A Promise to Adam and Eve

SUNDAY October 26

A Promise to Adam and Eve

Review Genesis 3:1-15, focusing especially on verse 15. What is being said in verse 15, and what hope can be found there for us?

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Christians have correctly found in Genesis 3:15 a prophecy of the Messiah.

First, the context of Genesis 3:15 indicates that the serpent is an instrument of evil and rebellion against God (Rev. 12:9). In the Garden of Eden this evil power defeated Adam and Eve and extended its dominion over the descendants of the woman.

Second, Genesis 3:15 announces the destruction of the serpent by the seed of the woman. It will “strike” the heel of the seed, but the seed will “crush” the head of the serpent. The Hebrew verb šfp (“bruise,” “strike at,” “crush”) is the same in both places, which suggests that the seriousness of the assault depends on the part of the body assaulted. The attack against the seed (at its heel) is not fatal; the seed, though, will crush the serpent’s head, indicating its ultimate demise.

Third, the Hebrew noun zerac (“offspring”) usually designates “offspring, posterity, seed” in the sense of descendants as a single group. But it can also refer to a single descendant (e.g., 2 Sam. 7:12, 13). In Genesis 3:15 we find both usages present. We read about the descendants of both the woman (the faithful church) and the serpent/Satan (his followers) but also about a single male descendant of the woman (“he”) who will “crush” “your [singular] head”; that is, the serpent’s head. Whenever “seed” denotes a particular descendant, the pronoun that follows it is in the singular. The “seed” of the woman is Jesus.

What Genesis 3:15 suggests is that as soon as sin entered the world, God's eternal plan of salvation through Christ was put into effect. Adam and Eve did not experience eternal death because, from the divine perspective, Christ is the Lamb “that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8, NIV). Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, looking forward to the fulfillment of the wonderful promise of salvation.

Right from the start, God’s plan was to redeem us and to destroy Satan. What are you doing, day by day, to avail yourself of this wonderful provision so that, when all’s finished, you’re among the redeemed and not among the destroyed? (Remember, in the end, it’s one or the other.)