Waiting for Christmas
The First Christmas Prophecy
Genesis 3:14-15
 
Last week we began a series leading us to Christmas that focuses on the prophecies concerning the birth of Christ.  Matthew tells us that beginning with Abraham, there were 42 generations that waited on the coming of the Lord. That is a reference to the Jewish people and the coming of Messiah.
 
But in reality, the wait began even earlier than that. 
In fact, the very first Christmas prophecy occurs in the very first book of the Bible in Genesis 3:15. 
 
Now as you remember, everything in chapter 1 and chapter 2 is good. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the creation. Chapter 1 gives us the six days of creation, and chapter 2 gives us detail about the creation that God did on the sixth day, creating man and the animals. And when it’s all said and done, it is good.
 
But in chapter 3, everything goes bad.  And all human beings who will ever walk on this earth are affected by what happened in the third chapter of Genesis. It is the explanation of why things in this world are the way they are--why there is so much evil; why there is so much sin; why there is so much corruption; why there is disease, deformity, and death; why there is conflict, hatred, war; and why there are disasters of all kinds that fall upon man. It all comes from this third chapter.
 
And without going into all the detail, suffice it to say that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world free from sin, until they fell to the temptation of Satan.  And with one seemingly simple act, eating a piece of fruit, they called into question the integrity of God, the righteousness of God, the goodness of God, the wisdom of God and became doubters of God. They fell and with them the entire race fell.
 
Satan, who led that temptation, had by this time, been cast from heaven.  And now, found guilty of rebellion in heaven and cast out, Satan shows up on earth.  And we find him here in Genesis 3 as the agent that brings about the temptation that causes the fall of the entire human race.
 
So what we have in chapter 3 is critical if we will understand the rest of the Bible.  Because here we find the explanation of why the world is the way it is. Everything that is bad and evil and corrupt and devastating and deadly is because of what happened in that third chapter.
 
And from this chapter on, the rest of the Bible is the record of God’s grace and mercy and loving kindness to sinners. The rest of the Bible is full of God’s appeals to sinners to repent of their sin and to come to Him as the One who forgives, is merciful, gracious, loving, and will grant forgiveness. From here on the story is about God’s love and mercy and grace, and how few people receive it, and how the world rejects it.
 
And this morning I want us to focus on God’s reaction to all this. 
 
Genesis 3:14-19
 
Now, there were some immediate, physical  consequences of sin for Adam and Eve as we see in verses 17-19.
 
Genesis 3:17-19
 
All of that started immediately.  And by the way, that is consistent with what God had told Adam and Eve.  If you disobey me, you will surely die. A literal interpretation is “Dying, you will die”.  The dying process began to take its toll.  Pain entered the human realm.  Difficulties and frustrations and aggravation all find their starting point here.
 
And by the end of the day, Adam had sweat on his brow and there was friction in his home between him and his wife. Some of the consequences were immediate. And that was even true with Satan.   
 
verse 14
 
First of all, his legs disappeared and his mouth was full of dirt.
 
But there were also some future, supernatural consequences as well. 
 
Verse 15
 
So what we wind up with in this passage is a two-part message.  The first part is about the curse, and the second part is about the promise. 
 
So let’s look, first of all, at
 
1. The Curse
 
Verse 14
 
Now as far as I know, nobody has ever met a talking snake. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even give them a chance to say anything!  Snakes don’t talk.
 
So what happened is, Satan, who is a spiritual being, embodied himself in a snake and talked through that snake.  That means, as best we can know, the snake, in and of itself, had nothing to do with it.  He was just the vehicle through which Satan makes his approach to Eve. 
 
And yet, the snake winds up being cursed because of the incident.  And that is where we see the physical consequences of the curse.  Whatever a snake is now is not what they were then.  Maybe they were like that little Geico gecko that stands up all cute and green.  I don’t know.
 
But after the curse, whatever was attractive about the snake was changed. The curse comes on the serpent. And I want you to understand why God is doing this.
 
Notice that phrase, ““Cursed are you more than all cattle, more than every beast of the field.” Let me just take “more than” and look at it from the Hebrew.
 
In the Hebrew it is not a comparative, it’s a selective. In other words, God was saying, “Of all the cattle and of all the beasts, only you are cursed.”
He’s not saying, “They are all cursed and you more than any of them”, but rather, “”Of all the cattle and all the beasts, only you are cursed.”
 
Now cattle refers to domestic animals. The beasts refer to wild animals. So of all the created animals, wild and domesticated, only you are cursed.
 
Now to be sure, all animals suffered the effects of the fall, but only the serpent was specifically cursed. 
 
Now that poses some interesting discussion.  Why was it cursed?  Whatever it was,  it wasn’t responsible for what happened. It’s a non-rational creature, doesn’t have a soul, doesn’t have a will, can’t reason. So what is the point of punishing an irrational animal? Why would you curse the serpent? Why would you make the serpent crawl and eat dust?
 
