Genesis chapter 3. Last week
we looked at the temptation of man in verses 1 to 5, and then
the fall of man in verses 6 to 13. Tonight we'll take up the
consequences of the fall in verses 14 to 24, but I'll begin reading
in verse 1 just to remind us of the context. Now the serpent
was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you
shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said
to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch
it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman,
You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you
eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit
and ate. She also gave to her husband
with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them
were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they
heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?
So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree
of which I commanded you that you should not eat? And the man
said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of
the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the
woman, What is this you have done? The woman said, The serpent
deceived me, and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent,
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle,
and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you
shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and
you shall bruise his heel. To the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain
you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your
husband, and he shall rule over you. Then to Adam he said, because
you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from
the tree of which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat
of it. Curse it as the ground for your
sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you
shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you
shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it
you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust
you shall return. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also, for Adam
and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And
now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of
life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent
him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which
he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed cherubim
at the east of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which
turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Amen. As I said last week, we saw the
temptation of man, Adam and Eve in the garden that God had created
for them. placed Adam in that garden specifically
as a priest. We saw when we looked at chapter
2 that the garden was essentially a temple where God met with his
people, with his creatures, and Adam's task was to extend that
garden temple, to fill it with the image of God, to multiply
that image throughout the earth. And then that garden, obviously,
as we see here at the end of chapter 3, Adam is expelled from
that. He goes into a sort of exile.
He is removed from that special dwelling place of God as a result
of his sin. Remember that the devil took
the form, or rather used the serpent, used the snake to come
and to tempt Eve. And he misrepresented God, he
misrepresented God's interests, he tried to entice, well, he
did entice Eve with the various deceptions that had, at least
on the surface, some veneer of truth. And I think that makes
it even more difficult and more dangerous. When the devil comes
and tells a flat-out lie, it's easy to spot, it's easy to recognize,
and hopefully it's easy to resist. But when he comes and he gives
us things that are very subtle and very cunning in the language
of the Scripture here, it's far more difficult to guard our hearts.
We noticed specifically that she saw, or rather, in verse
6, she had a pragmatic interest in the tree. She saw that the
tree was good for food. Remember, she had no need for
food. The tree, or rather, the garden
was filled with trees, and God said, you may freely eat. So
this now pragmatic interest has come as a result of the suggestion
of Satan. And then as well, it was pleasant
to the eyes. It had an aesthetic appeal to
her. And then it was desirable to
make one wise, and as a result of that desire for philosophical
wisdom or sort of a godlike status, she takes of the fruit, she eats,
and then she gives it to Adam. And then God comes to reckon
with them. Remember in verse 9, when God
says, where are you? He's not inquiring because He
does not know. The question is for Adam and
Eve. It's not for God. God knows specifically
what is happening. He is giving them the opportunity,
ultimately, to come clean. Rather than come clean, they
do what sinners have done ever since. They first try to cover
themselves with fig leaves, then they try to hide themselves among
the trees, and then they shift the blame to one another. Adam
first shifts blame to God, the woman whom you gave to me. And
then he shifts blame obviously to Eve, and then when Eve is
called to account with God, she shifts the blame to the serpent.
Again, that's pretty much our MO ever since that particular
time. All the sorts of things we do
with reference to our sin can be found here right in Genesis
chapter 3. We try to cover ourselves, we
try to hide from God, and we try to shift blame. Rather than
taking Solomon's sage advice in Proverbs 28, 13, confessing
our sin, forsaking our sin, and finding mercy from God. seeking
or attempting to cover their own transgression will not prosper,
but the one confessing and forsaking will indeed find mercy. But nevertheless,
as we move now to the consequences of the Fall, we see curse to
be sure, but we also see a great deal of hope built into this
section of the chapter. So even though Adam and Eve didn't
own their sin, even though Adam and Eve didn't confess their
sins to God, God nevertheless treats them with grace, with
mercy, and He makes a promise here, specifically in Genesis
3.15, that is programmatic. for the rest of Scripture. In
fact, the rest of Scripture is ultimately commentary and exposition
and amplification of what we find specifically in Genesis
1-3 and very much specifically Genesis 3-15. So we see in the
midst of all of this God's kindness, His grace, and His mercy. But
let's look at the consequences of the fault in verses 14-19.
