Written by Every individual text of Scripture gains it’s meaning from its immediate context, and the immediate context of Genesis 3:15 is Genesis 1-3. So allow me to briefly summarize where we’ve been in these first three chapters. In Genesis 1 we see creation, God speaking into the dark void and creating everything by the Word of His power. In the first 3 days God separated the light from the darkness, the water in the sky from the water below, and the land from the water. Thus we see in these first 3 days the three Kingdoms God has made: the sky, the sea, and the land. In days 4-6 God created Kings for each of the kingdoms he had made. For the sky He made the birds, for the sea He made the fish, and for the land He made animals and then He took a pile of dust and made man to oversee it all. After the creation of all of this He looked at it and said “It was good.” But mankind is distinct and above the rest of all God made because God made man in His own image. God gives the famous Dominion Mandate in 1:28 telling the male and female to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, having dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over every other living thing that moves on the earth.
In Genesis 2 we do not see a second creation narrative as some liberal theologians will say, but we find a commentary on the first creation account where we see details we didn’t get in chapter 1. So after seeing the 7thday where God rests from His work we see a detailed account of how God made man from the dust and breathed life into his nostrils and the man became a living creature. Man was then put to work to tend and keep the garden and, in a sorts, became the first priest by serving the Lord as care taker of the first temple (Eden). God mentions the 4 rivers He made to flow in and out of Eden, and mentions two of the trees He created that have special meaning for man; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We see God’s command allowing the man to eat of any tree he desired except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day he eats of it he shall surely die. We then find God creating a suitable helper for the man. After having the man name and identify every species of creature, exercising authority over the creation as God had done in making and naming him, the man found no beast or other creature suitable for such a task. Thus we see God causing a deep sleep on the man, (interesting we never read of God taking the man out of this deep sleep) and while sleeping He took a rib from the man and fashioned woman out of it and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.” Marriage is here created and defined by God, where a man leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife, becoming one flesh and only in this one man one woman one flesh bond do we see unashamed nakedness.
So in Genesis 1-2 we see the entire creation taking place. All is well in God’s created order, until Genesis 3. Much grace had been shown up to this point. God being fully self sufficient on His own, needing nothing, creates a people for His own purposes and glory. The man and woman have life and breath through no ability of their own, they have provision and sustenance and purpose through no power of their own, they have intimacy with God through direct contact and conversation through no ability of their own, and because God loved them He gave them a warning of the consequences of disobeying His commands. The whole creation account shows two clear things: we see who God is, and we see who man is not. What would man have on his own effort? NOTHING, Adam and Eve wouldn’t even exist, but now because of sheer grace, mankind has all it ever needs from God and in God. After seeing such grace displayed, the horrors of Genesis 3 make it the saddest and darkest chapters in the entire Bible. But though the darkness is thick, despair and death abound, hope is not aloof, light and life are not hidden from sight. We’ll see this soon.
The serpent, one of God’s created creatures, it says in 3:1, was craftier than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. Tragically the first words in the Bible spoken about God from someone other than God in all of history come from the serpent’s mouth. This, the first sermon, was filled with lies, and sadly many sermons follow suit still today. “Did God actually say?” the serpent said to the woman. The woman believed the lie, took the offer of fruit from the only forbidden tree in the garden, gave some to the man, and they ate together. Their eyes were opened, sin filled them, and when God came to walk in the garden they did something they’d never done before – they hid from their creator. God then asks a series of questions to point out their guilt and folly, and in response to such blatant defiance He addresses the serpent first, the woman second, and the man last. In 3:14 God curses the serpent saying, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life…” God could have stopped here, but chose to continue on in His condemnation of the serpent, and in 3:15 (our text in focus today) God deals a decisively and deadly blow.
