And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”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.and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
21 sermons cite this verse
… crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. Now, here is the conflict, verse 15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. Now, there is a sense in which the entire Old Testament is the outworking of what we discover there in Genesis 3.15, that the conflict between the seed of woman and the serpent explains all of the antagonism towards the work of God in each generation. And that runs all the way through the intertestamental period and all the way into the New Testament in the conflicts that Jesus will engage in as Mark and the other gospel writers describe them. And it runs all the way out through the back end of the Bible, if you like, into the centuries of man's sins and into the twenty-first century, and while sociologists would laugh at such an assertion and historians would regard it as the apex of total foolishness, when men and women take their newspapers in a morning and say, what in the world is going on with the world? The answer is in Genesis 3.15. …
… and there is a response from the invisible world in the visible world why because God had made a promise the very first promise after Satan brought the fall in Genesis Genesis 3 15 God said I'm going to put you on notice I'm going to send the seed of the woman who is going to come to this world one day and crush your head. And he has been unnoticed ever since. And so now that Jesus has come, unmistakably he is the son of God. There's lots and lots of demon activity. This man is in a cemetery. He's living in a graveyard. He's in the tombs, rock-hewn caves that can still be seen today. If you come with us to Israel, you'll be able to see the same stone caves etched into that landscape that are still there. The locals are terrified of this guy. This man has superhuman strength. He can break metal chains like they were threads. And here you have a picture of what Satan likes to do. …
… of God, and they are no longer what they once were, but they are a brand new entity. the promised seed, Genesis 3.15, Genesis 12, would be the context in humanity that would bring out the seed of Abraham, namely Jesus. So that in Jesus, not only would be as individuals a new creation, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone, but all those new creations are being put together into an entirely new entity, a new man. And it is in that context that they then are partakers of the gospel, the promise of redemption, united with Christ. And the means by which that becomes a reality is the proclamation of the gospel. The proclamation of the gospel. How do people become Christians? They have the gospel told to them, proclaimed to them. In him, Ephesians 1, in him, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed. You heard it. You believed it. Why? Because somebody proclaimed it. Can I give you a quote from John Murray, one of the finest Reformed theologians ever to come from Scotland and make his impact in America? Listen to this carefully, especially some of you who may struggle with the way in which you are proclaiming the gospel. …
… what we would call the Old Testament, they bear witness to Jesus Christ. They bear witness to the work of Christ in the gospel. Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman in conflict with the seed of the serpent, and that offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. Genesis 12, we see the promise to Abraham, and then the promise of Isaac, and then the almost sacrifice of Isaac. So much so is this a foretelling of the gospel that Jesus can say in John 8, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Abraham saw Jesus' day when he received these promises. In Genesis 49, the Messiah will be a descendant of Judah. We have the whole sacrificial system of Exodus and Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy teaching us about how our sins can be forgiven and how an unholy people can dwell in the midst of a holy God. In Numbers 24, we're told He will be a star from Jacob, a scepter from Israel. In Deuteronomy 18, He will be a prophet like Moses. …
… the worst chapter in the Bible. We've talked about before, Genesis 3, verse 15, is the promise of grace. It's called the Proto-Evangelion, the first gospel. And it's God saying in the midst of the entrance of sin into the world, to the serpent, I'm going to raise up an offspring from woman and he shall bruise your head. You shall bruise. You will bruise his heel. You'll hurt him. He shall bruise your head. Some translations say strike your head. In other words, destroy you. And it's a promise that God says for the entrance of sin in the world, I'm going to send one who's going from woman who will conquer sin. and Satan. And who will bring my redemption? And so what shall we do in light of the effects of sin all over our marriages and our homes and our culture on manhood and womanhood? What we must do is look to Christ. Because He is the one who conquers sin and its effects. And this is the beauty of what we realize. …