Note the consequences for the serpent in verse 14. So the Lord God said to the serpent,
because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle
and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you
shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. Now,
notice this lack of interrogation with the serpent slash devil. After the sin, God comes and
He asks Adam and Eve specific questions. He interrogates them. There's a reckoning to be had
with God with reference to Adam and Eve. There's no interrogation
here. There's no questioning. There's
no interview. There is no dialogue. There's
no exchange or interchange or an invitation for such exchange. Calvin says that God does not
interrogate the serpent as he had done the man and woman, because
in the animal itself there was no sense of sin, and because
to the devil he would hold out no hope of pardon. So he doesn't
interrogate those whom he's not ultimately going to pardon. He
deals graciously and kindly with Adam and Eve. Of course, he deals
simply severely with the devil. Now notice, it says the curse
of the serpent was more than every beast of the field. Robertson
says, the Lord rightfully curses the serpent. More than all the
other creation, he is humbled. The snake must crawl. As tool
of Satan, he bears in himself the symbolic reminder of ultimate
defeat. I think that's the point with
reference to this particular passage. It says, and you shall
eat dust all the days of your life. Some have supposed, goes
way back to Jewish interpreters and many Christian commentators,
suppose that perhaps the snake previously had legs and he had
feet. And this was something new in
the life of the snake. Not this particular snake alone,
but snakes in general. But that's not necessary in terms
of the text. He could have crawled on his
belly prior to that. The emphasis is on this phrase,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. It comes to
mean, in later revelation, utter and absolute defeat. You can
see this in Isaiah 65, 25 and Micah 7, 17. One book that I would highly
recommend, I think it's called The Hope of Israel. It's sort
of the messianic expectation of the Old Testament. And it's
by a man who was a Jew, and he was converted. I mean, he's still
a Jew, but he's a Christian Jew. And his name is Michael Reitelnick.
And it's a great book, and I highly commend it. But in this particular
section, he says, when God proclaimed that the serpent would crawl
on its belly, it does not mean that serpents previously had
legs. Rather, crawling would now forever
be understood as a sign of defeat. So, he curses the serpent in
verse 14. Now, in verse 15, it's still
connected to that serpent curse. He's not moved to the woman and
he's not moved to the man. The blessed promise of Genesis
3.15 comes in the context of this curse upon the serpent.
but he's obviously going beyond the serpent to the devil that
animated the serpent. That's the emphasis here in Genesis
3, verse 15. The Lord's curse moves from the
serpent to the evil power that affected or that utilized or
that moved the serpent to engage in this particular activity.
Remember, snakes aren't in themselves naturally opposed to man in the
sense that The snake wanted Adam and Eve to fall from their pristine
glory. This was the devil. The devil
is the archenemy of God Most High, and the devil uses this
particular beast to accomplish his particular ends. And we see
here specifically in verse 15, God says, I will put enmity. We need to understand, as I said,
315 is a bit of a programmatic verse, not only in terms of it
being the first gospel promise, but it's also the rationale behind
the sorts of conflicts that appear all throughout the biblical record,
all throughout history. There is this God-imposed enmity
between the righteous and the unrighteous. There is this God-wrought
enmity between the godly and the ungodly. I will put enmity,
the Lord says, between you and the woman. And between your seed
and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise
his heel. The ongoing nature of the warfare
until this decisive victory wrought by this particular seed identified
in verse 15, again, is the underlying rationale for Genesis chapter
4. Soon as we move into Genesis
chapter 4, that enmity becomes very obvious and very apparent
when Cain kills Abel. You'll see it in Genesis chapter
6 with the godly line versus the ungodly line. You see it
traced throughout the biblical narrative. There are those identified
as the sons of the devil and there are those that are identified
as the sons of God. There is this great antithesis
that exists between the righteous and the unrighteous, and it finds
its taproots here in God's curse upon the devil in Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and then notice, and between your seed and her
seed, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Now, there is a collective nature of seed in this particular passage. Collective means that it points
beyond one particular individual. In other words, when we speak
of the seed of Israel or the seed of Abraham in say Genesis
or rather Galatians 3.29, everybody who believes the gospel, who
is united savingly to the Lord Jesus Christ is considered to
be a part of the seed of Abraham. Everybody follow that? There
is a collective nature, a collective sense of this language of seed. But as well, there is a seed
singular that the Bible goes on to distinguish throughout
redemptive history. And if Galatians 3.29 points
to the seed collectively, Galatians 3.16 points to the seed individually. And that seed is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Later, redemptive Later, Redemptive
Revelation tells us or interprets Genesis 3.15 for us in a messianic
sense. Now, that's the way that I take
Genesis 3.15. It's an announcement of the Messiah. It's an announcement of the skull-crushing
seed of the woman who would render a decisive blow to the devil
himself. This isn't a new interpretation.