Because the serpent then becomes a permanent symbol and a constant reminder of the degradation of Satan. Every time you see a snake, be reminded of the degradation of Satan. Be reminded that the one who was once the anointed cherub, the one who once was the choir director of heaven, the one who was Lucifer’s son of the morning has been so debased and so degraded that he is slithering on the ground and eating dirt, symbolically.
 
Every snake that slithers on the ground is a sign of the humiliation of Satan and the divine judgment on Satan for tempting Adam and Eve.
 
Leviticus 11:42 says, “Whatever crawls on its belly, you shall not eat for they are detestable.” Snakes were an abomination. Snakes were unclean animals. Snakes, of all animals are the most reviled, the most hated, the most scorned.
 
Snakes don’t feel the curse. They just illustrate it.
By the way, licking dust was an Old Testament expression for total defeat. Every slithering dust-eating snake is a symbol of the crushing curse of God and the judgment that is come on Satan.
 
So snakes symbolize the devil degraded and defeated. They are constant reminders to human society that Satan has been declared a defeated enemy.
 
And this isn’t going to change because you will notice at the end of verse 14, it will go on “all the days of your life.” This curse will never be removed.  As long as there are snakes, they will be doomed to be visible symbols of the vanquished king of darkness. They will not sprout legs in an evolutionary process, begin walking, climb trees, go out on the branch, develop feathers, become birds.
 
That’s what they teach at the learned universities around the country, but that’s not true. As long as there are snakes, they will be doomed to be the visible symbols of the vanquished king of darkness, personal illustrations of the defeat of Satan.
 
But what about the supernatural effects of the curse? 
 
Let’s move from the natural serpent to the supernatural spirit behind the serpent and the curse of verse 15.
 
This is really where I want us to zero in and come all the way awake. 
 
In verse 15, God moves from the animal to the one who came into the animal and spoke through the animal, Satan himself.
 
verse 15
 
What we find here is the first presentation of the gospel.  In fact, that verse is the only gospel that the ancient world had for years and years.  They didn’t have anything else. They didn’t have anything but Genesis 3:15.
 
Notice what God says. 
 
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.”
 
What is He saying to Satan? Satan’s thought was this, “I’ve turned Adam and Eve, the human race, against God.” And God says, “I’m going to turn the human race against You.” That’s what it’s saying.
 
“Enmity” carries the idea of warfare.  It is not a word applicable to animals. Enmity is a word that means deep animosity between morally responsible beings. Scripture uses it of persons. It is people who make war with one another.  Animals kill to survive.  People start wars because of greed and selfishness.
 
Now what we would expect is for God to say, “Because of this you and I will be at war”.  But that’s not what He says. 
 
Instead, He says, “There will be warfare between the woman and you.”
 
Now that means a couple of things:
 
First of all, God says to Satan, “If you think you have won the entire human race, you are wrong. There will come enmity from humanity toward you. You do not rule. You will not exercise complete control. You will not have the whole human race.”
 
God denies Satan at the very moment when he assumed he had triumphed. God denies him what he thought he had gained. God will enable man in his sinful condition, in his fallen condition, to be so totally transformed that he will hate the serpent and love God. This will be reversed.
 
Adam and Eve chose to love Satan and hate God. Chose to doubt God and believe Satan. But that’s not permanent for the whole human race. Again, God will do something that will enable humanity to be so transformed as to hate the serpent, hate Satan, and love God.
 
Here we find the very first hint in Scripture of salvation or regeneration.  And we know it’s true because it applies to us!  Do we not love God and hate Satan?
 
I know the world loves Satan and hates God. But God has redeemed out of the human race, starting from that very incident in the garden through all of human history until the end of the age, a humanity that has been so transformed that they hate Satan and love God. 
 
That’s a part of the enmity that has been placed between Satan and the woman and her seed.
 
Now for this to happen, there has to be a radical transformation of the human heart that turns man back to God.  It is so profound that the New Testament speaks of it as the new birth. It is so profound that the prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, speak of it as having a new heart.
 
And for that to happen, the old Adam has to die and a new Adam has to be born. The old Eve has to die and a new Eve has to be born.  There must be a brand new race of people who come on the scene who hate Satan and love God instead of loving Satan and hating God. And God is saying that change will come.
 
And when you think about it, the gospel actually makes its initial entrance into human history through a curse.  But there’s more to it than that.  Let’s move from the curse, to
 
2. The Promise
 
God continues by saying, “Not only will I put enmity between you and the woman, but also between your seed and her Seed.”
 
And there we find the first Christmas prophecy because here is the promise of a Savior.  This warfare will be between the offspring of Satan and One Who is born of a woman and ultimately that warfare will result in a bruising injury to the seed of woman and a destructive injury to Satan himself.
 
Let’s take that apart a little bit.
First of all, Eve and humanity will be at enmity with Satan, but there’s something else here. 
 
Notice the end of verse 15.  There will be enmity between your seed and her Seed and He. . .”
 
God has some one specific in mind.  He is referring to an individual, and thus uses the singular pronoun-“he.”
 
