the Lord may graciously help
me I return your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 3 and verse
15 Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 and I will put enmity between
thee and a woman between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise
thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel these words in Genesis chapter
15 were spoken to the serpent or to Satan who was in the serpent
or symbolized by the serpent I believe Let us look at the background
of this verse. I will put enmity between thee
and the woman. Well, how does this chapter start? This chapter starts with the
serpent speaking to Eve, the woman, who we later get known
as being called Eve. Satan or the serpent is speaking
to the woman And the woman is, as it were, warming towards him
and listening to what he is saying and taking on board his dangerous
views and his wicked designs. Satan is very subtle. So he says
some things that are true, but doesn't tell the whole truth.
and he said that you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,
if you eat of this fruit, the forbidden fruit, which was partly
true, but it was also, would not be for their good at all,
it would not be a good experience for them, it would be a disastrous
experience for them and for indeed the whole human race. We started
by reading in Revelation, And in Revelation we see there in
those few words regarding Satan being cast out of heaven and
to be with the devil and his angels in everlasting punishment. Satan had in pride, we can read
this in Isaiah's Gospel chapter 14, the pride of Satan. He wanted
to be as God. He wanted to be in this exhorted
position. and he was then therefore, in
his pride, he was cast out of heaven. And he now attacks the
pinnacle of God's creation. Nothing else in God's creation
was made in the image of man. sorry, the image of God. And
man and woman were made in the image then of God. That was the
apex, the top point, the most, as it were, the highest thing
that God made in creation, of all that he made. and Satan comes
in the form of this serpent and speaks to Eve and gets Eve to
consider taking the fruit and then offering it to her husband
who also takes the fruit and so therefore we have the events
leading up to the sad fall in the garden of Eden. So our text
says and I will put enmity between thee and the woman Now, this
I said is, if you look in verse 14, it's very clear who is being
spoken to. In verse 14 it says, and the
Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this thou
art cursed, and so on. And it follows on into verse
15, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. In other
words, I will put enmity between Satan and the woman. And between thy seed, Satan's
seed, and her seed, the seed of the woman, it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. You might think, well,
it doesn't sound much of a gospel promise. It seems very veiled. It seems very strange. but let
us look at what is being said here and I will put enmity between
thee Satan and the woman at the beginning of this chapter
we have a solemn unity between Satan in the form of the serpent
and Eve we have a unity a unity which leads Eve and then Adam
into their disastrous fall. And they fell. Remember Satan
we read fell and was cast out of heaven with the devil and
his angels to be forever in everlasting punishment. And now Satan has
gone for the crown, the apex of God's creation, man made in
God's image. And now man has fallen. Man has fallen. Now he has become
a rebel against God. A rebel against his maker. A
rebel against the one who created him for sweet communion and fellowship. He is now far off from. He is now sinned against. He
is now frightened of. Hiding from, as we read in this
chapter. But what does God say? And I
will put enmity between thee and the women. God's gracious
work, you see, is to reverse in his people, for his church,
that awful league that there is between our hearts and Satan. This is a verse you see of liberation
instead of a continued league and fellowship with Satan to
enjoy what he will enjoy throughout a never ending eternity which
will be an awful enjoyment as it were no enjoyment at all it
will be to be in the lake of fire that burns forever and ever
but God has said I will put enmity But let's look back at what God
said to the others. You see, when there was the fall,
then there was the hiding, when God was heard coming in the cool
of the day, and God calls out to Adam, where art thou? Normally
Adam didn't hide, normally he was not scared of God, but now
he's hiding. Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice and I was afraid. And God says, has thou eaten
of the tree where I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat? He's questioned by God. He's brought him to conviction.
