The
Serpent's Seed Defeated; Gen. 3:15
Every human being from the time of the creation of Adam has been
involved in a cosmic conflict, a spiritual war that we sometimes called the
angelic conflict. But Satan and his demons have targeted the human race because
the human race stands right at the centre of this conflict. We have seen that
this began in the garden of Eden. The ramifications, punishment and
consequences for the sin of Adam was spelled out in Genesis chapter three. That
whole event represents Satan’s attack on mankind. There were subsequent direct
attacks as well as indirect attacks but the starting point is in Genesis 3:15,
and as part of what God outlined as consequences of that sin He made a
prophetic announcement directed toward the serpent, that eventually the seed of
the woman would crush the head of the serpent. As we have gone through these
studies looking at these various attacks we have come up to the point where we
come to the crushing of the serpent’s head. This took place at the cross
provisionally, but finally and totally when Jesus Christ returns at the Second
Coming.
Gen
The first word to be emphasised is “enmity.” The Hebrew noun means
hostility, animosity, acrimony, malice. It is often used to describe the
violence, the hatred, the animosity of two opposing armies as they come
together to fight. So this word implies tremendous hostility, anger and
violence that is going to occur between the serpent and the woman. The implications
are brought out in the next phrase, “between your seed and her seed.” This is a
very unusual terms and it has some implications that we haven’t developed
previously. The Hebrew word for seed here is a word that refers to sowing,
sometimes to the sowing of literal seed, and it refers to descendants in a
broad sense. So when we see the term “seed of Abraham” it is talking about the
descendants. When the word is used in that context it is called a collective
noun. A collective noun is a noun like “crowd” or “multitude” or even “nation”
used in such a way where a singular noun is being used but it involves a
tremendous number of people. Though it is singular grammatically it refers to a
large number of people. The word “seed” can refer to both a collective group
such as the descendants of someone and to a specific individual. So we ask the
question: what in Genesis
Usually the term is related not to the woman’s procreative ability but
to the male procreative ability. It is translated in the Septuagint by the
Greek word sperma [sperma]. So as soon as we
see “the seed of the woman” it ought to jar us a little bit in terms of
thinking that is not really normal, so that is being emphasised here? There is
at least an implication related to the virgin birth that did not involve a male
father. Secondly, because the term is a collective noun it can refer to either
the human race as a whole or a specific individual. It is going to be used in
both ways. The seed of the woman in one sense involves all of humanity because
we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. But in a theological sense it is taken
by subsequent writers in both the Old and New Testaments to refer to a specific
individual, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Third, the term “seed” as it is used in
relationship to both the serpent and the woman has a different significance.
The seed of the serpent is not a term that refers to his physical biological
descendants because Satan has not biological descendants. It the way the term
“seed of the serpent” is used simply refers to his followers, those who are
under his leadership. John
In the course of understanding this verse there has always been a debate
as to whether this is talking about a selective group or an individual. The LXX translates the
word “seed” with the word sperma. What is interesting is that sperma is a neuter noun. So when it says
“between your seed and her seed,” the next phrase, rather than using the neuter
pronoun in the Greek, “it,” which would agree in gender, the translators of the
LXX translated it with
a masculine pronoun because they understood that this referred to a specific
individual, indicating a “he.” So that shows us that the translators of the LXX understood this to
have an individual reference and not just a collective reference. However,
during the same period of time and later on a number of rabbis interpreted this
as collective.
The verse is a fairly general statement and it picks up refinements and
specificity as God gives more revelation. Initially within the context of
Genesis we see that the woman interprets this as applying to Cain. But there is
a problem with Cain and his sinfulness and again there is an enmity between Cain
and Abel, Cain murders Abel, and so we begin to see the outworking of this
problem and animosity between the followers of Satan and those who are devoted
to God from Genesis chapter four on.
The word “seed” takes on a very important significance in the book of
Genesis where it occurs 59 times. Of those, 47 occur between Genesis 12 and 50,
including and following the Abrahamic covenant where God made that promise to
Abraham that through his seed all the world would be blessed. That related in
one sense to Isaac, in another to his descendants, and in another it is applied
specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in Genesis 12:7 NASB
“The LORD appeared to Abram
and said, ‘To your descendants I will
give this land’.” However, in the Hebrew the word is “seed” again and is a
singular noun. This is repeated in Genesis 15:18 in the giving of the Abrahamic
covenant proper. What is interesting is that in the context of Genesis 12 and
15 the interpretation of that has to do with the biological descendants of
Abraham through Isaac. In Galatians
John 13:1-4 describes the setting for what takes place at the last
supper. Beginning in verse 5, down through verse 17, Jesus teaches a very
important doctrinal principle through His actions. By washing the disciples’
feet Jesus is teaching the importance of ongoing cleansing from sin. The
vocabulary He uses comes right out of the Old Testament related to the initial
cleansing of the high priest and ongoing cleansing which involves simply
washing for the priests—the hands and the feet—and this pictures for us the
ongoing necessity of cleansing after salvation. But in the midst of this there
is another layer of action that is going on, sort of unseen and undetected by
the disciples. It is something that John very carefully brings to our attention
in verse 2.
