The Seed of the Gospel -- 6/22/08

Sunday, June 22, 2008

THE SEED OF THE GOSPEL
Gen. 3:14-15

I have a question for you young people. As you know, we talk a lot about the gospel. And what does the term “gospel” mean? Give me the simple two-word definition. Yes, “gospel” means “good news.” We discussed that good news two weeks ago. Paul describes the gospel in these terms: Christ died for our sins according to the scripture; He was buried; and He rose according to the scriptures. Taking the cup of God’s wrath upon Himself, Jesus bore our sins upon the cross, demonstrating both the love and the justice of God. That is the good news.

Now let’s come to my question. Where in the Bible do we find the first gospel message, the first great promise of the Savior Jesus Christ? Do we find it in the prophets, even in Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel"? Or in Micah 5:2, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting"? Or do we find the first promise of the Savior in God’s promise to Abraham, when He said, “And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3)? No, we have to go back farther than that.

So come with me to Genesis 3. We have considered the first part of this chapter, but we still have some wonderful truths to discover in the last part of the chapter. So let’s take time to read again Gen. 3…
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15. 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. 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

This morning we want to focus on verses 14-15..
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15. 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.

When George Whitefield once preached on this text, he began with these words: “I bring you glad tidings of great joy.” What an appropriate introduction, for here we do indeed find glad tidings of great joy.” Martin Luther was so taken by the words of verse 15 that he said, "This text, Verse 15, embraces and comprehends within itself everything noble and glorious that is to be found anywhere in the scriptures." What would lead him to make such a claim? Perhaps there is more here than first meets the eye. Yes, it is here that we have the first promise of the Savior, the first glimmer of the gospel. Young people, remember that though it was not as clear to Adam and Eve as it is to us, this is the first gospel message in the Bible, for it is here in Gen. 3:15 that our Lord gives us His first promise of the coming Savior. As we look at God’s curse upon the serpent and Satan, we hear the promise of the Savior.

I. The Curse upon the Serpent (14)

Before we come to verse 15, let’s deal with verse 14, “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” So here we have the Lord addressing the snake. Before the Lord God pronounces a curse upon Adam or to Eve concerning what they have done, He speaks to the snake. Of course, you will recall that it wasn’t the Lord Himself who brought up the snake in the conversation. When the Lord asked Eve what it was she had done, she responded by saying, “The snake deceived me, and I ate the fruit” (vs. 13) Then immediately the Lord spoke to the snake.

Notice the words: “Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.” On the surface, it may seem that the Lord is cursing all the animals, but He is cursing the snake more than the others. That is not the case. We see in Rom. 8:22 that “the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now,” but it was because of man’s sin, not because of a direct curse form God. But here in Gen. 3:14 we see that God curses the snake directly. The idea is that the snake is singled out from all the others and cursed by God.

So what’s the deal with this snake? Was it an ordinary snake? Was it the devil himself? Who or what was it? We can be sure that it was not just an ordinary snake. That snake had no interest in Adam and Eve. Don’t think for a minute that the snake desired to lead Adam and Eve into sin. However, there was someone who greatly desired to deceive this woman and lead the two of them into sin. That someone, of course, was Satan. From this time forward, Satan has been closely identified with the snake. We read in Rev. 12:9, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Again in Rev. 20 we read of a time in the future…"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years…" (Rev. 20:1-2).

Now Satan, the devil, is a spirit. But on this occasion, he manifested himself in the snake. The snake was a tool that Satan used. And because of that, we see that Satan is associated with the snake. The snake becomes a symbol of the devil. If that is true, then why was the Lord so hard on the snake? Why did God punish the snake, if it was the devil who was using him for his own diabolical purposes?

First of all, we must be reminded that the snake is a reptile. That snake had no self-consciousness. This was no great punishment for the snake. The punishment itself was two-fold: he would afterward crawl on his belly and he would eat dust. We have no evidence that a snake is at any great disadvantage because he crawls on his belly and eats dust. Again, it is only a reptile.

Then why pronounce such a curse upon the snake? It was symbolic. By cursing the snake, the Lord was beginning to announce that He would bring Satan low. Crawling upon the ground is a symbol of lowliness and humiliation. Lev. 11:42, "Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination." The snake, which crawls on its belly, is an abomination to the Lord.

This is a picture of humiliation. Though we are not given much information, before this curse from the Lord, the snake evidently stood upright. Before the curse, it didn’t crawl upon its belly. So we could say that the Lord put the serpent down. That is always a picture of humiliation in the scripture. The Lord will be exalted, as He says in Ps. 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth.” But the serpent He put down. The curse of eating dust all the days of its life was a further symbol of humiliation. The Lord was not saying that dust would be the primary food of the snake. Rather, he was saying that because he was so low to the ground, the snake would have no choice but to eat a lot of dust. Speaking of the enemies of the king, Ps. 72:9 says, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.” That is, his enemies shall be brought low. Again, we read in Micah 7:16-17, "The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 17. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee."

