MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Genesis 3:15
Reader: Keith Harcus
The first time I read through the Bible at age 19, I came across this:
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:20)
And, I thought, “Hmmm, God’s peace for humans and the grace of Jesus being with us are tied to God “crushing” Satan. God’s “crushing” of Satan is all God’s work, but what does it mean that it will be done ‘under’ our feet?” I concluded it was when for God, Satan gets “crushed”. In my later studies, I came to see that the apostle Paul, when he was writing that verse, most likely had Genesis 3:15 in mind:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
That was God speaking to the serpent who had enticed Eve, who convinced Adam, to sin, actions that had the consequence that life on earth would be very different from that point on, due to the presence of sin now being in the world. No doubt the original Jewish readers of Genesis understood God’s “curse” upon the serpent to be an explanation of the deep-seated loathing of snakes by Eve plus every other human, her “offspring”, or as most Bible translation put it, her “seed”, as well as an explanation of the natural instinct in a snake to strike the heel of a human. But there has to be more to it than that.
God didn’t use the plural word “offspring” when saying, “He will crush your head” nor did He use the plural when saying, “and you will strike his heel”. So, that leads to the question, “who are the two combatants?” In this sermon series, we have seen that New Testament writers identify Satan as being the serpent or snake who had tempted Eve. So, it is Satan’s head that will get crushed, just as Paul wrote in the Romans 16:20 passage we started with (“The God of peace will soon crush Satan”). But who is the singular seed that will do the crushing of Satan’s head?
Missionaries have experienced converts to the faith being gripped by this question as they read through the Bible for the first time, for the identity of that other “seed” is not spelled out right away. The revelation of who that singular head-crusher is remains shrouded in mystery throughout the Old Testament. It is not given away or revealed early on in the Bible but the future of the Bible story is hinted at right away, there in Genesis 3:15. Christian theologians call Genesis 3:15 the “protoevangelium” – the first pronouncement of good news, the first time the gospel message is hinted at – for in it is the first appearance of a saviour who will stamp out the bad guy, the serpent/Satan. But who would be that head-crusher? When the Lord said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” missionaries have commented that new readers of the Bible rejoiced in reading that message for in it they discerned that there was something good being said about Eve, that although Eve had messed up by giving into the serpent’s tempting talk, she had not gone over to the dark side for good. She won’t be with the serpent but against him is the good news of that verse. Those first readers of the Bible cheered at this revelation!
Now, because the word “enmity” implies an ongoing conflict, there must be some future “seed” or descendent or offspring of the woman who would do that crushing of the serpent. Going through the Old Testament history in order, there were multiple possible candidates: Eve and Adam’s two sons, Cain and Abel – well, they were knocked out of the running early on; their younger brother Seth – well, here was real hope that he might be the one but he wasn’t, although the Bible storyline follows Seth’s family exclusively all the way through the Old Testament. It doesn’t follow any other family line, so a “seed” from Seth’s line would be the Saviour. We read about Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all in the Book of Genesis but none of them would be the “seed” who would crush the serpent’s head. Then, there would come Moses and Joshua, then the judges Gideon, Samson, and Samuel, but none of them would be the “seed” to crush the serpent’s head. The storyline continues on, though, and a reader new to the Bible still hasn’t found out who the head-crusher would be. Would it be any of the kings? Saul, David, Solomon, and the rest. No, though to King David, God did reveal that one of his descendants would be the Messiah of Israel, a child who would be born in the city of David, Bethlehem, born of a virgin and called “Emmanuel”, which means “God with us”, and that he would “reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever”. Still, the actual identity of the head-crusher has not been revealed. The later prophet Zechariah prophesied that this seed of David would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, revealing himself to be the prophesied king, while Malachi, the final prophet of the Old Testament, wrote about a second Elijah who would turn up just before the Messiah’s coming, and that second Elijah would prepare people’s hearts for the arrival of “the Lord you are seeking”. The reader new to the Bible would be intrigued by all this but would find no answers in the Old Testament as to who the head-crusher would actually be. Going into the New Testament, however, in the very first chapter written by the very first Gospel writer, Matthew, the identity of the head-crusher is finally revealed, that out of the family line of Abraham, which was also the family line stretching back to Seth and the first woman, Eve, would come the long-awaited “seed” who would crush the head of the serpent. His name would be “Jesus” and he was God’s son, born of a virgin in the city of David, Bethlehem. Gospel writer Mark then confirms Malachi’s prophecies: John the Baptist was the second Elijah who introduced Jesus to the world, a move that led King Herod to arrest him.
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14,15)
Luke, in his Gospel book, writes about how Jesus had his first confrontation with Satan, in the desert temptation episodes, but it was a prefiguring for the final defeat of Satan that was to come. The apostle John pens five documents in the New Testament, his own Gospel book, the Book of Revelation, and three letters. John wrote,
The devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8)
The “beginning” was at the time of Creation, in the Garden of Eden. The prophecy of Genesis 3:15 would finally be explained in the New Testament when Jesus, the seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent/Satan. When he was writing the Book of Revelation, the apostle John was given the following fascinating vision:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. (Rev. 12:1-5)
So, Satan was ready for the birth of his opponent. He tried to kill Jesus right after his birth, John saw, but God protected His son. As we know, King Herod the Great did order that every boy in Bethlehem two years and younger be killed. The fight was on! But Satan failed at first.
Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to
wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Revelation 12:17)
So, having failed to destroy Jesus, Satan switched his line of attacks to tormenting the followers of Jesus. But Jesus encourages his followers to stand strong. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus told his inner circle of friends, the apostles, at their last supper together:
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. (John 12:31)
By “striking” Jesus’ heel and arranging through his minions to have Jesus’ betrayed, arrested, tried, and crucified, Satan and his minions celebrated what seemed to be their victory. However, as Jesus said,
The prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:11)Can you imagine being a new reader of the Bible reading this? It would be so amazing, exciting, riveting! What would happen next? Well, on the cross, instead of Satan defeating Jesus, the tables would be turned, and Satan’s head would be crushed. On the cross, Jesus would defeat Satan and his fallen angels, the demons. The “crushing of Satan” that Paul wrote about in Romans 16:20 doesn’t mean that Satan’s literal head was crushed. Rather, his powers were crushed, dismantled, disarmed, stripped away, rendered impotent. Satan and his minions suffered a humiliating loss. We read Paul’s words, about how on the cross, Jesus defeated Satan and his minions:
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15)
In this passage, Paul is writing based on what he knew happened in the Roman Empire in which he lived. When a victorious Roman general would march into the city of Rome to celebrate it would be in a long procession. First would come the city magistrates, followed by trumpeters loudly blowing, then then the spoils taken from the defeated nation would be brought in, on display, followed by the enchained, defeated foes themselves, followed by the king of the conquered country, then the officials of the victorious Roman army as well as musicians dancing and playing; and at last, the victorious Roman general himself, in a chariot drawn by four horses, clad in a purple tunic embroidered with gold and palm leaves, and wearing over it a purple toga marked out with golden stars. In his hand he held an ivory scepter with a Roman eagle on the top of it, while over his head a captured slave held the crown of Jupiter. After him rode in his family. And, finally, at the very end, came the army wearing all their decorations and shouting, “Triumph! Triumph! Triumph!” This massive procession would move through the streets of the city, with mobs of people cheering. It was a visual sight!
That was the picture in Paul’s mind as he wrote about Jesus defeating Satan and his minions. When Christ willingly gave His life on the cross to pay for our sins, Satan and his evil forces were stripped of their power over humans, and they were paraded in disgrace in front of God’s angelic court. They can no longer rightfully accuse us, because Christ has paid the debt of our sin. They can no longer hold us captive through the fear of death, because Christ won the victory over Satan and over death on the cross. His victory was confirmed when God raised Him from the dead. In the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, God the Father achieved a great victory over the evil powers of this world, making “a public spectacle of them.” Though Satan “bruised his heel” on the cross, Jesus “crushed his head”!
One of the intriguing characters in literature and opera is the 15th century German play on the man named Faust. The character of Faust was based on a German legend about a man who made a pact with the devil, surrendering his soul in exchange for youth, knowledge, and magical powers. One artist in the late 1800’s, Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch, put the legend onto canvas, depicting the story of Faust as a grim chess game. If you know anything about the game of chess, you know it all comes down to when the King on either side can move no more. Once the king is trapped, the winning side declares “checkmate” and the game is over. The painting by Retzsch is entitled “Checkmate” and, it depicts two chess players, one being Satan, who appears arrogantly confident, having just proclaimed “checkmate” over his opponent. The other player is a man who looks forlorn. If Satan wins, he wins the man’s soul. That is what the painting shows.
Project “Checkmate” painting – https://haventoday.ca/blog/closer-look-checkmate/#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20painting%20that,painting%20depicts%20two%20chess%20players.
According to an article which first appeared in an 1888 publication, a chess grand master came upon this intriguing painting. The grand master stared a long time at the chess board in the painting and finally noticed that though the devil seemed to be the obvious victor, he was, in fact, not winning. His opponent, though it looked like he was losing, was actually winning. According to the arrangement of the chess pieces still on the chess board, the man’s king had one more move. This fateful move would make him the winner of the game. Seeing this, the chess grand master called out, “There’s still a move! There’s still a move!” Satan thought he had won at the death of Jesus, but he hadn’t. Jesus still had a move. In fact, for us, when we are going through a seemingly helpless situation, “there’s still a move!” As Paul wrote,
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:20)
The obvious question thus remains, “If Satan is crushed, why is he still so active in our world?” A good way to understand this is by looking at World War II which started on September 1, 1939. D-Day (Decision-Day), when the Allied troops stormed and took the beaches of Normandy, thus breaking the Nazi hold on Europe, happened almost five years later, on June 6th, 1944. However, VE-Day, Victory in Europe Day, did not officially happen until May 8th, 1945. But there were more casualties in those final 11 months than in the first 5 years of the war. Why? Because Hitler knew he had lost, he lashed out in furious anger. The same is true with Satan. He knows he has lost, so John writes,
He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Revelation 12:12b)
So, Satan is a defeated foe, but we have no reason to fear him. Our God still has one move left in taking us to eternal safety, but our lives in this world are still safe in His hands. In the meantime, here is how we are to live, according to the New Testament writers.
James writes,
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Peter tells us:
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. (1 Peter 5:8,9a)
Paul says to us:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power…Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10,13)
At the cross Jesus paid for our sins, and that took away the ability of the accuser, Satan, to weigh us down. As it is written, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
At the resurrection Jesus conquered death and the grave, and that took the main weapon – fear of death – out of Satan’s hands.
Then, at the end of the age, Jesus will judge Satan and cast him into the lake of fire for all of eternity. Believers can have victory over Satan in Christ, for Christ has given them the victory. Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled. For that we should all be as new Christians are, amazed and rejoice!
