For the Genesis 3:14-15 PODCAST, Click Here!
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." ~ Genesis 3:14-15
Today, we return to our study of Genesis 3 where we have been introduced to deception for the first time in the history of man. After Adam and Eve broke God’s word, realize their nakedness, and hid themselves because of their shame, God came to them and drew them out of their hiding with His grace, rather than driving them out with their fear. Today's passage explains why the many horrifying things which have happened in the entire history of man on this earth can all be traced back to man questioning God’s goodness. In today's two verses we learn of God's response to the devil's deceptive tactics which brought about man's rebellion.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "So the Lord God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.'"
In these words addressed to the devil, utter humiliation and utter degradation are promised. To this day one of the most humiliating things that anyone can be forced to do is to lie on his belly in the dirt. It means pride has been brought low; he is promised humiliated and shamed. And, notice that there is no conversation here. The Lord wasn’t looking for a confession from the devil like he was from Adam and Eve. This is a sentencing, not a trial.
Isaiah 14 is a passage that describes the fall of the Devil. In the pride of his heart he began to say to himself, "I will be like the Most High." This is the same fallen one who said to Eve in the Garden of Eden, "If you eat of this fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The significant thing about God's response to the devil in today's passage is that here we have God's announcement to the devil of his ultimate loss. Yes, it appears that evil always triumphs on this earth now, but, in this verse God reveals the ultimate end of the enemy.
Here in this verse, the devil learns, perhaps for the first time, that his judgment will one day occur on this planet. This is the first time God curses something in the Bible. Here, God places the devil under an eternal curse, and the nature of it will deliver continual humiliation and ultimate defeat. Cursing is the opposite of blessing. God’s curse removes creatures from his blessing. There are no curses against Adam and Eve, only on the serpent and the ground, giving the clear implication that God’s blessing has not been utterly lost.
The first part of God's curse upon the devil began with: "You are cursed more than all the cattle, and more than every beast of the field." In other words God said: "Even dumb and mindless cow will be more than you." Then God continued to say to the devil: "On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life." In other words, in the same way that a serpent slithers on the ground, so will the devil one day. Just as the devil slithered into the lives of Adam and Eve and brought them to the state where they would return to the dust, so the devil will live his existence in the very dust that he has been condemned them to.
A key passage is found in 2 Corinthians 12:7 which explains why the Lord didn't take the devil out immediately after he brought about the downfall of Adam and Eve. In that verse we read, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited." God’s purpose in allowing the devil to perpetuate and the eventually harass the Apostle Paul was to keep Paul's pride in check. In God’s brilliant wisdom, he harnesses the devil's harassing of Paul and all believers so that he serves God’s purposes in our sanctification. Satan’s attempts to hurt Paul inadvertently humbled Paul and make him rely more gladly on the grace of the Lord Jesus.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
This verse is known at the protoevangelium or the "first gospel" because it is the first explicit reference in the Bible to the coming of the Christ. Without a doubt we have here a most remarkable prophecy of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. This prophecy cannot be explained in any other terms than that it finds fulfillment in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. This concept of the seed of the woman is unique. Nowhere else in the Bible do we find such an expression occurring.
Everywhere else in Scripture descent is reckoned through the male line. It is the seed of the man that is the line of descent and all the genealogies of the Bible trace the line of descent through the male. The father's name is given and when the mother's name is given it is only incidental, as referring to the wife of someone. This is the first Messianic prophesy in the Bible. Here, right after the Fall of man into sin, God stated that the woman will have a male Seed, an offspring who will eventually crush the devil.
Throughout the Bible there is a distinction made between the sons of men and the sons of God. The sons of God are the chosen line which leads from Adam, through his son Seth, down to Noah, then Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. This line continues to the coming Christ, who is the Lord Jesus, and encompasses the nation of Israel.
On the other hand, there is the line of Cain and all of those outside of the Messianic line who are the seed of the devil. This pattern is unmistakable and carries all the way through the Bible. In fact, in 1 John 5, the Apostle John tells us that the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one. Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15 when he makes the contrast between those in Adam and those in Christ. Those who are yet in Adam and their sin remains upon them, they are not in God's family and they remain under the devil’s control. Therefore, the woman is the godly line whom the devil is at enmity which is fully confirmed in Revelation 12.
The word "bruise" is the same Hebrew word describing the combatant’s parallel action. But it’s the location of the "bruising" that tells us who wins. A blow to the head is greater than a blow to the heel. The former can kill you, the latter can only wound you. The devil will be defeated and the seed of the woman will be injured in the process.
The word "offspring" is literally the word "seed," and it can refer to one’s collective descendants or to a specific individual. There will be conflict between the descendants of the serpent and the descendants of the woman. Those who fought against their Creator will now be fighting one another.
Notice that at the end of v.15 God moved to the masculine singular pronoun when he said, "he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Though the conflict is between the two offsprings, the goal of the final crushing blow is not the seed of the snake but rather the snake itself. The seed of the woman will crush the snake. And when we cut off a snake’s head, its whole body will die. Enmity will exist between both seeds, but the goal will be the crushing of the serpent himself.
In this, a plot was established, a program of redemption was begun. Genesis 22:18 makes the vague promise of 3:15 more specific. God said to Abraham, "In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This means God will defeat evil through someone born to a woman in Abraham’s family. The overarching theme of Genesis is that there’s hope for humans because the Messiah would come and deal with sin and death once and for all. And, He has delivered on His promise.