2) The Proto-Gospel
Genesis 3:15 says, “…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
First, note the authority of God as He speaks to the serpent. How boastful had the serpent been? With such unbridled confidence he had promised the woman freedom from God’s commands. In doing so did he not make himself to be God? Didn’t he give Eve the impression that his words were true while God’s Words were false? But how strange is it to see this tempter able to do nothing but listen to God cursing him? Where are his bold words now? Where is his confidence, power, and wisdom hiding? Not a word flows from his mouth as the Judge of all the earth pronounces him to be cursed! God is only God, He will not give His glory to another, and no one is His equal. When God speaks, no one speaks back. Sure Satan may be wise, wiser than us, and his wisdom may overwhelm us, but his wisdom is a microscopic drop of water compared to ocean of God’s mighty wisdom. Here we see that Satan the creature is no match for our Creator. For Satan this is the most humiliating moment of his entire existence, “for he hears his doom uttered with infallible authority.” (E.J. Young)
Second, note that this one verse embraces all that is noble and glorious that is to be found in the Scriptures. Adam and Eve plunged themselves into death and darkness by believing the serpent and eating the fruit. They as our first parents therefore plunged the whole of mankind into death and darkness from such evil. It is now natural and normal for us to hide from God, to believe lies, and to be against our Creator. We now call good evil and evil good. All of mankind now finds himself in need of life, light, and rescue, and in this verse God promises that very thing. There is no enmity or hatred between the serpent and mankind, but God will place it there. Between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman, enmity will exist. Adam had seen the serpent as his friend and God as his enemy. Adam was willing to listen to his words and ignore God’s. Adam must learn the opposite – that God is his friend and His Word alone is to be trusted. In order for this to take place within Adam a complete reversal of heart must occur. He must learn the serpent was merely pretending to be his friend and is his largest enemy in life. Adam must be at enmity with the serpent and because God said, “I will place enmity” between these two parties for all time we see that God takes the initiative to save His own people through His triumphant sovereign grace! God must do this if man is to be redeemed. If God does not place enmity between them there is no hope.
Third, note the Person in view in Genesis 3:15b. “…He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Just as the man and woman were to be at enmity with the serpent so also will her seed (their descendants) and the serpents seed be enemies. What does ‘the woman’s seed’ mean? Is it referring to one individual or is it referring to all those who descend from Eve? In the early Christian Church most believed there is here a specific reference to the ‘Seed’ of the woman, Jesus Christ. It is interesting to note that as the centuries progressed, and especially after the enlightenment many began to move away from that view saying there cannot possibly be such a reference of Jesus Christ in so early an OT book. But in the OT there is a remarkable progression of God’s revelation of the truth concerning the Messiah to come. As you move forward in OT progression the prophecies concerning the Christ reveal more and more about who He will be and what He will do. Like, Numbers 24:17 says, “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall come out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” And Deuteronomy 18 says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like Me from among you, from your brothers – it is to Him you shall listen…I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.”
The starting point for all of these prophecies is Genesis 3:15, where we see for the first time, the promise that one of the Descendants of the woman will one day come and end the work of the serpent. People have rightly called this verse the ‘Protoevangelium’ or the ‘first-gospel’ because Genesis 3:15 is the first place in the Bible where we get an explicit glimpse of what the Christ will be like and what work the Christ will do. We know two things only from this verse. The ‘Seed’ of the woman will do work that will crush the serpent’s work, and the result of this work is that the serpent shall receive a fatal blow, while the ‘Seed’ of the woman receives a non-fatal blow to His heel. Of course this is mentioning the entire life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. His birth, His life, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension provide for us everything we need for redemption.
3) The Consequences
The consequences flowing out of Genesis 3:15 are massive. Even in the midst of such blatant defiance, death, and darkness in the fall of man – God is there to give grace to His people. It is astonishing, almost unbelievable that God will not allow man to perish but is determined to bring rescue. Genesis 3:15 introduces us to the plan of salvation. Much is still dark, true. We do not see with clarity as we do now. This gracious promise becomes an organizing theme for the rest of Scripture and the rest of human history. Every character and every event find their place in relation to the great battle that now unfolds between the conquering ‘Seed’ of the woman Jesus Christ and the seed of the serpent the Devil.
Though much is still in the dark, we learn here that God will take the initiative to save His people. To provide redemption. To do for mankind what mankind cannot do for Himself. He will introduce enmity and the long foretold coming ‘Seed’ of the woman shall deal the decisive fatal blow. Even way back in Genesis 3:15, in the midst of such sin, we see the light of the gospel breaking forth.
SonRise Community Church 