The Promised One

“The Seed of the Savior”
Genesis 3:1-24

Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor

   When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than destroy them, which would have been within His purview of justice, God announced His plan to redeem them from their sins. (Protoevangelum)

• In Genesis 3:6, we see the failure of the covenant of works, as Adam and Eve were deceived into disobeying God, and their fellowship with Him was broken.
• In Genesis 3:15, we see the covenant of grace, where God promised to send a Savior who would give His life to redeem them from their sins.

   Genesis 3:15 also identifies the point where humanity was divided between two seeds: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Human history is the story of cosmic and earthly battle between those two seeds.

   In Genesis 3:1-24, we see four events:

• The Temptation – Satan, who was Lucifer, the angel God cast out of heaven because of his rebellion, tempted Eve to doubt God’s Word, and Satan used Eve to lure Adam to do the same.
• The Fall – Both Adam and Eve sinned against God. God created them to glorify God and to praise Him forever, but they chose to glorify themselves, and so they fell short of God’s glory.
• The Confrontation – Rather than cry out unto God for His forgiveness, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, and having lost their innocence, they tried to cover their nakedness with leaves.
• The Curse – While Adam and Eve, who represent all mankind, would suffer some earthly consequences for their sins, God cursed Satan for having deceived them; i.e., rather than destroying Adam and Eve, which was within His rights, God laid out His plan to redeem them and restore them to Him.

   Untill we fully understand the historical, prophetical truth of Genesis 3:15, we will never fully understand the main reason for the generational animosity among mankind that can never be settled. Neither will we ever fully comprehend the amazing grace of God in sending His Son as the Prince of Peace; to restore man’s broken fellowship with God, and to bind mankind together in His love.

1. Satan’s Eternal Curse – Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

   In Genesis 3:15, God divided humanity into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God, and the flow of human history reflects that division.

• The New Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke include the two genealogies of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Matthew starts with Abraham and traces Jesus’ lineage through David’s son, Solomon.
• Matthew 1:17 – “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.”
• Luke starts with Jesus, and works backward to Adam, tracing Jesus’ lineage through David’s son, Nathan.
• Luke 3:37-38 “The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

Satan’s historical seed-line: Cain Lamech The Pharaohs The Canaanites The Philistines Goliath The Pagan Kings The Wicked Kings of Israel The Roman rulers King Herod The Jewish Pharisees Judas Those who cried out for Jesus to be crucified Those who oppose the Church and Church leaders. Those who have no desire for righteousness. Those who have no genuine love for others. Those who have no desire to fellowship with God’s people. Those whose minds are upon worldly things to the extent they have no desire to learn about God. Those who try to make this world their home and have no longing for heaven.

2. Satan’s Initial Defeat – Genesis 3:15 – “Thou shalt bruise His heel!”

   God said the seed of Satan would “bruise” the heel of the Seed of Eve, indicating that during the course of human history, Satan would continue his assault on God’s plan of redemption. But while Satan would achieve a brief, temporal victory along the way, his “bruises” on the Lord Jesus would never be enough to defeat God’s plan. Eventually, the Seed of Eve, i.e., Jesus, would crush Satan’s head, and his earthly dominion would be no more.

• Genesis 1-6, Satan tried to destroy the whole human race, but God intervened and saved Noah and his family.
• Genesis 7ff, Satan tried to destroy the nation of Israel, but God intervened through Abraham.
• Esther – Satan tried to destroy the Israelites by deceiving King Ahasuerus to issue a decree that all Jews were to be killed on a certain day. However, Esther risked her life by informing the king that he had been deceived by one of his own wicked servants, and God used her efforts to save the nation of Israel from annihilation.
• Satan hounded Moses so much that he struck the rock for water rather than speaking to it as God had commanded. While his anger kept him out of the Promised Land, it did not keep him out of heaven.
• Satan caught King David in a weak moment and led him to commit adultery and then murder to cover up the adultery. While David lived with embarassment and shame, his sins did not eliminate him from being in the seedline of the Messiah.
• The people of Israel were led astray by wicked kings, and they killed the prophets that God sent to bring them to repentance, but that did not eliminate them from serving as the channel through which the Savior would come.
• Between the Old and New Testaments, it seemed as though God had abandoned His people, but God was just enhancing their longing for the promised Messiah.
• King Herod issued an edict that all baby boys born near Bethlehem under the age of two were to be killed. But God had already told Joseph to take Jesus to Egypt.
• Satan tried to destroy Jesus during His 40 days and nights in the wilderness, but he failed.
• Satan bruised Jesus when the Roman soldiers put the spikes through His heel and nailed Him to the cross, but three days later, He rose victorious over sin, death, and the grave.

3. The Savior’s Eternal Victory – Genesis 3:15 – “It (the seed of Eve) shall bruise thy head, and thou (the seed of Satan) shall bruise His (the seed of Eve’s) heel.”

• What Satan did to bruise, pierce, wound, or bite the Seed of the Woman was limited to the human events he carried out on this earth; they were all temporal.
• What the Seed of the Woman did to crush Satan’s head was done in heaven – which means it is eternal!
• First, Satan was crushed at the Lord’s Birth:
  • 1 John 3:8 – “The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
• Second, Satan was crushed at the cross:
  • John 12:31- “Now the prince of this world will be driven out!”
  • John 19:30 – “When Jesus received the vinegar, He said, It is”
  • The debt of sin that every person owed to God the Father was paid. The atonement for the sins of all who would believe in Him had been made. Over 300 prophecies from Genesis to Malachi had been fulfilled, including the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.
• Third, Satan was crushed at the Lord’s resurrection.
  • When Christ rose from the dead on the third day, He conquered the very thing Satan had brought into the world –
  • 1 Corinthians 15:22 – “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive!”
• Fourth, Satan will be crushed at the Lord’s second coming!
  • In Revelation 20:1-4, the Apostle John said he saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season!”
  • Revelation 20:10, at the end of the millennium, John said Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, along with those who followed him: “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 forever and ever!”