He's questioned as to why he's done this. What is he doing to
bring him, as it were, to repentance in a sense, but this is his purpose
is to convict him of sin. And Adam, as often is so true
of us, we make excuses. We do not come clean about what
we have done. We say, well it was Eve, the
woman that thou gavest me, as she gave of the tree. Really
trying to almost put the blame back on Eve and then on God for
giving him Eve. But God then turns to Eve. and says what is this that thou
hast done? another question a question, well two questions really given
to Adam and then another question to Eve and the woman said the
serpent beguiled me and I did eat so again laying the blame
on someone else but then in verse 14 you see
we have the Lord speaking to the serpent and there is no question
asked of the serpent. God does not question the serpent. He does not say, is this true
that you have done this? No. There's no question. And
the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this thou
art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the
field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all
the days of thy life. Well, that has a practical outworking,
no doubt, in the fact that serpents or snakes do exactly get around
on their belly. They do wriggle around in that
way, and they do lick the dust. As it's said here, there was
a curse that was put on them that no doubt they didn't go
along like that. before the fall, as indeed the
whole animal kingdom changed somewhat with the whole idea
of the food chain. That obviously was not happening
before the fall, that no doubt all the animals were herbivores,
rather than eating one another at times. That's the outworking of it in
a practical sense. But what we have here is there
was a meaning of this spiritually as well. There was to be a curse
placed on Satan. And it's very interesting you
see, there was no question, there was no conviction. There was
just a sentencing, a straight sentencing of Satan. Cursed. But you see God could have equally
done that, straight cursing to Adam, to Eve, and indeed to the
entire human race. But we have verse 15 before God
has given any curse to Adam or Eve. He goes on to give those
later on in the chapter. But by verse 15, this has not
yet taken place. so before the curse was pronounced
upon Adam and Eve there was this gospel as it were verse verse
15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between
thy seed and her seed there was going to be a breaking you see
of this league of this unity this fellowship that Eve and
Satan had come into You see, in the beginning, they were talking
against God. They were together, as it were,
against God. Feeling that God had not really
done the best for them and not allowed them to eat of all the
trees of the garden, that there was a restriction and Satan was
encouraging the woman, therefore, to eat. But I will put enmity
between thee and the woman. And if we think of this spiritually
in our own hearts, we by nature are in Satan's power. Satan, the God of this world,
as it were, is in power. John Bunyan described it very
much in Holy War. The city of man's soul that was
once made for the glory of God, once made for communion with
God. Satan comes in the fall and takes
over and he becomes in heart castle. He dribbles out all his
evil dictates and all the lusts and all the pride that accompanies
Satan. That is all taking place in the
heart of Mansoul, the city of Mansoul. But you see, It's God's
eternal purpose of love and mercy to give this edict which I think
on face value doesn't seem a very promising edict as we just look
at it on its own. I will put enmity between thee
and the woman. It doesn't necessarily sound
such a good thing. But when we think of what it
means, it's talking, it's spoken to Satan. Adam and Eve no doubt
overheard this, but it was not spoken to them, it was spoken
to Satan. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman. This was God's work. This is God's work. God is going
to come and interrupt the union that Eve had as it were and her
seed with Satan and you see this is a great blessing you see we
sung of it just in the hymn that we had 776 in verse 2 long had
Satan reigned in Pyrrhus till the woman's promised seed born
of Abe by birth mysterious came to Bruce the serpent's head. So this seed of the woman, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of time, because if
you read in Galatians, Galatians chapter 4 and verse
4, we read these words, But when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law. It was the seed of the woman.
It was not the seed of the woman and the man as a normal birth
would be. But no, it was the seed of the
woman. This was the virgin birth. The Holy Ghost was going to overshadow
Mary and therefore there was going to be this holy thing in
her which was indeed the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. which
was with his deity as well, as he was on this earth as a God-man,
the man Christ Jesus. But when the fullness of the
time has come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, to buy
them back from the power of Satan, to not leave them in Satan's
grips. Just imagine if we had been left
to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and to
be by nature the children of wrath, even as others, and were
left to do that for the rest of our lives. What would be our
end? It would be eternal ruin. It
would be to be with Satan and his angels throughout a never
ending eternity in rebellion against God, in far offness from
God. But you see because of this great
mercy of God giving this promise back right in Genesis before
even the curse had been pronounced upon Adam and Eve there was this
hope that there was to be a breaking of this tremendous league. I think we have it in hymn 89,
picks up the same point in our hymn book. Hymn 89, when Adam by transgression
fell and conscious fled his maker's face, linked in clandestine league
with hell. What a mercy. if God is going
to come and put enmity where there was solemn unity. Linked
in clandestine league with hell, he ruined all his future race.
