In just the third chapter of Genesis, we are given the first prophecy of the Bible. A prediction that Eve’s offspring will crush the head of the serpent. Even though it is such a short prophecy with very little detail, it is incredibly important.
Why is it significant? Let’s put it into its context first. Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis cover the creation of humans. He created us in His own image, “male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:27). God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This brings us to chapter 3, and we all know what happens next. After an encounter with the serpent, Eve eats of the tree from the knowledge of good and evil. She then gives the fruit to Adam who also eats it.
This sounds like a minor issue. It is not like they killed someone. Yet, it is a very huge issue. It is the first step in the decline of the universe from God’s declaration it was “very good” in Gen 1:31 to the horrors of Revelation and the destruction of all (Rev 21:1). It was not the eating of some fruit. It was more than just disobedience; it was the rejection of God as their God. They rejected Him as the one they should look to, obey, and submit to. They told God they would be their own god. They didn’t need Him.
We all stand in this. It is the ultimate sin. We ALL have turned our backs on God and gone our own way (Is 53:6). This has been our way since the Fall. We even have an anthem celebrating this attitude: “I Did It My Way!” We stand on being an individual, with no one to whom we are accountable. My way! My truth! Our society sees the greatest wrong as being the rejection of someone else’s view of themselves. Who or what they say they are is as valid and honorable as any other truth. We celebrate the very things which brings pain, alienation, and judgement.
Back to the Genesis account, after their fall God brings judgement on humanity for our rejection of Him. For women, they are cursed in the nature of their reproductive lives. Childbearing will now be a painful and difficult process. Their relationship with their husband will be fraught with hardship and conflict. Men will be frustrated in their responsibility to provide the basics of life for their families. What was once readily available in the garden will now take sweat and turmoil to produce.
Death, physical death, has now entered the world. They will die, along with the animals. Death—the wages of sin (Rom 6:23)—is now a reality in what was previously a world of life. What was once perfect and complete is now fallen and corrupt. Along with the coming of physical death, they are now spiritually dead. Adam and Eve were, from that point, spiritually dead. Their descendants are born in this same condition. What is spiritual death? It is separation from God, who is the source of life.
Even the serpent did not escape judgement (Gen 3:14-15). He is cursed more than any other animal. Serpents are cursed to crawl on their bellies and to eat the dust of the earth. There will be distrust and hatred between people and serpents. The point is every time we see a snake to remind us of the Fall of man: our sinfulness.
It is within the cursing of the serpent the Bible gives us the first prophecy of the coming Christ.
“he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
This points to Jesus dying on the cross but coming back to life at His resurrection (bruise His heel), but one day Satan will be destroyed (the bruising of his head). Paul tells us in Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” In I John 3:8b we are told, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In Revelation 20:1-3 and Revelation 20:10, we see the final fulfillment of this prophecy!
While it will be amazing and wonderful to someday see our and God’s enemy, Satan, put away to never influence the universe again, you may still ask why this is so important. Its importance is in its timing. Just after sin entered the world and the curse was pronounced on all, God makes a way. There is hope! The world will see death, destruction, murder, crime, disease, and hardship. Yet, there is hope. God will send an offspring of a women to save this universe from the work of the devil.
This is not just a word of general hope for the world but a specific call to each of us. Even in our own sin, we have hope. “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16-18). God has made a way for us. If you would like to know more about this hope, see Do You Know God Personally?
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg