The Mini-Gospel in the Garden of Eden
The Mini-Gospel in the Garden of Eden.
(Yahweh addressing the Serpent in the Garden) “I will place an ongoing hostility between you and this woman, and between your descendants and her Seed; he shall crush your head under foot, and you shall only bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15).
Plan A. Before we discuss Creator God’s curse after the Rebellion, let us first rejoice that God’s Plan A was perfect… Out of nothing, He created a spectacular, immeasurable universe that included our tiny planet Earth. And on this planet, which is one out of several hundred billion no doubt, Creator God planted a flourishing Paradise, including a man and woman specially created in His image and likeness. So let’s not forget that before Original Sin there was an Original Blessing. Before the Fall there was Shalom. The shadows of sin should not blind us to the glories of creation. Yes, mankind chose to be a miserable sinner, but not before Creator God chose to be a supreme blesser. Sin was not the first fact of creation, and so should not dominate our thinking about God’s world.
“So the great dragon was thrown down from heaven once and for all. He was the serpent, the ancient snake called the devil, the Adversary Satan. The dragon became enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the remnant of her offspring who follow the commands of God and have the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 12:9, 17).
Plan B. But then the crafty Snake was allowed to slither into Paradise and approach the gullible man and woman who should have known better. It’s clear that Adam and Eve were innocent souls, but were not perfect. So this ancient Serpent, known later as the fallen angel Satan, baited the man and woman into distrusting their Creator and rebelling against Him. God didn’t want this to happen, but He allowed it to happen out of His desire to watch the man and woman triumphantly choose wisely with their free will. Soon after the Great Rebellion, God saw that it was time for Plan B. Yes, He thought, I will respond to this spiritual tragedy with a well-earned curse that will nonetheless contain a certain hope. Inside my drastic punishment, thinks the merciful Lord, will be an eventual way of escape. And thus did Creator God preach the first gospel sermon in one sentence while addressing the Snake.
Genesis 3:15 has been called “the first promise of a Redeemer,” “the first gospel pronouncement,” “the first glimmer of salvation,” and “the first hint of the Messiah.” But the earliest Christian believers were not in fact the first to think of this passage as prophetic. Early rabbinic tradition has long maintained that this passage in Torah was in fact a messianic prophecy. One ancient rabbi imagined the scene in Genesis 3:15 this way… “At his request, God showed Satan the Messiah; and when Satan saw Him, he trembled, fell on his face, and cried out, ‘Truly this is the Messiah, who will crush me!”
“Ongoing hostility…” A logical consequence of their Rebellion against God’s loving authority is a continual battle between good and evil, a fixed battle between humanity and the forces of Satan, fierce warfare between those who follow the Seed of the woman and those who remain the spiritual followers of the Evil One. The spiritual fighting in creation even goes all the way into each human being, in which there is natural division between one’s blessed conscience versus the tainted will. Mysteriously, another result of the Rebellion is that man and woman became God’s enemy even while He somehow remained their friend as well. And yet, “Stay pure and innocent when it comes to evil. And the God of Peace will swiftly pound Satan to a pulp under your feet!” (Romans 16:19-20).
“Her Seed…” There is a subtle suggestion here of the virgin birth, of a miraculous conception of this prophesied Messiah that was hinted at. After all, the seed in any conception is provided by the male partner, not the female. But Yahweh specifically said, “her Seed.” So perhaps this phrase implies that eventually a woman will produce a special descendant which came about without a man’s contribution to the conception? Does this simple phrase point to Mother Mary who would provide by herself what was needed to produce the Messiah? Maybe it’s not such a stretch to call this passage the first announcement of the virgin birth, the miraculous conception of Jesus Messiah in which the seed was the woman’s, not the man’s, the conception being the result of her being “overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.”
“Crush the head of the Serpent…” This prophecy declares that the Messiah will finally deliver a mortal blow to the Evil One, that the Messiah will strike a devastating wound onto Satan that will unquestionably result in his final demise. The Messiah will stomp underfoot the head of the Snake, remove his death-dealing power, and deliver him to eternal defeat. “The reason the Son of God was revealed was to undo and destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8). This crushing blow to the Serpent convincingly occurred when the Messiah defeated death itself through the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension into glory. There is an Orthodox hymn in which Death is personified, and is at first puzzled by what it is experiencing during Christ’s crucifixion. The confusion turns to panic as Death realizes its own efforts to kill the Christ has resulted in its own destruction. “Christ’s torment, suffering and death is actually crucifying death. Christ’s own death turns out to be the annihilation of death.”
“You shall bruise His heel.” Once the devil knew he was defeated in the face-off on the Mount of Temptation, he left Jesus, knowing he was going to return to Him “at an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13). This wasn’t the last He’d see of the devil. No doubt temptations came and went daily throughout the public ministry of Jesus. The Snake was undoubtedly stubborn as he continued to nip at the heels of the Messiah all through His ministry on earth, seeking to disrupt or hinder all the righteous good that Jesus was intent on doing. The occasional snake bites no doubt caused some suffering for Jesus, but they were not fatal. Certainly the devil made an appearance during the Passion, with Judas, in Gethsemane, in front of His accusers, and on the Cross. The devil evidently fooled himself into thinking that he could still have an upper hand against the Messiah, not realizing that this was the beginning of the end for him. For a bruised heel will not defeat the Son of God in His mission to heal the universe of its brokenness, to deliver each person from slavery to sin in the Snake’s prison of rebellion and death. “By embracing death, Jesus sets free those who live their entire lives in slavery to the tormenting dread of death.” (Hebrews 3:15).
The Final Crushing of the Head of the Snake. “Then I saw a mighty angel descending from the heavenly realm, holding a heavy chain and a key – the key of the deep. The angel seized the dragon, that ancient serpent known as the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. The mighty angel threw him into the pit, locked it, and sealed it so that he could no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were over… After the thousand years are over, Satan will be let loose from his prison and will go out and deceive the nations… Then the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the same place with the wild beast and false prophet – the Lake of Fire and Sulphur – where they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:1-3, 7, 10).