It goes back in Christian history to the 2nd century, to Justin
Martyr and to Irenaeus. It preceded that in Jewish interpretation. They obviously didn't apply it
to Jesus of Nazareth, but they saw a messianic thrust in Genesis
3.15. So there's this collective seed,
the body, or rather the nation of Israel, from whence the seed,
Jesus Christ, the singular, the individual would come and render
this death blow to the devil, specifically at the cross on
Calvary. So the individual identity of
the seed is the Lord Christ. Now let's just investigate this
particular promise a little bit more fully. God says, I will
put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and
her seed. What should we, first of all,
see with reference to God's redemptive plan? It's initiated by God. It's not initiated by man. We
didn't say, Lord, please save us. We didn't say, Lord, please,
we sinned against you. In fact, as soon as Adam and
Eve transgress, what do they do? They cover themselves with
these loincloths and then they run for the trees to hide from
God. They didn't run to God, it's
God who came and sought them out. When Jesus says to Zacchaeus,
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
That's not new in redemptive history. Jesus Christ is simply
imitating the Father. The Father initiates salvation
in Genesis chapter 3. Many have properly understood
that the cross didn't procure God's love, but rather the cross
demonstrates God's love. God has always been loving toward
his elect in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see
this in the garden. God initiates salvation. He puts this enmity between him
and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise
your head and you shall bruise his heel. Notice, as well, the
Redeemer, the Deliverer, we might call Him the Messiah, the Christ,
the Redeemer would be a man born of a woman. In other words, Israel
was taught very early in Genesis 3.15 that their Messiah would
be a man, their Messiah would be born of a woman. And some
have observed that the language here does at least suggest, if
not suggest, it certainly doesn't hinder the doctrine of the virgin
birth. It mentions specifically that
this man, this Messiah, this Redeemer, this Deliverer comes
from woman. Now, again, that's not decisive
to tilt the scales in favor of the virgin birth, but when we
get to later revelation and we see virgin birth, this certainly
jives with what we find in terms of later redemptive revelation.
As well, notice that the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the Messiah, the
Christ, would accomplish victory through suffering. That's the
emphasis in the last clause. Notice, He, Christ, shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise His heel. So when the Messiah
deals the death blow to the devil, we know that he does that on
the cross, and we'll see that in a bit more detail in just
a moment. But when Christ bruises or crushes
the head of the serpent, he himself sustains injury. Now, comparatively,
it's not the same injury as a skull-crushing injury. I mean, if you got hit
on the head with an anvil versus getting hit on the heel with
an anvil, I think you'd probably opt for the latter. It would
always be better to get crushed in the heel than to get crushed
in the head. So, comparatively, the suffering
or the blows aren't exactly parallel. They're not exactly the same.
The devil gets his head crushed. The Son of God gets his heel
bruised. But we ought to notice something
else with reference to this text, because everybody that favors
the messianic interpretation will highlight that the passage
does, in fact, teach that the Redeemer would accomplish victory
through suffering. But I think the text specifies
that the Redeemer will accomplish victory through death. And that's
specifically what later revelation does teach us. It's amazing. Many Christian commentators will
see and admit and say, yeah, the Redeemer will accomplish
victory through suffering. But we need to appreciate that
within the text itself, there is this at least implicit idea
that it'll accomplish victory through death. What does a serpent
typically bite? The serpent will typically bite
the heel. This is where the serpent will
go for his particular prey. So while there's a comparativeness
about the text, head versus heel, the fact that the heel of Messiah
is bit by a poisonous serpent at least tilts the scale to see
that what we find later in redemptive history in terms of the death
of the Redeemer is already latent within the biblical text in Genesis
3.15. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
I'll let Reitlnick explain. He says, since in the context
the tempter has taken the form of a serpent, it is likely that
the tempter's blow would be equated with a serpent's bite. I don't
think that's outlandish. I think that's a perfectly acceptable
rule of interpretation. He says, and in the case of this
animal, the Hebrew generally uses it to speak of a venomous
and lethal snake. Most likely, therefore, the text
is speaking of two comparable death blows. The future redeemer
will strike the head of the tempter and thereby kill it. And at the
same time, the tempter will strike the heel of the redeemer and
kill him. In other words, substitutionary
atonement vis-Ã -vis the death of the Lord Jesus doesn't wait
for revelation to Genesis 3, verse 21, but it's already latent
in Genesis 3, verse 15. This bruised heel is probably
due to this venomous snake, and it does foreshadow the fact that
Christ, in rendering victory over the devil, would do it through
his own death on behalf of his people. So God's initiative,
the Redeemer would accomplish victory through suffering for
sure, the Redeemer would accomplish victory through death, and the
Redeemer would accomplish total victory. Again, that's what's
envisaged in this particular passage. He shall bruise your
head. He shall crush your head. Another
great article is The Skull-Crushing Seat of the Woman by James Hamilton,
Jr. I highly recommend that article.
