This Article: (24 Pages)
- 1. Promised Jewels
- 2. The promise to Eve regarding the... Seed & the Serpent
- 3. Promise to Noah
- 4. Promises to Abraham
- 5. Promise to Hagar
- 6. Promise to Isaac
- 7. Promises to Jacob
- 8. Conditional promises to Israel... through Moses
- 9. A Promise to Moses Personally
- 10. National Promises through Moses... confirmed
- 11. Promise to Phinehas
- 12. Promise to Caleb
- 13. Promises to King David (~960BC)
- 14. Promise to Daniel (Ruler in... Babylon 600-540BC)
- 15. Promise to Jeremiah (prophet in... Jerusalem 630-580BC)
- 16. Promise to Ezekiel (prophet in... exile 590-560BC)
- 17. Promise to the Sons of Rechab
- 18. Modern Jewish understanding of... the promises
- 19. The New Testament Promises
- 20. The Promise to Mary
- 21. Promises to the Apostles
- 22. The promises to the... Congregations
- 23. The concrete nature of the promises
- 24. How we can inherit
2) The promise to Eve regarding the Seed & the Serpent
I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it (the seed of the woman) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15
The seed, or descendant, of Eve would crush the head of the serpent (killing it), yet in that process the serpent’s seed would crush the heel of the descendant of the woman. In Genesis Chapter 3, all of the other promises happened immediately: the serpent became the one we know today, a snake, Eve bore Seth in sorrow at the death of Abel and Adam worked hard farming in exile from Eden. If this statement by God had been a simple case of serpents biting people and people smashing their heads, why is the language so particular? We are told that Eve understands the significance of the seed. Eve’s first son is called Cain and she says “I have acquired a man of Yahweh”. She thought of Cain as her ‘seed’. Yet Cain fails. Again, at the birth of Seth, Eve tells us in no uncertain terms that she understands the importance of this 'seed'.
she bare a son, and called his name Seth: “For God”, said she, “has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew”. Gen 4:25
We note that it is Eve who names the seed, not Adam. She believed that from Seth was to come the descendant who would crush the “seed of the serpent”. Who are the seed of the serpent? What did the serpent say? The serpent said Yahweh had lied. The seed of the serpent are those who are still saying 'God doesn't mean what he says'. Cain, though the descendant of Eve, was not 'the seed', as he was disobedient.
Why was Eve so concerned about this seed? The answer is that the role of the seed was illustrated to them. Right after this promise an animal is killed to provide a covering of animal hide. The lamb slain at the foundation of the world as we are told later in Revelation 13:8.
Eve and Adam died not having seen 'the seed' crush the head of the seed of the serpent. It was a promise.
The first promise of Yahweh is to the Serpent delivered in the presence of Adam and Eve. Eve sees this as a personal promise to her, for it is about the victory of her seed, overcoming where she failed. We know this, as Eve called Seth ‘the seed’. Luke (3:38) says Jesus is the son of Seth. So the first promise points to Jesus, who in his death killed the 'serpent's seed' (those who lie), by removing the power to kill with eternal death, though at that time the seed of the serpent wounded Jesus.
Show All