Do you see? The curse upon the snake was really a symbolic way of beginning to announce the curse upon Satan himself. Snakes don’t feel the curse, but they do illustrate it (MacArthur). The Lord was making it clear that He was well aware of the tactics of Satan and He would not leave him unpunished. From that time forward, the devil would be associated with the snake, the most feared and most hated of all creatures. And the Lord would bring Satan down into humiliation.

II. The Curse Directly upon Satan (15)

Now we come to verse 15, where the curse is pronounced more directly upon Satan. Let’s read it again, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The term “enmity” means “hostility” or “hatred.” The Lord tells Satan directly that He is going to put an attitude of hostility between him and the woman. Think about that.

We are not told everything we would like to know about Satan’s attitudes and schemes, but there are some things we can gather from what we know of Him. We have already read that when Satan rebelled against the Lord in heaven, he was cast down to the earth, along with a third of the angels. Though he was not able to overthrow God and become like the Most High (Is. 14:14), he was successful in that he convinced thousands of angels to follow him. Apparently, it wasn’t enough for him to lead legions of angels. Now he sets his sights on man. Though it is hard for us to understand, it seems that Satan will do anything to try to hinder the plan of Almighty God. If he could just get man to go against God and come over to his team, he could continue to be a thorn in the side of the God he hates. So his goal seemed to be to work in such a way that man would become his friend and God’s enemy. As we have read here in chapter 3, he was quite successful, as Adam and Eve listened to him and refused to obey the Lord.

But now through the pronouncement of this curse, the Lord makes it clear that it will not always be this way. “I will put hostility between you and the woman.” I suspect there was already some of that. When their eyes were opened, they must have realized that they had been conned by the father of lies. Now God announces to Satan that the woman’s seed of disappointment in her newfound friend would crystallize into open hatred. Not only would Satan continue to hate Eve, but she would hate him as well.

But the curse doesn’t stop there. The Lord goes on to say, “and between thy seed and her seed.” God said He would put hostility between the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman. “Seed” is commonly used to speak of offspring or descendants. We know that Eve would have many offspring. Adam would even call her “Eve,” because she was the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). But what about the offspring of Satan? He was an angel; he couldn’t have any physical descendants. While that is true, the scripture is not silent about the seed of Satan. Speaking to the religious leaders, Jesus said, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). And I John 3:10, “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth his brother.” If a person is not a child of God, then he is a child of the devil. That is, he is like the devil because he is a slave to the devil. As the devil hates God, so the children of the devil hate God. So when the Lord speaks of the seed of Satan, He is speaking of all those who belong to Satan. Remember, we all belonged to Satan at one time. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and were by nature the children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3).

For those of us who truly know the Lord, when we were born again we became the seed of the woman. How is that? Doesn’t the “seed of the woman” refer to all the descendants of Eve? Not really. Why not? Because this hostility is not between all the seed of the woman and Satan. Most of the descendants of Eve belong to Satan; they are a part of his crowd, not the children of God. And because they belong to Satan, there isn’t hatred between them and Satan. They hate God, not Satan. We read of this conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan in Gal. 4:28-29, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." Those who are born after the flesh belong to Satan’s crowd and they persecute those who are the children of promise, those who are born after the Spirit.

The key to all this is a proper understanding of the woman’s seed. And when we come to the last part of the curse in verse 15, the identification becomes perfectly clear. “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Now the conflict is between Satan himself and the seed of the woman. Whether you translate that first word of the clause as “it” (KJV) or “he” (NIV, NASV, Ampl) makes little difference. What we must see is that it is singular. Now the Lord is not referring to many offspring of Eve, but to one. And that seed will bruise the head of Satan, and Satan will bruise the heel of the seed. Perhaps the translation “crush” would be better than “bruise,” as this speaks of a crushing blow.

I don’t know how much Adam and Eve understood about what the Lord says here. I doubt that Satan himself had perfect understanding of it. Praise God that we who are living on this side of the cross can see it clearly and have no doubt what our Lord meant. Here the Lord God is speaking of that great conflict between Satan and the Lord Jesus Himself. This is the seed of whom we read in Micah 5:2, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah; though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth." And what happened when Jesus was born in Bethlehem? No sooner was he born than Herod, one of Satan’s own, tried to kill him. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism some thirty years later, Satan was waiting for Him. You know the story of the temptation in the wilderness, and how there the woman's seed fought with him who was a liar from the beginning. The devil attacked Him directly three times, but each time Jesus fought back with the Word of God and refused to give into His enemy. What hostility between the seed of the woman and the old serpent, the devil. Our Lord was not only on the defensive. He began to take the war into the enemy’s camp by calling various ones unto Himself. He cast out demons. He spoke to the wicked and unclean spirit and said, "I charge thee, come out of him," and the demon was expelled. Thousands of demons fled before him, hiding themselves in the swine to escape from the terror of His presence. "Art thou come to torment us before our time?" was their cry when the wonder-working Christ dislodged them from the bodies which they tormented. He made his own disciples mighty against the evil one, for in His name they cast out demons, till Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Lk. 10:18). What conflict between the seed of the woman and the devil.