It really weaves together the narrative here with later redemptive
history, specifically the Old Testament. Because what you'll
find is that when you move through the biblical narrative, many
enemies of God meet their demise via head wounds. And, you know,
you might read the book of Judges, for instance. Judges just happens
to be filled with these deadly head wounds. And you'll think,
boy, this is odd. Everybody's losing their head
that opposes Israel. Well, there's a reason. Because
the promise of Genesis 3.15, this is typical or prophetic. And then these types come through
Jael, who drives a tent peg through Sisera's head. It is typified
through the heads of Oreb and Zeb, those Midianites that launched
a campaign, you know, foolishly and wickedly against Gideon and
the armies of Israel. The woman and Abimelech. Remember
when she crushes his head from that tower with that upper millstone.
Everybody loses their head in the book of Judges. Why is that?
Is God about gore? No, God's about furthering His
promise in terms of the skull-crushing scene of the woman. See, the
book of Judges is about Yahweh is salvation. The book of Judges
is about God saving sinners, God saving His people. The book
of Judges is all about Jesus, and so we might expect the skull-crushing
seed of the woman to be evident and obvious in that book of Judges. Another decisive victory that
ended in the demise of a particular head was in 1 Samuel chapter
17. What's David do when he deals
with Goliath? Isn't it intriguing that David
ultimately sires or has a son come from his line that deals
a skull-crushing blow to a giant of sorts? David is functioning
typically at the Valley of Elah pointing forward to David's greater
son in dealing out this death blow. You see it in Psalm 110,
verse 6, with reference to the Messiah. It's a psalm of Messiah
specifically, and it talks about him crushing heads. You see it
in the book of Psalms throughout. This is language picked up in
the Old Testament, from the Old Testament, to continue to nurture
the faith of Israel. Don't lose heart. Don't grow
weary. Don't grow discontent. The Lord
God promised in Genesis 3.15 that a Deliverer would come,
and this Deliverer would deal the death blow to the devil.
He would render obsolete the effects and the powers of the
devil himself. And Genesis 3.15 is the taproot. Turn to the New Testament for
validation of this. I won't even point to Matthew
27, but Jesus was crucified on Golgotha. What's Golgotha? It's
the place of a skull. Now again, we don't want to go
overboard and hog wild when it comes to allegory or typology
and all that sort of thing, but brethren, The place of the skull
is where Christ renders the death blow to the devil? You've got
to think in terms of Genesis 3.15. Remember, it's a programmatic
text. It's Yahweh's announcement of
history, subsequent history to Adam and Eve, of how God will
deal with the enemies of Yahweh, and specifically the enemy of
Yahweh, via His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in Colossians
1, to get New Testament commentary on Christ's crushing the serpent,
crushing the devil. Colossians 1.13, He has delivered
us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom
of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now, that's a bit of a... excuse
me, more of an obscure one in terms of the actual reference
to seed or serpent or devil, but it speaks macrocosmically
to what Jesus does. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son
of his love. The strong man, or the Lord Jesus
Christ, plunders the strong man's house and he takes from him all
those who were previously in bondage. And then notice in Colossians
2, Verse 15, having disarmed principalities and powers, he
made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Notice in Hebrews chapter 2,
Hebrews chapter 2, again, Jesus at the cross dealt the death
blow to the devil. If we were in a black church
in Southern California, this is where I'd say, can I get an
amen? This is glorious. The Lord Jesus
Christ crushed the skull of the serpent, our archenemy, God's
archenemy. Christ accomplished this, not
only through his suffering and his death, he triumphed over
them at the cross. Notice in Hebrews 2 verse 14,
in as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood,
he himself likewise shared in the same. That through death
he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the
devil, and release those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed, he does not give
aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham, or
he takes on the seed of Abraham. He assumes their humanity in
order to redeem them and rescue them. Therefore, in all things,
he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted." Notice
in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Beginning in verse 7, little
children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness
is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil,
for the devil is sin from the beginning. For this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of
the devil. Drop down for just a moment verse
10, in this the children of God and the children of the devil
are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness
is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For
this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another. Now notice, not as Cain who was
of the wicked one and murdered his brother, and why did he murder
him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. You
think John has Genesis in his mind? You think John has Genesis
in the backdrop? You think as John is expounding
the glorious work of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's thinking in
terms of the skull-crushing seed of the woman? Absolutely, positively. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Turn over to Revelation chapter 12. It's always intrigued me
that people approach the book of Revelation and they freak
out. They get sad, or they feel gloom,
or they feel doom, or they somehow think that Revelation is just
this sort of foreboding look at the end times, and it's such
a bummer, and it's such a drag. That is to absolutely, positively
miss the point of the book of Revelation. The emphasis in the
book of Revelation is on the crown rites of Jesus Christ the
Lord. It's all about Christ's victory. It's all about Christ's power.
