The Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent
Genesis 3:15 -- "And I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed, it shall bruise thy Head, and thou shalt bruise his Heel."
As I read these words to you, I can speak to you in the same language the holy angels used with the shepherds watching their flocks by night: "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy." This is the first promise ever made of a Savior to the fallen race of Adam. We usually look for Christ only in the New Testament, but Christianity, in one sense, is nearly as old as creation itself. It's remarkable to observe how gradually God revealed His Son to humanity. He began with the promise in this text, and the elect lived on this promise until the time of Abraham. To Abraham, God made further revelations of His eternal plan concerning humanity's redemption. Later, at various times and in various ways, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, until finally the Lord Jesus Himself was revealed in flesh and came to live among us.
This first promise must certainly have been obscure to our first parents compared to the great light we now enjoy. Yet, obscure as it was, we can be certain they built their hopes of everlasting salvation on it, and through that faith they were saved.
How they came to need this promise, and what its full extent and meaning are, I intend, God willing, to make the subject of your present meditation.
The fall of humanity is written in characters too clear to be misunderstood. Those who deny it prove it by their very denial. Even the pagans acknowledged and mourned it. They could see the streams of corruption running through the entire human race, but they couldn't trace them back to their source. Before God revealed His Son, humanity was a riddle to itself. And Moses reveals more in this one chapter (from which our text is taken) than all of humanity could have discovered on its own, even if they had searched for all eternity.
In the preceding chapter, Moses gave us a complete account of how God spoke the world into existence, and especially how He formed humanity from the dust of the earth and breathed into them the breath of life, so that they became living souls. A council of the Trinity was called concerning the creation of this beautiful creature. The result of that council was, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Moses deliberately repeats these words so we might pay special attention to our divine origin. Never has so much been expressed in so few words. Only an inspired writer could have done this. But it's striking that although Moses mentions our being made in the image of God, he mentions it only twice, and that in passing, as though he wanted to say, "Humanity was made in honor. God made them upright, in the image of God, male and female He created them. But humanity fell so quickly and became like the animals that perish (indeed, like the devil himself) that it's hardly worth mentioning."
We don't know how soon after creation Adam fell, and trying to pin down an exact time means going beyond what Scripture tells us. I think those who claim Adam fell on the same day he was created lack sufficient evidence for their view. The many events packed into the previous chapter (the creation of Eve, Adam naming the animals, and his placement in the garden God had planted) seem to require more than a single day. Still, everyone agrees on this: Adam didn't stand firm for long. Whether it was a longer or shorter period, I won't try to determine. What matters more is understanding how he fell from his original state and tracing the development of the temptation that overcame him. The account given in this chapter is quite detailed, and with God's help, we can learn much by examining it carefully.
"Now the serpent," the biblical writer tells us, "was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yes, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
Though this was an actual serpent, the one speaking through it was none other than the devil. This is perhaps why he's called "the old serpent," because he possessed the serpent when he came to deceive our first parents. The devil envied humanity's happiness. Some believe humans were created to replace the fallen angels. God made Adam upright, with full ability to stand firm if he chose to. God was therefore just in allowing him to be tempted. If Adam fell, he had no one to blame but himself.
But how would Satan bring about this fall? He couldn't do it through raw power, so he tried cunning instead. He took possession of a serpent, which was more subtle than all the other animals the Lord God had made. This shows us that people who are full of cleverness but lack godliness become nothing more than tools for the devil to use however he wants.
"And he said unto the woman." Here we see an example of his cunning. He approaches the woman, the weaker vessel, when she's alone and separated from her husband, making her more vulnerable to attack. "Yes, has God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" These words are clearly spoken in response to something the devil either saw or heard. Most likely, the woman was standing near the tree of knowledge of good and evil at that moment (because we'll soon find her picking fruit from it). Perhaps she was looking at it, wondering what made this particular tree so different from the others that she and her husband were forbidden to eat from it. Satan, seeing this and eager to draw her into conversation with him (because if the devil can persuade us not to resist but to engage with him, he's already won a major victory), says, "Yes, has God said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden?" The first thing he does is try to persuade her to think badly of God. This is his standard approach with God's children.