… all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and that doesn't mean bruise like cute little bruise Hebrew word literally means a gaping hole crush your head gaping Thank you. and you shall bruise his heel. He won't leave unpierced. and you will not leave undefeated. I want to talk today, I want to kick this series off today from this subject, This Means War. This means war. Father, without you, I am nothing. You are the vine. I am but a branch. So my commitment in this moment, God, is through everything in my power to abide in you. And as I abide in you, I will bring forth fruit, and it will be fruit that remains. may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight your children deserve wisdom revelation knowledge and impartation may heaven's love flow through me to them God may your words be my portion and consequently may it be their portion. …
… enemy in a confrontation because this mission is a spiritual battle. And you may remember, got to tie this in at this point. Back in Genesis 3.15, Satan knew this promise. A promise was made that said, the seed of the woman is going to be born who will crush the head of Satan. So this is round one of that battle out in the wilderness that he goes out to. Round one. Now, just a note, Jesus is in the wilderness. In the book of Genesis, Adam was tempted in what? A garden, a lush garden, a watered garden, green, beautiful, perfect. And he failed. He lost. Jesus, the last Adam, he is called, is tempted in a barren, hot desert, the exact antithesis of the Garden of Eden. And he won. now I'm just going to go briefly through what Mark leaves out he has glaring omissions he leaves out the temptations themselves Matthew and Luke tell us what the conversation was so let me just kind of give them to you real briefly Satan comes to Jesus in the wilderness during those 40 days and tempts him on three levels number one to doubt God's provision to doubt God's provision If you are the son of God, said Satan, command these stones be made bread. …
… There's a war for the souls of mankind. And it began in Genesis 3.15. How many times have we been to Genesis 3.15 on these Wednesday nights? But man, I tell you, it's something. God is speaking. He says, I will put enmity, warfare, between you, Satan, and the woman, the descendant of Eve. And between your seed, Satan, that's wild, Now scholars argue back and forth on this. We know this for sure, that Satan has his seed, his offspring. But how far can we push that? In the most basic level, we can say that Satan has his offspring, meaning all those who do not believe must somehow be, right, in that DNA, so to speak, spiritually speaking, of that genre of Satan's seed. Some, listen, there's some great ancient scholars that believe that Satan, his descendants, are those who, like Jesus said it. Remember when Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil? Some ancient scholars speculate that that statement could be much deeper than what we take it on at the surface. …
… Some of us know the Bible so well, we've lost wonder at what God really does for His people. We read Genesis 3.15 and we just love it. We say, yes, the seed of the woman is going to crush the seed of the serpent. And we think, yes, that's Jesus. And it took a long time for all of that promise to come true. And we're still waiting for the final consummation of all that was inaugurated in the coming of Christ. God's people in the Bible lived a long time with promises that seemed to have been forgotten, but every one of them came true. How did Joseph feel those years when it seemed his life was utterly ruined? We think about the promise to Abraham, he would be a great nation, and we get excited for the Sunday school lesson about trusting God, and we forget that Abraham and Sarah waited decades for that child to come, and they almost then had to kill him. And then Isaac's twins go nuts on each other, and Jacob can't get things figured out with his wives, and his sons are acting so stupid, and his family almost dies of famine, and then they all come into slavery in Egypt, in exile in Babylon, and along the way, David's whole line seems to be snuffed out by Queen Adaliah, and then the prophets go silent for 400 years, and then the one prophet who comes, John the Baptist, is killed by Herod, and then the Messiah gets crucified. That doesn't look like a happy ending, …
… But in the midst of Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three, verse 15, God promises, he promises that there is going to be one who crushes the head of the serpent. There is gonna be one who restores all things. And then the whole rest of the story is people waiting from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to the judges, to the kings, to the divided kingdom, to the civil war, to exile, through all the whole entire story, all the way to Jesus. is that worth the wait? I was thinking about, you know, this, think of right now, Christmas Day. I think a lot of us, we get really excited. I'm glad, we're glad we made it to today. We're glad we made it to December 24th yesterday, 25th right now, because we're excited about things. I mean, we, there are all the things we love about Christmas and we, all the things, all the fun, all the excitement, all the presents. I was reflecting on this as we got closer and closer to this day. …
