself into Satan,” as the Christian Church teaches, but rather:
“And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed [Gk: or ‘disguised’—Strong’s #3345] into an angel of light” (II Cor. 11:14).
The “Lucifer became Satan” fable is Scripturally contradicted by the “Satan pretends to be an angel of light” truth.
Satan the serpent is a destroyer:
“Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer” (I Cor. 10:10).
What is this “destroyer?” The word is taken from the Greek word, olothreutes, and guess what it means? It means “venomous SERPENT.” This serpent is a “destroyer.” God “formed the crooked serpent,” and this serpent is a “destroyer.” Isn’t that the very purpose for which God created this “venomous serpent/destroyer?”
“Behold I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I [God] have created the waster [Heb: ‘destroyer’] to destroy” (Isa. 54:16).
Another reference to this destroyer:
“The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way…” (Jer. 4:7).
God had “sown His word into Adam and Eve.” When the serpent appeared unto Eve, she still had that “sown word in her heart”—“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said [this is the word of God which was still sown in Eve’s hear speaking—she retained it, and knew what God had said, and knew it to be the ‘word of God’], ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die’” (Gen. 3:3).
The Word of God was sown to both Eve and Adam “by the way” and Eve certainly “heard” the Word in her ear, and took it “to heart.” But it obviously was not well rooted. It had not as yet become part of her spiritual character. And so the serpent came on the scene very quickly:
“And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘Ye shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Ver 4-5).
The serpent appealed to Eve’s carnal mind and took away the word of God. Next:
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes… she took of the fruit thereof, and DID EAT…” (Ver. 6).
Now then, just who is it that Jesus tells us plainly “takes away the word” when it has not had time to be properly rooted? Answer:
“And these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan comes immediately, and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts” (Mark 4:15).
It was the serpent in the Garden, which took away the word of God from Eve. Hence we have proof that “the serpent” was “that Old serpent—Satan.”
And although God said that “He” destroyed and killed the firstborn of Egypt, there is one verse that specifically tells us Whom it was that God used to accomplish this slaughter:
“For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the lintel, and the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer [permit] the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you” (Ex. 12:23).
We now have a mountain of Scriptural proof that Satan is “the serpent,” and that he has always been the serpent from his creation:
Satan is identified as: “…that Old SERPENT, called the Devil, and Satan…” (Rev. 12:9 & 20:2).
God is going to punish “liviathan,” and liviathan means, SERPENT. (Isa. 27:1).
God calls this adversary, “…the piercing SERPENT…” (Isa. 27:1).
God also calls him, “…that crooked SERPENT…” (Isa. 27:1).
God calls him, “that dragon…” Dragon comes from a Hebrew word meaning: sea SERPENT. (Isa. 27:1).
God says, “…I have created the waster [Heb: ‘destroyer’] to destroy” (Isa. 54:16). In I Cor. 10:10 we learn that those who murmured in ancient Israel, and the first born of Egypt
“…were destroyed by the destroyer,” (I Cor. 10:10 and Ex. 12:23),
and the word translated destroyer in I Cor. 10:10 means, “venomous SERPENT.”
And according to Job, Who was it that formed this “crooked serpent” in the first place?
“…By His spirit He [God] has garnished the heavens; His hand has formed the crooked SERPENT” (Job 26:13).
Jesus said that “Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word.” Eve had God’s Word, and it was taken away by the serpent, hence, Satan is the SERPENT.
Was the Garden serpent a fallen cherub or was he a “serpent which God had made” AS a serpent?
“Now the SERPENT was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1).
In Revelation 12:9 and 20:2 Satan is called “that OLD SERPENT.” Could any serpent be older than the one God had made at creation and placed in the Garden?
Satan deceived our first parents in the Garden, and he has been deceiving the whole world ever since. There is absolutely not one scrap of Scriptural proof that Satan was a perfect cherub or that he has EVER exercised a power known as free will.
Satan thinks he has free will. Eve thought she had free will. All mankind still thinks he has free will. But the Scriptures disprove it over and over and over again.
Hope this helps, Samson.