Verses 2 & 3. The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, or you will die."
The first part of her answer was good: "We may eat from the fruit of the trees in the garden. God hasn't forbidden us from eating from every tree in the garden. No, we may eat from the fruit of the trees in the garden (and it seems we can even eat from the tree of life, which served as a sacrament to humanity in our state of innocence). There's only one tree in the middle of the garden about which God has said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, or you will die.'" Here she begins to stray, and sin begins to take root in her heart. Already she has absorbed some of the serpent's poison by talking with him, which she should never have done in the first place.
"Said to the woman (v. 4), 'You will not surely die,'" in a smooth, persuasive manner. "You will not surely die. Surely God won't be so cruel as to condemn you just for eating an apple. It can't be." How tragic! Satan leads so many people captive at his will by flattering them that they won't surely die, that hell's torments won't be eternal, that God is all mercy, and that He therefore won't punish a few years of sin with an eternity of misery. But Eve found that God kept His word, and so will everyone who continues in sin under the false hope that they won't surely die.
For (v. 5) "God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil."
What child of God can expect to escape slander when God Himself was slandered even in paradise? Eve's understanding must have been clouded to some degree, or she would never have allowed the tempter to speak such twisted things. What a hideous picture of God is painted here! "God knows that in the day you eat of it, you will be like gods" (equal with God). So the core temptation was that they would be free from all control, equal to or even superior to the God who made them, knowing good and evil.
To strengthen this temptation, Satan (or the serpent) most likely plucked an apple from the tree and ate it right in front of Eve. This would have led Eve to think that the serpent's intelligence and ability to speak, which set it above the other animals, must have come largely from eating that fruit.
Satan was now gaining ground. Lust had taken root in Eve's heart, and soon it would produce sin. Once sin was conceived, it would bring forth death. In verse 6, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, and he did eat."
Our senses are the entry points for our spiritual enemies. How necessary is that resolution of holy Job: "I have made a covenant with my eyes!" When Eve began to stare at the forbidden fruit with her eyes, she soon began to crave it in her heart. When she saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes (here was the lust of the flesh and lust of the eye), but above all, a tree to be desired to make one wise, wiser than God intended her to be, indeed, as wise as God Himself, she took the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too.
As soon as she sinned herself, she became a tempter to her husband. It's terrible when those who should be helping each other toward salvation instead become agents of each other's damnation. But that's exactly what happens. If we ourselves are good, we'll encourage others toward goodness. If we do evil, we'll entice others to do evil as well.
And what are the consequences of their disobedience? Are their eyes opened? Yes, their eyes are opened, but it's only to see their own nakedness. We're told (v. 7) "that the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked." Naked of God, naked of everything holy and good, stripped of the divine image they had enjoyed before. They could rightly be called Ichabod now, for the glory of the Lord had left them. How far these sons of the morning fell! Out of God and into themselves, from sharing in the divine nature to taking on the nature of the devil and the beast.
And how do they behave now that they're naked? Do they run to God for pardon? Do they turn to God for a robe to cover their nakedness? No. They were now dead to God and had become earthly, sensual, and devilish. So instead of asking God for mercy, "they sewed or woven fig leaves together and made themselves aprons," or things to wrap around them. This is a vivid picture of all natural humanity. We see that we're naked. We admit it, to some extent. But instead of looking up to God for help, we patch together a righteousness of our own (just as our first parents wove fig leaves together), hoping to cover our nakedness with that. But our righteousness won't stand up to the severity of God's judgment.
For (v. 8) "They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the trees of the garden, in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife (despite their fig leaves) hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden."
