What does the punishment of the devil in Genesis 3:14 mean, and how does cursing the serpent punish Satan?

Start with Eve's punishment. The devil tempted her to become a god so she would not have to bear children, cater to her husband, or run a household. Because she wanted to escape childbearing, God's punishment was increased pain in childbirth; the Hebrew says increased pain, which means childbirth was never going to be painless. Paul then says in 1 Timothy 2:14 to 15 that she will be saved in childbearing if she continues in faith, love, and modesty, the very thing Eve tried to avoid becomes the path of her salvation. Now to the serpent: Lucifer, once the highest of the angels next to the seraphim, possessed a magnificent creature, probably one of the animals Adam most admired, so that Adam and Eve would be enamored and hang on its every word. When God curses that creature to crawl on its belly and eat dust, we ask how that punishes the devil, since the devil is no longer in the animal. The answer is that in Scripture animals are judged along with men, as in the flood or in Jonah 4:11 with the cattle, so God judges the devil through the creature: what applies physically to the serpent applies spiritually to Satan. To crawl on the belly and eat dust is a Hebrew idiom for total defeat, like a king putting his foot on your neck. Lucifer, once the highest, is now the lowest and most despised, hated by God, by Christ, by Mary, by us, by the good angels, and even by the evil angels who blame him for their ruin. And note, the devil's sin was precisely the attempt to deceive Adam and Eve; there was no earlier angelic rebellion recorded in Scripture. He thought that by getting man to sin he had trapped God, forcing him either to destroy his creation or let the devil rule it, never imagining that God would humble himself, become a man, take Adam's place, and win the victory.