The enmity will be Eve’s, and she will hate Satan and love God. The enmity will come through the humanity that proceeds from Adam and Eve; there will be a redeemed humanity who will be hostile toward Satan. But there will be one Man in Whom this enmity is especially focused. 
 
By the way, this is the only place in the Bible where it talks about a seed of a woman. It talks a lot about seed of men, because seed is in the man; it’s not in the woman. But there was One born without a human father, and the seed was in the woman. And that is the virgin-born Christ, the Son of God.
 
He is the only human who was not produced by the seed of a man. The only time a woman had the seed of her own. He is virgin-born. Clearly that is the testimony of the gospel of Matthew. Clearly that is the testimony of Galatians 4:4, “born of a woman,” “born of a woman.” Isaiah 7:14, born of a virgin.  And it is the testimony of Genesis 3:15 as well. 
 
And I’ll tell you what I think:  I think Satan understood this prophecy. I think Satan has always been able to interpret this prophecy; and that is why Satan has been so fully engaged.
We see it on virtually every page of Old Testament history as he tries to destroy the line of the Messiah.
Again and again you will find Satan seeking to destroy, not just the Messianic line, but all of Judaism.  That’s why there have been so many efforts at Jewish genocide, and they continue even now. That’s why Satan endeavored to kill all the male children at the time of the birth of Christ that were two years and under, in order to slaughter the Messiah.
 
Satan has always done everything he could to prevent the birth of the seed of the woman, and if not prevent the birth of the seed of the woman, snuff the life of that seed out before that One can crush his head.  His existence depends upon it!
 
And yet look what God says will happen here in verse 15. 
 
He will deal a crushing blow--that’s the actual word--literally to crush the head of Satan like you would crush a pumpkin. The heel of the seed of the woman will be bruised, that’s an attack from the rear, with less than permanent damage. A bruise on the heel is a minor thing.
 
Satan was engaged in bruising the Son of God. Isaiah says He was bruised for our iniquities.  Go to the cross by way of Luke 22:52-53 and you hear Jesus confessing that “this is the hour of the power of darkness.”
 
No doubt about it, Satan bruised Him at the cross, but only minor bruises that would heal. You may say, “But preacher, Jesus died on the cross! 
Not for long because up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph o’er His foes”.  Just bruises! 
 
The cross was a blow on His heel, just a minor bruise that allowed for the redemption of all these sinners who would love God and hate Satan, all these sinners who would be torn from the grasp of Satan.
 
But the One whose heel was being bruised would, at the same time, crush the head of Satan. That’s an attack from the front, dealing a deadly, crushing blow to the head.
 
How did Jesus defeat Satan at the cross? By providing the atonement that paid in full for the sins of all the people whom God would save. By satisfying the justice of God, by paying the full debt to God, by conquering death, by opening heaven--all the marvelous cross work of Christ is the crushing blow on the head of Satan.
 
Listen:  You don’t have to get very far into the Bible at all to encounter the cross!  Right here in Genesis 3, Christ has already made His appearance as the resurrected Savior who will crush the head of Satan and give salvation to all those who love Him. 
 
Let me show you one final thing to picture the grace and readiness to forgive that God has. 
 
Did you notice that verses 14 and 15 come before verses 16-19?
 
Well, duh!
 
I’m not talking numerically but chronologically.
 
Let me show you what I mean: 
 
The curse on the woman and the man don’t appear until verses 16-19.  There is where we find the pain in childbirth, the sweat on the brow, the thorns and thistles and all the relationship problems that are involved there. 
 
But before God even lays out the price that men are going to pay and the price that women are going to pay, before God even pronounces judgment on them, hope and grace and mercy and salvation and good news are already in place. 
 
Before God ever banishes Adam and Eve from Paradise and forbids them to ever come back, before punishment is placed on their backs, hope is placed in their hearts.
 
God is by nature a gracious, merciful, compassionate, forgiving God, and He plants hope in the midst of the curse. It’s like Romans 5:20 tells us, “Where sin abounded” What?...“grace abounds even more.”
 
A little 6 year-old girl named Jill was “helping” her dad out in the front yard one day.  As they worked, she was chattering away about her Sunday school lesson on Adam and Eve. He thought he’d test her. “Did you know Adam and Eve sinned?” “Yep.” “What did God do to them because of that?” Her answer was immediate and matter-of-fact, without even looking up she said: “He made them have kids.”
 
The truth of the matter is Adam and Eve sinned, and what God did was have a Kid Himself!
 
And that Child, Jesus Christ, would one day leave His rightful place in heaven, make His way to the earth and die as a substitute for your sins and mine. 
 
And that’s what Christmas is all about!  It is God’s answer to a promise made 1,000’s of years before about a Savior who will conquer Satan and therefore conquer sin.
 
Even though in the conquering He will be bruised, He will crush that deadly enemy. What an amazing promise we find in the first Christmas prophecy because it is here that the gospel begins.
 
Let’s pray.