They heard the voice of the Lord God, or the Word of the Lord God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the word that was with God, and the word that was God." They heard Him walking in the trees of the garden, in the cool of the day. This was a time, perhaps, when Adam and Eve regularly went to offer up an evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in a special way.
But what a change we see here! Instead of rejoicing at the voice of their beloved, instead of meeting Him with open arms and full hearts as before, they now hide themselves in the trees of the garden. What a foolish attempt this was! They must have been naked, or how could they think of hiding themselves from God? Where could they flee from His presence?
Verse 9. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Adam, where art thou?"
"The Lord God called unto Adam" (because otherwise Adam would never have called to the Lord God) and said, "Adam, where are you? Why haven't you come to pay your devotions as usual?" Christians, remember that the Lord keeps track when you fail to come to worship.
Verse 10. "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." Look at what cowards sin turns us into. If we knew no sin, we would know no fear. "Because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Verse 12. "And the man said, the woman which thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
Nature has never been more vividly portrayed. Look at the pride Adam gained from the fall! How unwilling he is to place the blame on himself or accept any shame. This answer is full of insolence toward God, hostility against his wife, and dishonesty regarding himself. In it, he indirectly criticizes God. "The woman that you gave to be with me." As if to say, if you hadn't given me that woman, I wouldn't have eaten the forbidden fruit.
Verse 13. "And the Lord God said, What is this that thou hast done?" What remarkable concern God shows in this confrontation! "What a flood of misery have you brought on yourself, your husband, and your descendants? What is this that you have done?"
"And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." She doesn't use as many words to excuse herself as her husband does, but her heart is just as unhumbled as his.
I've focused on this part of their behavior because it highlights the greatness of God's free grace and clearly demonstrates that salvation comes only from the Lord. Let's look briefly at the miserable situation our first parents now found themselves in: They were legally and spiritually dead, children of wrath, and heirs of hell. They had eaten the fruit that God had commanded them not to eat. And when God confronted them, despite how serious their crime was, they couldn't bring themselves to confess it.
What reason could possibly be given for why the death sentence shouldn't be pronounced against these prisoners standing before the bar of justice? Everyone must admit they deserve to die. In fact, how could God possibly forgive them without compromising His justice? He had warned them that the day they ate the forbidden fruit, they would "surely die." If He didn't carry out this warning, the devil could legitimately accuse the Almighty of being unfair.
And yet mercy cries out, spare these sinners, spare the work of your own hands. Look then at how wisdom devises a plan for God to be just while also being merciful, to remain faithful to His warning, to punish the offense, and at the same time spare the offender. An amazing display of divine love opens before us here, something that had been hidden in the heart of God from all eternity! Despite the fact that Adam and Eve remained unrepentant and didn't even offer a single prayer for pardon, God immediately passes sentence on the serpent and reveals a Savior to them.
Verse 14. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art accursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;"
(Verse 15.) "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
By the seed of the woman, we are to understand the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though very God of very God, was to have a body prepared for Him by the Holy Spirit for us and our salvation. He was to be born of a woman who never knew man, and by His obedience and death make an atonement for man's sin and bring in an everlasting righteousness. He would work in them a new nature, and thereby bruise the serpent's head, that is, destroy his power and dominion over them. By the serpent's seed, we are to understand the devil and all his children, who are permitted by God to tempt and test His children. But, blessed be God, he can reach no further than our heel.
There's little doubt that Adam and Eve understood this promise in exactly this way. It's clear from the later part of the chapter that sacrifices were instituted. Where else would those animal skins have come from except from beasts killed for sacrifice, which God then used to make coats for them? We find Abel, along with Cain, offering sacrifice in the next chapter. The apostle tells us that Abel did it by faith, undoubtedly in response to this promise.
