[The following post is free for all readers and subscribers. If you’d like to support the work that goes into this site, and to have total access to all the posts in this newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber.]
The road to the cross began in Eden. There, in a garden with the sounds of judgment still ringing in the air, the Lord God made a promise. The serpent was the recipient of those words, but God’s image bearers would be the beneficiaries.
God told the vile and manipulative creature, “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. 3:15).
From the giving of that promise, the rest of the biblical storyline showed God’s faithfulness to keep those words. A line of descent would unfold to the Serpent-Crusher, the Curse-Reverser, the Messiah. The Lord Jesus was the promised seed of the woman, and Genesis 3:15 was the fountainhead of messianic prophecy which prepared his way.
A Son to be Born
From Genesis and Numbers
What can we notice about the promised deliverer when we pay attention to the words of Genesis 3:15? The future victor would be human because the “offspring” is from Eve, and this human would be a son because of the pronouns. He would bruise, and he would be bruised.
Noah’s father Lamech had hoped that his son would be this promised victor. Lamech named his son Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands” (Gen. 5:29). While Noah was not the promised son from Eve, Lamech’s words confirmed the awareness and embrace of the hope reported in Genesis 3:15. Someone was coming, and victory would follow.
In Genesis 3:15, the promised son would defeat the serpent, and in Genesis 5:29, this victory would have ramifications in a world marked by sin and toil and death. He would come to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
Abraham learned that his offspring would “possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:17–18). Blessing upon the nations through Abraham’s offspring is reminiscent of Genesis 12:3. The seed of Abraham would not just be a string of descendants (plural). The seed would ultimately be a son (singular), and the apostle Paul said that this offspring is Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:16).
By the end of Genesis, we learn that the coming son would be from Judah’s tribe. He would possess the ruler’s staff, and he would receive obedience from the peoples (Gen. 49:10). According to Numbers 24:17–19, the king would rise from Israel and defeat his enemies. In fact, focusing on Balaam’s particular phrasing, the king would “crush the forehead of Moab.” Striking the head reminds us of Genesis 3:15. A thread was forming across the biblical storyline, and the subject of this thread was the serpent-crusher and curse-reverser.
From 2 Samuel and Psalms
During the reign of David (approximately 1010-970 BC), Israel’s king received a covenant promise. He learned in 2 Samuel 7 that the line of David would lead to a king whose reign would never end. David would have a son, and this Son of David would be upon the throne forever.
God told David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam. 7:12–13).
A ruler was coming—a son. And this son was not only from Judah’s tribe, he would be from David’s line. The Psalms hold forth hope for such a figure. The Son of David would be the Son of God, and he would inherit the nations and reign with a rod of iron (Ps. 2:8–9). Since Israel’s kings were anointed, this future king was an Anointed One—the Messiah. He would be enthroned over heaven and earth and would make his enemies his footstool (Ps. 110:1).
According to the New Testament, Jesus is the Messiah promised in 2 Samuel 7 and the Psalms. Jesus was the Davidic descendant, and God made him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:30–31, 36).
From Micah and Daniel
In 1 Samuel 16, we learn that David was from Bethlehem (1 Sam. 16:4–13). It was to this village that Samuel went to anoint the king who was from Judah’s tribe. The hometown of David would feature in a prophecy centuries later during Micah’s ministry. Micah said, “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” (Micah 5:2). The future Son of David would be born in the town of David (see Matt. 2:3–6).
The Messiah’s birth would occur during a particular historical empire. According to the book of Daniel, the promised son—or stone—would come during the reign of the fourth empire, a number counting from the days of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 2:31–45). The first empire was Babylon, the second would be Persia, the third would be Greece, and the fourth would be Rome.
During the days of Caesar Augustus, the Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem (Luke 2:1–7).
A Son Who Would Strike and Be Struck
Victory Through Suffering
According to the promise in Genesis 3:15, the future son of Eve was born to achieve victory—but at a cost. God told the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The imagery corresponds to a serpent whose head will be crushed and whose mouth will strike at the crushing foot.
The verb “bruise” is used toward the serpent and toward the son. In each case the blow is deadly. We shouldn’t imagine a harmless snake. We should picture a venomous bite, like those bites which ended the lives of many Israelites in Numbers 21:4–9. When the Lord told the serpent, “You shall bruise his heel,” the action is described from the vantage point of a snake. The snake strikes from the ground at the accessible heel, and the bite is deadly.
The deliverer’s foot is involved in two ways: it is doing the striking, and at the same time it is being struck. When a foot comes down on a snake’s head, the snake has been defeated. The image of head-crushing is about conquering. But this is a victory through suffering.
The Old Rugged Cross
The seed of the woman would come in the fullness of time, born in Bethlehem and laid in a lowly manger. After Jesus grew up and began his public ministry, he taught his disciples what would happen to him in Jerusalem: “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
In the wisdom and mystery of God’s redemptive plan, the old rugged cross displayed the death of the Son of God, but this death was not his defeat. His death had been the plan all along. Through his death, he would satisfy the justice of God on our behalf, he would defeat that ancient serpent who wrought such havoc in Eden, and he would rise to everlasting bodily life. The victory on the cross is made clear by his vindication, his resurrection.
When we follow the road of messianic hope from Eden to the Place of the Skull, we see that the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 would be from Judah’s tribe (Gen 49:10) and King David’s line (2 Sam. 7:12–13). He would be born during the Roman Empire (Dan. 2:31–45) and in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He was born to die that he might then rise and reign.
The seed of the woman would be lifted up on a cross. And as the Romans raised the cross, they thereby raised his feet as well. The grim and sorrowful scene was prophetically perfect, because a raised foot is exactly what you need when you’re going to crush a serpent’s head.