It's all about Christ's glory. It's about Christ's current session
at the right hand. It's about Christ's intervention
by His Spirit in the seven churches of Asia Minor. It's about Christ's
provision for His people. It's about Christ's defeat of
the beast, of the false prophet. It's about Christ's defeat ultimately
of the devil. And Revelation 12 is one of those
linchpin passages that indicate this glorious defeat of the devil. In fact, if we had time, we would
detail how Revelation 12 just shows the utter folly and complete
misery of the devil. Everywhere he turns his attention
to try to attack next, he is thwarted. Every place he tries
to go to upset the people of God, he is thwarted. But notice
specifically in Revelation chapter 12 at verse 3. And another sign appeared in
heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads
and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a
third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth.
to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male
child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child
was caught up to God and His throne." So what John does there
is he telescopes the entirety of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
He moves from incarnation to ascension. incarnation to ascension. And if you look at redemptive
history, you see those times or those attempts by the devil
to try and stop the incarnation. You see it in Joash way back
in 2 Kings 11. Is that right, Roger? 2nd Kings
11 is Joash. Nah, sorry, put you on the spot.
1st King, it's in 2nd Kings, Joash. He was spirited away by
his godly aunt so that Athaliah wouldn't be able to kill him.
And then after her reign of terror, he comes out and he now reigns
over the people of Israel. Remember, that was her attempt
to seize the throne. It was a purge of all the heirs.
And yet, Joash was spirited away, spared by his godly aunt, and
thus the promise lived on. You see it also with Herod's
massacre of the innocents. What's he trying to do? He's
trying to stop Jesus. Now, Herod probably wasn't that
bright of a bulb. What we have to appreciate is
that the devil is behind the scenes. activating Herod the
way that he does the serpent, the way that he does Athaliah,
the way that he does in history. We don't wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers and darkness and all
those sorts of things. But they use physical operatives. They use serpents. They use wretched
women named Athaliah. They use Herods. And so there
was this attempt to thwart the birth of the Savior. And yet
she bore, according to verse 5, a male child who was to rule
all nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God
and His throne. Then the woman fled into the
wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should
feed her there 1,260 days. and war broke out in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon
and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place
found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was
cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who
deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and
his angels were cast out with him." Then I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom
of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser
of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night
has been cast down. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of the of their testimony.
And they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore, rejoice,
O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you having
great wrath. because he knows that he has
a short time. Yeah, because God defeats him continually through
the power of the skull-crushing seed who renders the death blow
at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, I would submit
that Genesis 3.15 demands a messianic interpretation. based on what
we find later in redemptive history. Some would suggest, well, yes,
later on it would indicate that this is in fact messianic, but,
you know, we're not really sure what Moses would have known as
he penned these particular words. We interpret the text of Scripture.