… because you've done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field. On your belly will you go and dust will you eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. Her seed, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So it was important that Jesus be fully God and fully man. It was important that he be the seed of Mary, but he wasn't conceived by Joseph. And he understood that. He's like, I have a dad, I know. And I call him dad, Abba, Abba, Abba. When Joseph is in the workshop, I go, Abba. But I also know that though I have a dad, I have a father. Capital F-A-T-H-E-R. And I had to be in his house. Jesus played in the streets. He went to church on the Sabbath. He worked with his dad. He grew up most likely in the trade of his father, the carpenter. He had calloused hands. He had cut forearms and biceps. He, in Psalm 23, can prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, but it's likely that he prepared a real table before some people in their house. He lived in a stone house on the street in Nazareth, and he was a tough guy. He wasn't milk toast with a little staff. …
… livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between you and your offspring and hers and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. What? What's he saying? He's talking about in Genesis 3 15, the promised Messiah all the way back then. Adam and Eve, you made a mess. Don't you worry. I've got a solution. You done messed up? Don't worry. I'll rescue you like I always do. And he says to the serpent, you are going to get your head crushed and you will only strike their heel. You know what he's saying to them? I'm going to send my son and he's going to crush your head. And all you'll do to them is you'll strike their heel. Come on, clap and thank God. You're going to mess with them. You're going to hurt them. Come on, clap. …
… Jesus would have been born in sin like the rest of us but in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 God says to the serpent there will be enmity between you and the seed of the woman not the seed of the man how ironic is that how do you talk about people's lineage the seed of the man but God says I will put enmity between you and the seed of the woman and he, you will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. So the gospel is preached even way back in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. So we have the seed of the woman Mary, but not the seed of the man Joseph. So that number one, Jesus can be our representative in two covenants, both the covenant of works and the covenant of grace by virtue of his virgin birth. he also has actively obeyed all of the law and has kept all of the law so that he has complete and utter righteousness under the covenant of works and is thereby our representative there and worthy to be our representative in the covenant of grace so when you talk about for example the perseverance of the saints it's absolutely ludicrous to think that a person could lose their salvation why because if you are among the elect you were in christ when he kept the law you were in christ when he died for sin you were also in christ when he was resurrected and you were in christ when he ascended you are now in christ seated in the …
And when he came into the equation, he said to the serpent who had tempted them, And I will put enmity between you and the woman. This is chapter three of Genesis. And between your offspring and hers, and he, her offspring, which is a picture of Jesus coming, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. In the garden, there is a picture of what Jesus was going to do. on the cross and at the empty tomb. He's gonna crush your head, Satan. And then a few verses down, it says, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. They sinned, they knew they were naked, they were now ashamed, and God intervened into their nakedness and into their shame, and God killed an animal in the garden and took the skin of the animal and he made garments to cover and clothe the man and the woman. The very first sacrifice. in time and in history was all because of God's grace and obviously was pointing to a time when another sacrifice would be made by God. We exist because of God. We are living because of God. The grace of God is already showing up in the earliest part of man's story. But mankind they went nuts and they were wicked beyond wicked. The Lord says in chapter six, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart …
… church that Jesus Christ is building. But this is part of the story that begins in Genesis 3.15. There will be conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. There will be great conflict between the seed of the woman and the serpent itself. And you remember how the book of Revelation says that even when the serpent grown into a dragon is not able to destroy the Christ, what does he do? He goes off in persecuting pursuit of those who belong to Jesus Christ. Friends, it's a great lesson for us that being an object of deep hostility is not eccentric for the church, but Jesus prophesied it would be normal for the church. Not all was at the same level. Do you remember how Paul says in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, in the last days in which we are all living, there will be particular times of stress. The only other place in the New Testament where that language is used is in connection with the Gadarene demoniacs who are uncontrollable. …
