Through craft and subtly, Satan led Adam and Eve to their physical and spiritual death. In the form of a serpent that he inhabited in literal or literary form, the enemy spoke these words to them along these lines: “Is it true that God has restricted you from the delights of this place? This is not like one who is truly good and kind. There must be some mistake.”1 While it is explicit that Satan lied to both the man and woman created by God (“you shall not die” – Gen 3:4), it is within the realm of deception that this enemy is capable of seducing you to lie to yourself and others. Leading yourself and others to unwanted outcomes or horrific consequences.
Sin & Suffering
Notice in Genesis 3 that God did not curse Adam and Eve. He cursed Satan and the ground that they both walked upon. The consequences for their sin were physical and spiritual death which includes separation from God their maker. Their eyes were opened and their existence fundamentally changed, but they were both corrupted. They were the first of billions of people who would experience death through sin and suffering because of the betrayal and disobedience that entered into God’s creation. The Lord YHWH permitted the damage Satan has caused yet provided a way and certainty of recovery to demonstrate the all-powerful sovereignty and dominion of God Most High.
Within the proclamation of judgment and curses, Genesis gives us the very first look at how God provided a way of recovery for mankind and His creation. The promised messiah first appears in Genesis 3:15 to reveal the supreme goodness, mercy, and love of God. Even as He was betrayed by people He formed to walk with Him and abide with Him, He chose to provide us a way back to Him.
Facts & Observations
• Genesis 3:15 is a messianic prophecy where the entire biblical narrative of redemption begins from there. A prophecy about the rescue from the consequences of sin.2
• The seed of the woman is mankind’s only hope.3
• The singular form of “he” in the verse, is a reference to an individual who represents the seed (Gen 3:15 KJV).4 This is a literal historical reference to the offspring (ESV) of a woman.
• Jesus crushes the head of the serpent, while the servant bruises His heel. God, in His judgment, mercy, and wisdom bestowed upon His creation, gave a pronouncement concerning the coming messiah through the seed of the woman.5
• The Lord God Himself brings enmity between the seed of Satan and the woman and her seed (or offspring).6
• The descendants of Adam and Eve, throughout biblical history, are opposed to the serpent (Satan) through the seed of the woman.
• Jesus, the seed of the woman and the second Adam overcomes sin and death to defeat Satan.7
Key Messianic Prophecies in the Old Testament
| REFERENCE | PROPHECY | VERSE TEXT (ESV) |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 3:15 | Messiah to reconcile men to God; fully human, born of woman, He will utterly defeat Satan. | "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” |
| Gen 22:18 | He will be of the family of Abraham. | "and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” |
| Gen 49:10 | He will be of the kingly tribe of Judah. | "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." |
| Deut. 18:15 | He will be a prophet who, like Moses, revealed the Word of God. | “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—" |
| Ps. 2:1-2 | He will be tried by Gentile rulers and condemned by His own Jewish people. | Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying," |
| Ps. 16:10 | Through resurrection, by the Father, Jesus' body will not see corruption. | "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption." |
| Ps. 22:1 | He will experience the rejection of the Father at His death. | "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? |
| Ps. 22:6-7 | He will be mocked at His crucifixion. | "But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;" |
| Ps. 22:22 | Christ will glorify God in His church after His resurrection. | "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:" |
| Ps. 40:6-8 | Christ delight in all the Father's will. | "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” |
| Ps. 69:7-12 | Christ would be rejected by men. | "For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me." |
| Ps. 69:21 | Christ would drink gall at His crucifixion. | "They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." |
| Ps. 89:4 | Christ will be of the eternal seed of David. | ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” |
| Ps. 89:26-28 | Christ will be God's eternal son, His unique firstborn. | "He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him." |
| Ps. 110:1 | He will ascend to the right hand of the Father and be coronated. | "The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” |
| Ps. 110:4 | His priesthood will be eternal, after the manner of Melchizedek. | "The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” |
| Ps. 132.11 | He will be of the lineage of David. | "The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne." |
| Isa. 7:14 | Christ will have a virgin birth; He will be called Immanuel. | "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." |
| Isa. 7:15-16 | He will grow up in a land dominated by a foreign power. | "He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted." |
| Isa. 9:1-2 | He will minister in Galilee. | "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone." |
| Isa. 9:7 | He will be of the line of David, but His kingship will be eternal and He will be the Son of God. | "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." |
| Isa. 11:2 | He will be anointed with The Holy Spirit | "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." |
| Isa. 11:4 | He will minister perfect justice regarding the poor and he meek. | "but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked." |
| Isa. 24:16 | Christ will offer salvation to the entire world. | "From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” |
| Isa. 40:3 | He will have a forerunner. | "A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." |
| Isa. 42:1 | Christ will be the great anointed Servant of Yahweh. | "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations." |
| Isa. 42:2 | His ministry will be gentle. | "He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;" |
| Isa. 42:6 | Christ will be the fulfillment of God's covenant. | “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations," |
| Isa. 49:6 | Christ will be a light to the Gentile. | "he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” |
| Isa. 52:14 | He would be disfigured by the abuses He suffered prior to crucifixion. | "As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—" |
| Isa. 53:4 | Christ will bear all our diseases. | "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." |
| Isa. 53:5 | He will provide atonement for sin. | "But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." |
| Isa. 53:9 | He will be buried in a rich man's tomb. | "And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." |
| Isa. 53:10 | The Father will prolong Christ's days by resurrecting Him from the dead. | "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." |
| Dan. 9:24 | His public ministr to begin in A.D. 26, which would be 483 years after the decree to Ezra to rebuild Jerusalem; 3 1/2 years later (in the middle of the seven year "week") the Messiah would be crucified while atoning for sin as the "Most Holy" One. | “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place." |
| Mic. 5:2 | Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. | "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." |
| Zech. 9:9 | He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey's colt. | "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." |
| Zech. 11:12 | Christ would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. | "Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver." |
| Zech. 12:10 | He would be pierced for our transgressions | “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." |
Citations
1. John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ge 3:1.
2. William Varner, The Seed and Schaeffer, What Happened in the Garden, (Grand Rapids, Kregel Academic, 2016), 155.
3. Ibid. 159.
4. Ibid. 159.
5. Ibid. 163.
6. Ibid. 155.
7. Ibid. 167.
8. Gleason Archer, Jr., A Survey of the Old Testament Introduction, (Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2007), 326.
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