We understand that the text of Scripture comes from God. He
uses Moses, he uses Paul, he uses Peter, he uses all these
particular authors But the message is God's Word, and we interpret
it as God's Word, and we know that He knows all of the connections
that are supposed to be made, and so the text necessitates
a messianic interpretation. This is how our confession of
faith understands the covenant of grace. Our Confession of Faith
traces the covenant of grace to Genesis 3.15. It says, this
covenant is revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam in the promise
of salvation by the seed of the woman. Now that's not unique
to the Second London Confession of Faith. That's obviously Westminster
Confession. That's obviously Savoy Declaration. That is Reformed theology to
a man. They have understood, well, I
don't know that it's to a man, I shouldn't say that, but the
bulk of Reformed commentators and interpreters have understood
the messianic interpretation of Genesis 3.15 as that which
was intended by God for us and for our children. We need to
appreciate it and we need to rejoice in the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ dealt a death blow at the cross. That, yes,
the devil does still roam about as a lion, seeking whom he may
devour, according to 1 Peter chapter 5. But he's God's devil. He can only go so far. I think
it was Luther who said, he's like a dog on a leash. Have you
ever walked by a house and you see a big snarly dog and he runs
after you, but he stops because he's on a chain? That's the way
Luther describes the devil. He cannot get you. He cannot
make you sin. He cannot take from you your
salvation. He cannot do such things. We have this idea, or at least
within some forms of evangelicalism, that the devil is almost deity,
that he has omniscience, that he has omnipotence, that he has
omnipresence. He's a creature created by God
to do God's particular bidding. Now, I realize we don't always
like that conclusion. In fact, a little one asked me
on Sunday, why did God create the devil? If your children haven't
asked you that yet, they're going to ask you. And I would encourage
you to have an answer ready for them. You know what the most
ultimate answer for that question is? For His own glory. You say, well, how could God
do that? He's God. He takes crooked things and He
makes them straight. He takes wretches like us and
He cleanses us and He puts us on a course to heaven. Certainly
He uses the devil to bring about His purposes under His control. He is not an autonomous being,
he doesn't have sovereignty, he doesn't have free reign or
free course. This is why John the Apostle
can say, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the
world. The devil may bark at you, the
devil may roam about and seek to devour you, the devil may
try to nip at your heels, but he can't if you resist him. Have
you ever considered that's the biblical theology on how to deal
with the devil? Have you ever been exposed to
these people that have these whole ministries built on how
to deal with the devil, how to deal with the demons? I remember
going to one in Vancouver, and it intrigued me that demon-possessed
people knew this guy was in town, paid for a ticket, and would
end up in this conference room. I just couldn't figure out how
this happened. And then they would manifest, and then he would
cast out these demons, and then he would say, in order to be
able to do this, buy my DVD set. I don't know if it was DVD or
VHS back then, but for a nifty little price, you could get his
whole course on how to cast out demons. You know what the Bible
says with reference to the devil? Resist him, and he will flee
from you. That doesn't sell DVD series, I get it. That doesn't
sell VHS. It doesn't sell big fat books,
but that's precisely what the Apostle says. Resist him and
he will flee from you. Why is that? Because Christ has
dealt a death blow to him at the cross. He has defanged him. Yes, he roams about like a lion.
Yes, he's that dog that runs to the edge of the grass, but
he can't ultimately get you. And for Christians to live paralyzed
and restricted or constricted lives in fear of the devil is
to undermine the doing and the dying and the rising of the Lord
Jesus. Isn't this Paul's point in Romans chapter 8? In fact,
turn there. Romans chapter 8. We looked at this, I don't know,
a couple of months ago in our Lord's Supper service. Manton
calls verse 32, the superstructure of grace. I love that reference,
the superstructure of grace. But let's pick up the argument
at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? What
are these things? These things in context is the
exposition of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, primarily chapters
5 to 8. After having dealt with the doctrine
of justification by faith and how that is seen in the impetuous
imputation of righteousness in Romans chapter 5, that covenant
theology of Adam and Jesus. And then 6, 7, he comes to 8,
and he says, what then shall we say to these things? If God
is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? You see, it's an
argument from the greater, the lesser. If God didn't spare his
own son at Calvary, how is he not going to help you on Thursday?
You see, this is all true in light of Genesis 3.15. The skull-crushing
seed of the woman has come. Notice that Paul continues, who
shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who does that? Sometimes it may come from without. You just get this thought in
your head, man, how in the world could you be saved? You're terrible.
And then you and your own remaining corruption say, yeah, that's
right. I am terrible. And then you might have people
in your life that confirm that and say, yeah, you really are
terrible. Look at Paul's point. Who shall
bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? Again,
who's going to do that? the devil. Do you notice the
language in Revelation 12, the accuser of the brethren? That's kind of the meaning of
Satan. It's accuser, adversary. It's the sort of image or description
or depiction we get in Joshua the high priest in Zechariah
chapter 3. Remember Joshua's Filthy, and
he's all not just disheveled, but he's covered in feces, he's
covered in vomit, and the devil's right there, ready to lodge his
complaint to God. Look at the best that Israel
has to offer. But before the devil even opens
his mouth, the Lord rebukes him. And then the Lord says, take
off the filthy garments from Joshua and put on new fresh garments. That's justification. Removal
of iniquity, removal of the transgression, removal of sin, and then it's
the imputation of Christ's righteousness. And so what we find here is Paul
doing the same sort of thing. Who is he who condemns? It is
Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation
or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril
or sore? As it is written, for your sake
we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Here's what I think Paul is doing at this particular
point. Paul is telling you and I, this is where it gets real
practical, Genesis 3.15 and my life. We always like that sort
of application. How does it affect me? How is
it going to benefit me? Well, Romans 8 is a great sort
of explanation of that. Your dependence, or rather your
salvation, is not dependent ultimately on your performance. It's dependent
upon the performance of Jesus Christ. That skull-crushing seed
of the woman who did what the Father sent Him to do. If by
God's grace you've looked to Him in faith, you're saved. If you've looked to Him in faith,
you're justified. So that when all comers come
and say, you're a wretch, you're terrible, you're this, you're
that, you can say, of a truth, you're correct. But my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but I wholly lean on Jesus' name."