… I can't tell you what a monumental moment this is in redemptive history. We've been waiting for this since Genesis 3.15, since the announcement was made that Satan would wound Christ. The earth has belonged to him, the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world. But this is the final moment. This is the culmination of all redemptive history. The goal of redemption is about to be reached. The lion and the lamb, who is the rightful heir to the throne of God, takes the scroll out of the right hand of God on the throne. He is the heir. He is the one who inherits everything that God created. And he himself is co-creator. It is time for him to take the scroll, unroll the seals, which will unroll judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment, running all the way through the book of Revelation to the 19th chapter. Judgment is coming, final judgment. And all of heaven has been waiting for this, waiting and waiting and waiting. And John has been waiting, and the saints have been waiting. …
… live for the father and then lastly he died for the world what a plan when you think of planning and plans what a plan as soon as adam and eve sinned in the garden in genesis 3 15 god says wait a minute i got a plan to bring you back in the right relationship with me it is the prov evangelium theological terminology as Jesus as Jesus is is is is preordained to come even in Genesis God immediately shares his plan as as he says of Jesus and and and Satan will bruise your heel but you will bruise his head as to say that the Jesus would come and die for the world it is a trailer so to speak of a movie that would come in John chapter number 19 as Jesus is spoke of in Genesis chapter number three as as as God the father um would speak of a new covenant to come in the midst of an old covenant and and and as he would speak of Jesus he says Satan will bruise um your your heel in other words Jesus will experience some pain there there will be some scars and bruises and laceration but but Jesus you will bruise his head you you will defeat Satan on the cross and and at Calvary and the resurrection and let me talk to somebody and and say to you just like Jesus in this life um as God gives us some stuff to do there'll be points when there'll be …
… coming of the Messiah Clint if you see scripture you'll find out that the very first promise of the coming of Jesus can be located as early as Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. It is there in that third chapter when Adam and Eve have failed God. God shows up and shares with them the consequences of their failure and their sin and God says to them and one of your seed will crush the head of Satan. And early in the third chapter scholars identify a prophecy of the coming of Christ who will crush Satan and sin. And from Genesis all the way up to the Christmas account, the Bible records 414 prophecies of the coming of the Son of Man. 414 promises that Christ will come. 414 promises that Satan does not win 414 promises that God's going to show up and God is going to handle this thing 414 promises that the son of man, the Messiah, the Christ will be born God has made a promise that Jesus will show up and in case you don't know it I want you to know this God does not make idle promises. …
… PROPHESIED IN THE BIBLE. YOU STEP INTO THE BIBLE AND IN GENESIS CHAPTER THREE VERSE 15 YOU FIND THE FIRST PROPHECY OF THE COMING OF OUR LORD. AND THE BIBLE SAYS THAT HE IS TO BE THE SEED OF THE WOMAN. THAT IS, THE MESSIAH IS NOT GOING TO BE AN ANGEL IS NOT GOING TO BE GOD SITTING IN HEAVEN, BUT IT'S GOING TO BE SOMEONE OF THE HUMAN RACE. SO RIGHT AWAY YOU ELIMINATE ALL THE BILLIONS OF ANGELS AND ALL OF THE OTHER CREATED BEINGS. NONE OF THEM ARE THE REDEEMER. SO, UH, FIRST OF ALL, A CERTAIN RACE. AND THEN YOU GO TO GENESIS CHAPTER NINE AND VERSE 26 AND YOU SEE THAT THERE'S A CERTAIN SECTION OF THAT RACE. YOU SEE, YOU PUSH THE NEXT NUMBER AND YOU ELIMINATE THE SONS OF JAPHETH AND YOU ELIMINATE THE SONS OF HAM AND YOU JUST COME TO THE SONS OF SHEM. OUT OF THAT SECTION OF THAT RACE THE MESSIAH IS GOING TO COME. AND THEN YOU PUNCH ANOTHER NUMBER AND IT BRINGS UP A, A NATION OF THAT SECTION. …
… in this very first book of the Bible, very first family, they played this game. And you'll recall, for example, in this third chapter that Satan has tempted Eve and she has partaken of the tree of good and evil, which God forbid her to do. And of course, gave it to her husband. And so I want us to begin reading in this eighth verse. And the scripture says, and Adam and Eve now have sinned against God. And the Bible says, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and so I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? …
… Therefore, will the Lord wait? The Lord gave a promise in the Garden of Eden that he was going to send a Messiah, Genesis 3.15. But he waited 4,000 years. 4,000 years. Did you hear that? 4,000 years. The Bible says in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son. In the fullness of time. I know many times we're trying to pick God's blessings before they're ripe. Therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. Blessed are those that wait on Him. God is developing patience. God is never in a hurry, but He is never late. Habakkuk 2 verse 3 says, for the vision is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Many of us are waiting for Jesus to come. Now people say, where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. You can put it down big, plain, and straight. He is coming. …