The seed of evil once brought in increased and filled the world
with sin. But lo the second Adam came,
the serpent's subtle head to break. We have here then this promise
so early in the book of Genesis, the first reference to the coming
of the Messiah. Yes, it's not a clear reference
as it were, it doesn't necessarily strike you immediately as being
such, but when we really consider what it is saying, it is a wonderful
blessing and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. You
think of that in all true conversion. What is conversion? What is it
when we come to know the things of God? Is it not that there
comes to be, as it were, a falling out with Satan? There comes to
be a rebellion against him? That we are no longer going to
listen to him? We're no longer going to follow
the desires of the flesh and of the mind? We're no longer
going to be the children of wrath even as others? No, we're going,
by God's grace, God has said that I will put enmity and I
will change, I will break this league, this solemn league that
there is. And you see this league can be
so strong. You see, the psalmist speaks of this. In Psalm 69 we
have, speaking about the Lord Jesus, in Psalm 69 verse 4, Then
I was stored that which I took not away. You
see the Lord Jesus was not responsible for us losing our innocency,
but his great work of redemption was to restore that which I,
what he, took not away. He did not take it away, but
he came to restore it. He came to bring back He could
have left us like the devil and his angels. He could have just
cursed us and he would have been perfectly justified. That in
his mercy, he had mercy upon us. And this is what we think
about this time of the year, but in the incarnation of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We read this in the second chapter
of Hebrews. This is verse 14 of the second
of Hebrews. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. So the seed of
the woman is going to crush the serpent's head, to bruise the
serpent's head, and that is referring to what Christ did at Calvary. He bruised Satan's head, he crushed
Satan's head, this one who held us bound in his captive. He had
sinned, he had fallen short of the glory of God, he had been
cast out of heaven, and therefore if we then make a league with
him, then we are liable to exactly the same treatment and exactly
the same punishment. Apart from the mercy of God.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. God is going
to break up the pact that there was between the world and Satan
and our wicked hearts. and in verse 15 it says of chapter
2 of Hebrews and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subjects of bondage for verily he took not
on him the nature of angels he didn't as it were take on an
angel's nature to stand in the place of angels so that angels
who had lost their purest state could then be brought back into
glory, no For verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. He came to
reconcile this great gulf that there was between God's holiness
and Adam and Eve's fall in rebellion against God. And you see that
rebellion just goes on. If God didn't stop it then we
just go on further and further against God and against his anointed. You see in Psalm 2 Just how it
goes on. Psalm 2 and starting to read
at verse 1. Why did the heathen rage? This
is man left to himself. This is man except there was
an edict from God saying I will make enmity. Why do the heathen
rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against his anointed. You see there's a pact, there's
an agreement, there's a unity and it's an unholy alliance of men and women as it were. the seed of, Jesus said to some
of those in his day, ye are of your father the devil, he said
to some of the Pharisees I think it was but you see there is the
seed of the woman, there is to be those that were called by
grace who were going to come to be plucked as brands from
the burning and to be given that they should be amongst those
who come out of union with Satan But let me read Psalm 2 verse
2. The kings of the earth set themselves,
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast their cords from us. Let's rip up the Ten Commandments.
Let's just do away with everything that God says. There's unity.
We're together on it. Satan's with us. We've got a
tremendous pact here. It's God. Is God afraid of such
a pact? He that setteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, vex them with his sordid pleasure. Yet have I set
my King upon my holy hill of Zion. You see the heathens raging,
the people imagining a vain thing. All the unity of all the, and
we see it so much today, there's a lot of unity in defying God's
laws, in going against what God has said in his work, great unity.