That's Paul's point here in Romans chapter 8. Don't lean on sweet
frames. Don't lean on your performance.
Don't lean on your good works. Rather, lean on the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the skull-crushing seed of the
woman. that Genesis 3.15 man, that deliverer who would render
the death blow through His own death at Calvary's cross. It is intensely practical for
the people of God, and Genesis 3.15 ought to be appreciated
in that particular way. Well, let's go back to our text
in Genesis 3. I did think we would spend more
time on verse 15. than the rest, but I don't want
to sort of blow through the rest, so we're just going to look at
probably the consequences for the woman in verse 16. Notice he says, to the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception.
In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be
for your husband, and he shall rule over you. You know, before
we proceed, John Sailhammer, in his commentary, makes the
observation. Adam and Eve say nothing. They don't say anything
here, do they? They're silent. And Sailhammer
says, one almost thinks that it's written about us, more so
even than them. In other words, Genesis 3 is
explaining history to us. It's explaining our history.
It's explaining our life. It's explaining our problem.
It's explaining what's happening out there. It's because of what
occurs in the garden that the world looks the way that the
world looks. And so when we look at, say, for instance, Genesis
chapter 3, the tendency in so much of Christianity today is,
you know, we've got to have practical preaching, we've got to have
principles for living, we've got to have this, we've got to have
that. Genesis 3 is the most practical of all passages in Scripture
because it tells us who we really are. It tells us what we're really
about, and even more importantly, it tells us about our Lord Jesus
Christ and what he has accomplished on our behalf. But it is intriguing.
Neither Adam or Eve are speaking in the midst of any of this.
But no, to the woman, he said. Now, remember, with reference
to the woman, what were the benefits of womanhood? Obviously, there's
probably a whole plethora of benefits to womanhood. I'm not
a woman, so I don't know what those are. I'm married to a woman
and I see that she has benefits and that sort of thing. But in
the context, what is the thing that woman would do? Woman would
have children and woman would have intimacy in marriage. It's
exactly what we find in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. God brings
disruption. God brings disruption, not a
complete overthrow. not a complete removal, not a
complete obliteration, but rather subsequent to this fall into
sin, there are going to now be attached consequences to these
things. Things that were there prior
to the fall, things that will be there after the fall, but
now they'll be punctuated with a bit of difficulty and a bit
of pain. Same when we get to Adam. When
we get to Adam, what was Adam's primary vocation? It was priestly
and it was agrarian. As a priest, expanding the garden
temple, he would have to do that through labor, through hard work,
through knocking back bushes and cutting down trees and all
that sort of thing. Remember, labor is not a part
of the curse. Labor is a blessed benefit from
God Most High. Sabbath precedes the fall. God patterns Sabbath in Genesis
chapter 2. God labors for six days and then
he Sabbaths. The idea is that the creature
will now labor for six days and Sabbath. That's certainly how
God applies the fourth commandment at Sinai in Exodus 20. He says,
remember the Sabbath. And the argument given to remember
the Sabbath, or the reason for Sabbath keeping, was because
God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day
He rested. So you have to understand, labor
is not a result of the curse. I think sometimes people think
that. You know, they live for the weekends. Why can't you be
happy on Wednesday? If you're making a widget for
the glory of God, then praise God from whom all blessings flow.
That's a good thing. Labor is not bad. But there will
be disruption after the fall for Adam. So, you see, things
that were present prior to the fall continue into a post-fall
or post-lapsarian world, but now they're disrupted as a result
of the entrance of sin. So, Eve is still going to have
babies and Eve is still going to have a husband, but now it's
not going to be carefree and pain-free, but there's going
to be tension. It's going to be turmoil in many
respects. Genesis 3, 16 to 19 explain why
we have difficulties in our lives today. Why is it that we have
tensions among husbands and wives sometimes? Why is it that we
have to be told in the New Testament on several occasions to love
our wives and wives need to be told to submit to their husbands?
Because we live in a post-fall world. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world now where
our hearts are hardened, where we're estranged from God, and
where we'd rather satisfy and gratify our own lusts rather
than do what God said. Those are consequences associated
with the fall. Why is work harder for Adam on
the other side of the Garden of Eden than it was when he was
in the Garden of Eden? Because he rebelled against God.
