God’s statement to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden about how the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head is nothing short of the Gospel: “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.” Wikipedia
Before we unpack this verse, let’s lay the groundwork so we can rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).
It is important to know who was speaking these words. We know that this was Jesus speaking these words to Satan (serpent). Scripture tells us that Jesus is the Son of God who came to Earth and took upon himself the form of humanity. We know that the Son of God is of the Godhead, therefore Jesus is of the Godhead…Jesus is God. Let’s have the Bible make it clear. In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Notice three things in this verse: 1) the expressions ‘in the beginning’, 2) God, and 3) created the heaven and the earth. Now let’s read John 1:1,3; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….All things were made through him…and without Him nothing was made that was made.” It is obvious that these scriptures are linked with the same idea. So who is the Word? John 1:14 tells us, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” SO, the Creator is none other than Jesus.
Now, Jesus (God the Son) did not directly rule earth; instead he place a king and queen to rule for him (Ps. 8:3-6). Go to Genesis 1:28, ” And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” We find two principles in this text, 1) that Adam and Eve were to have dominion (rule_ of their territory, 2) and that territory was earth. Genesis 2:16-17 sets the condition for their rule of earth as their territory of dominion, and that was that they would choose to serve Him freely. The ‘tree’ simply gave them the opportunity to choose to serve Him.
After Adam and Eve chose their own way, notice what it says, “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” (Genesis 3:7). What happened to them? Their glorious light covering left them. What did they do? They made THEIR OWN covering. The interesting thing is that even though they covered their NAKEDNESS with artificial means, they still felt naked (Genesis 3:10). So, this was not a physical nakedness, but a nakedness of their soul…the nakedness of sin; meaning they are guilty before God for they have lost their innocents and their righteous covering. In other words, they have entered into sinfulness. All is not lost, for a promise was made that their covering would be restored whereby they could appear before God and receive that which was lost [Genesis 3:21: the very day Adam and Eve sinned there was an animal sacrifice which pointed to what Jesus would have do on their behalf to cover their sin, this is why they did not die that day because the death sentence was executed on the lamb – Genesis 2:17, Jn. 1:29, 1 Peter 1:18-20, Rev. 13:8].
What else did this exercise of will to follow their own way cause? They heard God coming and hid themselves because they were afraid, and then Adam blames God for the woman who he gave to him who caused him to eat of the tree; and Eve blames the serpent for he deceived her. For the first time in human history there is guilt, fear, blame, strife and all of these things began with sin. Genesis 3:8-13. Adam and Eve lost so much in the Garden, including their dominion and their roles as rulers of planet earth; and handed it over to Satan by default (Job 1:6-7, 2:1-2-Satan went to these meetings representing planet earth; Matt. 4:8-9; Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; Hebrews 2:14).
Genesis 3:15, as quoted above, is known as the protoevangelium— meaning the first time the gospel was announced to humanity. This message was spoken to Adam and Eve indirectly – they were there when God said these words, and it became a promise to them. But, remember who God was directly speaking to…the serpent (Satan), and he was put on notice that there was a plan to put an end to his mayhem. This verse introduced the gospel message, and this same message is with us today. There are four elements in this verse that we will unpack:
*Genesis 3:15, “And I will put [see next paragraph] enmity [H342: hostility, hatred] between thee [serpent/Satan: Rev. 12:9] and the woman [Rev. 12:12-17-Christ’s Church], and between thy seed [those who oppose Christ having the spirit/character of Satan: John 8:44, 1 Jn. 3:12 -Cain, Matthew 13:38-tares] and her seed [Galatians 3:16, 4:4; Matt. 1:16; Rev. 12:1-2, 5-Jesus Christ]; it (seed of the woman/Jesus) shall bruise thy head [serpent/Satan], and thou [serpent/Satan] shalt bruise his [seed of the woman/Jesus] heel.”
When God said, “…I will put…”, means that because he is holy there is no coalition between himself and Satan for the two are mutually exclusive – that being said then it will ’cause’ enmity. We must remember that light dispels darkness (John 8:12).
If you can imagine Jesus who raises his foot to crush serpent who is on the ground…on earth, it is at that point the the serpent strikes the heel, BUT the foot comes down and crushes the serpents head. Note: There are those that believe this is speaking of the Virgin Mary that crushes the serpents head but this is not what the Bible says. In the received text the form is masculine not feminine.
So, we can say Genesis 3:15 Jesus is saying, “My uncompromising holiness will cause hostility and hatred between you Satan and my Church; and between those that have given their allegiance to you and my people who keep my commandments and have my faith; I will defeat you Satan through my death which you will cause but I will rise and ascend.”