What a blessing if we, by God's grace, are amongst those who
have had that unity in following the devil and his dictates, broken. so that we now find that we cannot
go along with that we cannot listen to the Satan's dictates
anymore we no longer want to fulfil the desires of the flesh
and of the mind we no longer want to be people that walk in
pride we no longer want to walk in lustful things what a wonder
you see if this has taken place in our hearts But you see this
is God's work. God is talking to Satan. Adam and Eve are bystanders.
This is God's work. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall
bruise thy head. So the seed of the woman will
bruise the head of Satan. And indeed that happened at Calvary.
As when Satan was gathering, you see, That psalm that I read
in Psalm 2 is quoted by the apostles when they are criticised by those
around them in Acts chapter 4. They quote this and say, yes
this is exactly what happened. It was against the Christ. There
was such a unity. You see Herod and Pilate were
enemies before but When it came to putting Christ, as it were,
to death, there was unity. They were together. And there
was all these voices crying out, crucify him, crucify him. There was this unholy unity. But you see, The Lord God was
greater than it all. He was able, as it were, to overcome. He was able to gain the victory. And as Satan thought that he
was gaining the victory, he had got the Lord of life and glory.
He had enabled, he had managed to enter into Judas Iscariot. He had managed to orchestrate
all these things. And no doubt, at the cross of
Calvary, Satan was very busy. And wicked men were very busy.
But glory to God, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And God
at that great time was doing, as we read it in Acts chapter
4, that God was doing what was determined before to be done.
Yes, wicked men were doing their worst. Yes, they were doing everything
that was against the Lord and against his anointed. you look
in Acts 4 verse 26 the kings of the earth stood up the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ
for of a truth against the holy child Jesus whom thou hast anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together unity and I will put enmity between
thee and the woman it's God's great plan of salvation that
he is going to break the bonds, the bands that bind us to Satan's
devices. Fasten his chains and we read,
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done, wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them. He was working out a great salvation
when they thought they were getting rid of the Lord of life and glory.
But there is a people who know the joyful sound, who God works
in their hearts to break this lead with Satan, to break this
lead with their own wicked hearts, so that they no longer desire
to walk in those ways. They no longer desire the kingdom
of Satan. They want to walk in the kingdom
of God's dear Son. They start to hate the things
that they once loved, and they now love the things that they
once hated. There is a change you see, and
the change, we can trace this change back to this promise,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed The seed, that which would come, which was a godly
seed, and thy seed is Satan's seed, but her seed the godly
seed. And it shall bruise thy head.
And how indeed Satan's head was crushed at Calvary. And yet the
Lord Jesus was greatly bruised too, wasn't he? And thou shalt
bruise his heel. But you see, we read in Isaiah
53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The Lord Jesus was bruised. But if we think of it, some have
explained it like this, if we have the Lord Jesus we have his
deity and we have his humanity. When Jesus was on the cross and
he died, then it was not his deity that died, it was his humanity,
as it were his lower part, his humanity and not his deity. It
was the crushing, the bruising of the heel, but not the head.
Not indeed the deity of Christ. He was still, the deity could
not die. So, what a blessing that there
would be this one who would come, made of a woman, made under the
law, made under the law, to redeem them which were under the law.
That there would be this promise of one that was coming to liberate
them from an unholy union, but with Satan. A union which will
be for the everlasting damnation of every human being that ever
lived. Were it not for this gospel verse,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. I will do
what is unnatural. Yes, there was a natural, as
it were, allegiance between these companies. Paul speaks of it
in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, And you
hath he quickened who were dead in treacherous sins, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world.
It's natural. We understand how Satan thinks
because we have a mind that is evil as well. wherein in time
past we walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. That's our lost condition.