The major doctrine that is being communicated in chapter 13 has to do
with love. Forgiveness from God is a manifestation of His love for us, and so
we should also manifest that same love for others in forgiving them. But love
is not restricted to simply forgiveness and willingness to forgive others.
There is another element here that has to do with God’s love and it is related
to an exclusionary thing that take place related to one of the disciples. Often
people who are not operating on a biblical framework think that love in
inclusive. What we see here is that part of Christ’s love is exclusion. He is
going to exclude Judas Iscariot. That comes in about halfway through the chapter,
but at the very beginning of the chapter John introduces this. Why doesn’t he
just go straight to the foot-washing? Verses 2-4 form one sentence in the
Greek. The subject, Jesus, is not mentioned until verse 3, and we don’t get the
verb associated with that until verse 4. He “got up from supper, and laid aside
His garments” is the thought in vv. 2-4. But verse 2 is the set-up. NASB
“During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
{the son} of Simon, to betray Him.” Grammatically it is a dependent clause that
simply describes for us some other element that is going on behind the scenes.
It is a big clue. Before he even starts getting into the real muscle of the
passage, which is Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, he wants us to know
something else is happening.
This is an example of demon influence because the devil is influencing
the thinking of Judas. The word “heart” is often used to refer to the inner
most part of man and specifically the thinking that is going on in the soul. We
see a parallel passages in Acts 5:3 NASB “But Peter said, “Ananias,
why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back
{some} of the price of the land?” It is not Satan who was in the heart, it is
Satan filling the heart with this desire.
But demon influence, once followed, can often set up a person to be a
target for demon possession. That is what happens in John 13. Notice John
John
At the cross the seed of the woman was crushed, but only the heel. It
was a temporary wounding because after three days and three nights in the tomb
He was resurrected. 1 Peter
Satan is still operational on the planet. Having failed to attack the seed
singular, and to destroy the seed singular, Satan is going to adopt a new
strategy when it comes to the church age and the Tribulation. Satan’s strategy
was from the fall to the cross was to destroy the seed (singular) and prevent
the seed of the woman from having victory. He failed. So now he has to attack
another seed, the seed of Abraham. He is going to try to destroy the Jews
before God has fulfilled His promises to them. He has been strategically
defeated at the cross but he has one last hope. If he can prove that God really
can’t run the universe and can’t fulfil His plans and promises he would fulfil
the only hope he has left which is the prove that God can’t be God either. The
only way he can do that is to try to keep God from being able to fulfil any of
His promises, so he attacks the Jews. That is why anti-Semitism is one of then
devil’s greatest tools in history and why Christians are to be very careful not
to succumb to that. This is why probably the greatest religious invention of
Satan in the modern era is Islam, because Islam is virulently anti-Semitic to
its very core. They want to get
There are going to be three demonic attacks during the Tribulation. The
first occurs in Revelation 9:1-12, the fifth trumpet judgment, which puts it
some time after the mid-point of the Tribulation. At this time there is going
to be the release of the first demon army that has been held near the river
We see the result of this in Revelation 9:20 NASB “The rest of
mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of
their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver
and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;
Then we come to the third assault army, the attack of Satan and his
remaining demons from heaven. Revelation 12:1-6 NASB “Rev 12:1 A
great sign appeared in heaven: a woman [Israel] clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
War breaks out in heaven. Revelation 12:7 NASB “And there was
war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon
and his angels waged war, [8] and they were not strong enough, and there was no
longer a place found for them in heaven. [9] And the great dragon was thrown
down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the
whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down
with him.” As the demons are cast to the earth they are visible and walking
around. Later on we are told in chapter eighteen that
Then we come to the final battle which is in Revelation 19. This is when
the Lord Jesus Christy comes back to the earth with the church as His
victorious army to destroy and finally crush the seed of the serpent.
Revelation 19:11 NASB “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white
horse, and He who sat on it {is} called Faithful and True, and in righteousness
He judges and wages war. [12] His eyes {are} a flame of fire, and on His head
{are} many diadems; and He has a name written {on Him} which no one knows
except Himself. [13] {He is} clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name
is called The Word of God.” The reason his robe is dipped in blood is because
He has just come from a massacre down in Bozrah (Isaiah 63:1). The Jews in the
wilderness call Him, He comes down and wipes out the enemies and leads a
victorious army with the tribe of
The victory: Revelation 19:20 NASB “And the beast was seized,
and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by
which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who
worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which
burns with brimstone.
Revelation 20:2 NASB “And he laid hold of the dragon, the
serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years…. [7] When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from
his prison,
That is when the seed of the serpent is crushed and it all ends. Satan
can read as well as us and what he is doing is trying desperately to stop it,
and the way he is trying to do this is by destroying the seed of Abraham. If he
can destroy the seed of Abraham then he can stop God from fulfilling the Old
Testament promises and he will keep God from being God.