Daily Bread

Genesis 3:15 - "And I place enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His Heel."

The same Hebrew word is used in this verse to describe both the crushing of the serpent's head and the crushing of the heel of the woman's seed. The concept of the "seed of the woman" is the key to understanding this verse. Normally when the Bible refers to subsequent generations of man it is in terms of the seed of man. In that such a phrase is never again used in the Bible, we must realize that it has a special meaning. The only bridge that we have to understand this verse is that the Savior was born of a woman without the help of man. There is an event described in Revelation chapter 12 that uses the same concept of the seed of a woman (Revelation 12:17). We discover that the dragon, who is Satan, makes war with the remnant of the woman's seed. We may argue for the terminology of seed being applied to Jesus Christ our Savior and the Messiah many times, but we are certain from the writings of Paul that it is definitely applied twice (Galatians 3:16,19). Satan is called a serpent four times (Revelation 12:9,14,15; 20:2). Paul uses this allegory with respect to the church and Satan in Romans 16:20 - which is further proof that he understood this passage to relate to the authority of Christ Jesus in His conflict against Satan, the enemy of man, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." Jesus also used a similar allegory concerning the authority of the believer when he said, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19). We know that Jesus destroyed Satan when He died at Calvary and that the death of Jesus was only temporary, lasting for three days.

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org