This promise found its literal fulfillment in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan bruised His heel when he tempted Him for forty days straight in the wilderness. He bruised His heel when he stirred up fierce persecution against Him throughout His public ministry. He bruised His heel in a particularly intense way when our Lord cried out that His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, and He sweat great drops of blood that fell to the ground in the garden. He bruised His heel when he planted the idea in Judas's heart to betray Him. And he bruised Him most severely of all when his agents nailed Him to a cursed tree, and our Lord cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Yet through all of this, the blessed Jesus, the seed of the woman, crushed Satan's cursed head. Because He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. By His wounds we are healed. The punishment that brought us peace fell on Him. By dying, He destroyed the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. In doing so, He stripped principalities and powers of their authority and made a public spectacle of them, celebrating His victory over them on the cross.
This promise has been fulfilled in God's chosen people, considered collectively, both before and after our Lord came in the flesh. They can be called the seed of the woman. Don't be surprised that all who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. In this promise, God establishes an eternal enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, so that those born according to the flesh cannot help but persecute those born according to the Spirit.
But don't let this discourage us. In all this, the seed of the woman is more than conqueror and bruises the serpent's head. The Israelites increased the more they were oppressed. The same was true of the apostles and their immediate followers. Tertullian compared the church in his time to a mowed field: the more frequently it's cut, the more it grows. The blood of the martyrs was always the seed of the church.
Moreover, this promise is fulfilled not only in the church as a whole, but in every individual believer. In every believer there are two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The flesh fights against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. When a believer is awakened by grace in his heart, it's like what happened with Rebekah when she conceived Esau and Jacob in her womb. She felt a struggle and began to feel troubled.
Many of you who have believed in Christ may find some particular sin still strong, so strong that you're sometimes ready to cry out with David, "I will fall one day by the hand of Saul." But don't be afraid. The promise in the text guarantees the perseverance and victory of believers over sin, Satan, death, and hell. What if indwelling corruption still remains, and the seed of the serpent bruises your heel by troubling and disturbing your righteous souls? Don't be afraid. Though you're weak, keep pursuing. You will yet crush the serpent's head. Christ has died for you, and in a little while, He will send death to destroy the very existence of sin in you.
This brings me to show the most complete way in which the promise of the text will be fulfilled: at the final judgment, when the Lord Jesus will present the elect to His Father, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, glorified in both body and soul.
Then the seed of the woman will deliver the final, fatal blow by crushing the serpent's head. Satan, the accuser of believers, along with all his cursed offspring, will be cast out forever and never allowed to disturb the seed of the woman again. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom and sit with Christ on thrones of majesty in heaven.
So let's not grow weary of doing good, for we will reap an eternal harvest of comfort if we don't give up. Dare, dare, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to follow the Captain of your salvation, who was made perfect through suffering. The seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. Don't fear people. Don't let the deceitfulness of your own hearts discourage you too much. Don't fear demons; you will win the victory even over them. The Lord Jesus has promised to make you more than conquerors over everything. Plead with your Savior, plead: plead the promise in the text. Wrestle, wrestle with God in prayer. If you've been given the gift of faith, don't be afraid if you're also given the gift of suffering. Don't be terrified by your adversaries in any way; the King of the church has them all in chains.
Are there enemies of God here today? The promise in this passage gives me courage to challenge you directly: the seed of the woman, the blessed Jesus, will crush the serpent's head. What does all your hostility accomplish? You're nothing more than raging waves of the sea, foaming out your own shame. Without repentance, the blackness of darkness forever awaits you. The Lord Jesus sits in heaven, ruling over everything and causing all things to work for His children's good. He laughs you to scorn. He holds you in complete contempt, and so will I.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, I don't think I'm speaking from my own strength, but from the strength of my Redeemer. I know whom I have believed. I'm convinced He will keep safe what I've entrusted to Him. He is faithful who has promised that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. May we all experience a daily fulfillment of this promise, both in the church and in our hearts, until we come to the church of the firstborn, the spirits of righteous people made perfect, in the presence and actual enjoyment of the great God our heavenly Father!
To Him, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, be given all honor, power, might, majesty, and dominion, now and forever. Amen.