That's what we would be if God had not given this gospel promise,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. We would
carry on in that union, carry on in that fellowship with Satan,
and carry on and follow him into everlasting damnation. But mercy
of mercies. When God has given this gospel
promise, that He will come and change the heart, renew the will,
but God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, have quickened
us, made us alive. quickened us together with Christ
by grace He saved and raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. The kindness of God. The kindness
of God of not just pronouncing a curse, period, for all the
human race kindness that he had as it were to his gospel promise
that he would put in the team, he would break this league and
he would bring deliverance for the captive. This was his purpose
of coming. And this is why his advent, as
we remember this time of the year, is so precious. Because
he came made of a woman, made under the law. He came to break
that knee of Satan. To break Satan. And Satan will
say, they sinned. I sinned. They deserve to be
with me. They're mine. I've got them.
And you see that the Lord comes and says, no, I've paid the price
for them. They can come free. In Hebrews 2 verse 14 it says,
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil. The Lord Jesus came to destroy
the power of Satan. You see, you might think well,
I thought the Christmas period was all about joy and peace and
goodwill but you're talking about enmity but you see we're either
at peace with God or we're at enmity with God we're either
at peace with Satan or we're at enmity with Satan and we cannot
be both We cannot be at enmity with God. We cannot be at enmity with God
and at peace with God. We have to, as it were, be one
or the other and therefore, you see, we need to be amongst those
that have true enmity, true hatred, true loathing of Satan. This is particularly in our own
hearts. If you read John Bunyan, The Holy War, you see the fight
that goes on in that city, and how there is so much going on
in to and fro against what they should do, and it's the conscience
speaking out at times, and then other people doing different
things, and there's so many characters envisaged there of this holy
war that's going on, with The Lord Jesus, as it were, reclaiming
the hearth castle, and Satan still clinging on to it with
all his might. This is warfare. You see, there needs to be a
true warfare in true Christianity. Not that we're, as it were, going
around being unkind to others, but inside we need to be at war
with Satan. Sometimes it's Pictured like
this, you have two gladiators, a terrible sport that they used
to do. Two people would go into a ring and their purpose was
to try and kill their opponent. And the one who survived obviously
was the winner. And if you had two gladiators
going into a ring, and one of them decided that they would
be very kind and very nice to the other opponent, what would
happen to them? Well, they wouldn't survive long,
would they? They would soon find that they were killed. And you
see, we have to be like that with sin and Satan. If we, as
it were, come and try and be friendly with Satan, as Eve was,
try and be nice to him, and try and be pleasant with him, and
try and think that he's a nice, friendly person to have as our
friend, he will do us tremendous damage. We need to be amongst
those who are looking unto Jesus, kept by the power of God, truly
realised the danger of being in Satan's sieve. The danger
of listening to what Satan is saying about God, about the lack
of goodness in God that he constantly is trying to speak of. But then,
what a blessing if we know that there is a way back to God. true
confession, to come to find Christ precious, to come to realise
that we now hate the things that we once loved, the things that
we, the lust for the flesh and the pride of life, that once
is the standard diet of each of us. And you might think, but
no, look, we're all brought up in a Christian house, we don't
have that sort of diet, don't you? Just analyse your thoughts,
analyse your ambitions, analyse everything you think about everybody,
your brothers and sisters at times and people. You analyse
what's going on in your heart, you'll see that you come short
of the glory of God. You walk in pride by nature.
You need a Saviour. You are by nature in league with
Satan and you need a Saviour. You need one to liberate you
from the wrath to come. Liberate you from being in eternal
union with Satan. So that you can be in eternal
union with Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church. May the Lord guide
us each then to see in this precious verse the first ray of light
of seeing a glorious plan of redemption that God was going
to break what Satan had done, was going to reverse the awful
effects of sin, was going to crash that serpent's head But it cost him so much, it wasn't
that Satan's head would be crushed and Jesus would have no problem
at all. No, he laid down his life. But
he raised it again. And now he has a name which is
above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow. And may we crown him Lord of
all. May the Lord have his blessing.