“You shall bruise him on the heel.” God said to the serpent tempter, in Genesis 3:15. And he did, on what came to be called Good Friday.
But God also promised the woman’s Offspring would bruise the serpent tempter on the head. God confirmed this Good News to her personally in Genesis 3:16 but modern translations have covered this over!
Let’s think about it.
When Eve realized she had been deceived she no longer followed the serpent tempter’s words. Dramatically, she called him out before God and labeled the serpent tempter for what he was, the Deceiver. Later Jesus confirmed her words, calling him the Father of Lies. We know him as Satan.
God built on her actions and confirmed the conflict between her and the enemy. Speaking prophetically God revealed there would be future conflict and that Satan would bruise the heel of her Offspring.
It happened on the Day that came to be called Good Friday. On that Day Satan thought to have successfully attacked and crushed Jesus the offspring of Eve, promised long before. Jesus had been wrongly condemned and was nailed on a cross. There he gave up his life and from there he was hastily buried.
On Easter morning he rose from the grave! On Good Friday he had not been bruised with an eternal defeat. He had only been severely bruised “on the heel” so to speak.
Theologians call God’s words in Genesis 3:15 the protevangelium or “the first announcement of the Gospel.” That is only partly correct.
At the Tru316 Foundation we point out that the Good News was only introduced in verse 15. The full announcement of the Good News was not complete until God spoke to the woman herself in 3:16a.
In Genesis 3:16a, rightly interpreted, God confirmed the Good News to the woman. This is clear in the Hebrew text. It is clear in the wording of the King James Version.
God said, “I will greatly multiply,” or surely bring to pass, “your sorrowful toil and your conception.” With these words about her conception God promised the woman herself that God would make sure that her offspring one day would crush Satan’s head.
We go into this in much more detail in The Book of Eden, Genesis 2-3.
Meanwhile, be encouraged that Good Friday really is good. That the Offspring of the woman in Eden will crush the head of the enemy. He is Risen! Hallelujah!
by Bruce C. E. Fleming, Bruce@Tru316.com
Speaker on The Eden Podcast
Author of The Eden Book Series that begins with The Book of Eden