But all of that was only the preliminary for the great battle, which began in the Garden of Gethsemane, continued to the cross, and was finished on the morning of the resurrection. Remember we are told that Satan entered into Judas, and Judas betrayed his Master. What a struggle with Satan Jesus endured in the garden, as we read in Luke 22:44, "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." The battle was at its height when Jesus hung there on the cross. Having taken the cup of His Father’s wrath, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But praise God for the words which Jesus spoke not too long after that, “It is finished.” That’s where the battle ended for our Lord. And we know He was victorious, for He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

It was at the cross that Satan bruised (crushed) the heel of our Lord, who was the seed of the woman Eve. What agony he inflicted upon the Savior. But though our Lord was bruised, it was there at the cross that He crushed the head of the old serpent, the devil himself. So was fulfilled the words of David in Ps. 16:10, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Anticipating His triumph at the cross, Jesus said on the night of His arrest, John 12:31, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." A little bit later, Jesus said, John 16:11, "… the prince of this world is judged." What a victory our Lord won there at the cross, as Paul reminds us in Col. 2:13-15…
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

And the leader of all those principalities and powers was Satan himself. Though it looked like Satan was victorious in the conflict, that was not the case. He only bruised Jesus’ heel, but Jesus dealt him the fatal blow by accomplishing the redemption of all those who trust Him.

You may say, “If the Lord crushed the head of Satan at the cross, then why does Satan have so much power now? He seems to be alive and well.” Yes, Satan is alive, but he is not well. He is a defeated foe; his days are numbered. His head has been crushed. Praise God that we know the end of the story, which is related to us in Rev. 20:10, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." It’s as good as done.

So how much power does Satan have in the present world? He has the power to carry on the conflict between the seed of the woman and him and his own seed. Go back again to Gen. 3:15, where we read, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed…” The seed of the woman who will be in conflict with Satan and his crowd are those descendants of Eve who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, those who are in Christ, those who have been “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (I Pet. 1:23). We are included in the conflict because we are included in the Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan hates us and we hate him. There is great hostility between us.

But why? If Jesus was able to crush the head of Satan at the cross, why didn’t He just take him out? Why didn’t He bring him to full and complete destruction right there? Why let him live and walk about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. 5:8)? Very simple – Satan is a tool in God’s hand. Though he hates God, ultimately he does God’s bidding. When he opposes us, we remember that “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it, and is safe” (Prov. 18:10). The devil drives us to seek our God. The more he afflicts us, the more we see our need to abide in Christ. God doesn’t leave Satan here because he has to, but because he chooses to. Don’t ever forget that.

Satan has power, but his power is not over the seed of the woman who are in Christ. Satan is the god of this world, but we are not of this world, “for our citizenship (“conversation” in KJV; it is the Greek word from which we get our word “politics,” etc.) is in heaven, from whence also we wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). Listen to the promise given to us at the end of Romans: “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly…” (Rom. 16:20). The day is coming when we will be presented to Him “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” but we will “be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). That is how Satan will be bruised under our feet, as we stand without fault before the throne of God!

Conclusion

Isn’t it amazing that we find this great gospel promise within a curse. The words that curse Satan become a great blessing to all the redeemed. Isn’t it glorious that before we get past the Garden of Eden, God reveals to us the end of the story, the promise of victory in the Promised Seed. Praise God for His glorious promises to His people.

So what does this mean for us? It means that we know two things with absolute certainty…
1. There will be continual conflict between Satan and the seed of the woman.
2. As the seed of the woman through faith in the One Promised Seed, the victory is ours,
for our Lord Jesus has crushed the head of that old serpent, the devil.

We can take great comfort in that. When things seem to be going badly and you are at the end of your rope, remember that the Lord Jesus has already won the battle; He has crushed the head of your enemy. When all you can see is your weakness and inability, be reminded that you are in Him who rose from the dead in victory. His victory is yours. The God of peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly. So rejoice in your weakness, for it is in your weakness that His strength is made perfect (II Cor. 12:9-10).

Let him who is wise make sure that he is part of the seed who is in conflict with Satan. Have you been born again of the incorruptible seed which is the Word of God? Do you have the life of the Son within you? Don’t take comfort just because you feel at peace and things seem to be going well. Satan would like nothing better than to give you such feelings of peace, in order that he might take you down to hell. Have you been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb?

When the doubts come and you aren’t able to convince yourself that it is well with your soul, fall on your face before Almighty God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Don’t settle for the shallow clichés this world offers, but “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Is. 55:6-7).