Yes, labor is a blessed thing, pre- and post-fall, but it's
going to be a bit more difficult now, Adam. You're going to have
to work harder. There's going to be more sweat.
There's going to be more grit, more determination, and it will
oftentimes yield less fruits. Why? So that every time you come
up against a weed, you can remember that you sinned against God.
I don't know if it's supposed to be that much, but that's the
emphasis. Same with a woman. Every time
you have these pains, every time you have this travail, every
time your desire is for your husband. That's a passage that's
notoriously difficult to sort of interpret. I gotta tell you,
322 is a real humdinger as well, and thankfully we're not gonna
get to that tonight, so hopefully I'll have another week or two
to work on it and try to Crack that open. I actually have something
prepared on verse 22, but if we don't have to get there tonight,
I'm okay with that. But notice in 316, your desire
shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. That's
a difficult text. That's a tough text. There's
a whole myriad of interpretations with reference to this text.
I'm going to just tell you what I think it means. Now, you may
think I'm a chauvinist, and you may think I'm a pig, and you
may think all sorts of things like that, but I just think this
is what the text teaches. Your desire shall be for your
husband, not in the sense that you'll always want to submit
to him, that you'll always want to engage in the marital bed
with him, but rather your desire shall be to usurp him on occasion. Your desire will be to challenge
him. Your desire will be not to submit
to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, the reason why
I take this particular interpretation over the others is because of
a parallel usage of word in verse 7 of chapter 4. Notice when God
comes to deal with Cain in verse 7, He says, If you do well, will
you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin
lies at the door, and its desire is for you. What does that mean? It doesn't mean it wants to submit
to you. It wants to, you know, go to bed with you. It means
it wants to overtake you. It wants to usurp you. It wants
to overthrow you. It wants to reverse the roles
on you. Now, this will be part and parcel
in a post-fall world. Not that every woman is going
to be, you know, Adolf Hitler Jr. That's not what I'm suggesting. But this will be a continual,
ongoing sort of a thing, and the fact that the New Testament,
on several occasions, has to make the exhortation that wives
submit to their own husbands as unto the Lord. Have you ever
considered the New Testament It doesn't waste words. It doesn't
deal with things that don't need to be dealt with. If there's
repetition in the New Testament, there's a reason why. Because
we need to hear it over and over and over again. You know why
Paul had to keep saying, greet one another with a holy kiss?
Because they didn't want to holy kiss one another. Why does Paul
have to tell us to do what we're already wanting to do? He tells
us things we struggle with. You see it in Paul's admonition
to the husband in Colossians 3. I've always seen this as a
beautiful subtlety in the biblical text. He says, husbands, do not
be embittered against your wife. I think Paul is a genius, and
I don't think Paul needs me to think he's a genius for him to
be a genius, but consider this. He's dealing with Christian men.
Christian men's temptations typically aren't to punch their wives.
I hope no Christian man says, man, I really struggled with
this temptation to beat my wife. I don't think that's in the wheelhouse
of Christian men who have the Holy Spirit. But bitterness? Embittered? Oh yeah, that's right
there. It's desire is for us. That's
why Paul tells us not to do it. And so when we come to this particular
passage, your desire shall be for your husband. It's not to
willingly yield yourself in all areas of life. It's not to be
his doormat. It's not to be this overly submissive
thing. It is rather to challenge his authority, somewhat consistent
with what we've already seen in the narrative. Talk to the
devil. She talked to the serpent. She
was basically leading the show and that kind of thing ought
not to be. And then when it says, and he shall rule over you. Again,
here's my thought. You can say, oh, you're wrong.
You're terrible. You're a male chauvinist pig. He shall rule
over you. Some would connect male headship
to the fall. In other words, that God says
this in 316 indicates that prior to the fall, there was no male
headship. Adam wasn't at fault. They were
equal. They were equal partners in an
equal relationship. Everybody had a say, 100%. There
was no sort of gender disparity, no gender inequality, to borrow
an overworked term. What we find here is that male
headship is imposed as a consequence of Eve's rebellion against God.
I don't think that's it. Because remember, Adam was formed
first and then Eve. And Eve was brought to the man
to be the helper of the man. After the sin, God comes to Adam. He doesn't go to Eve. He goes
to her eventually, but he initially addresses Adam. Why? Because
Adam is the head of his wife. In the New Testament narratives,
you see the same thing in terms of headship. Where does Paul
argue from when he deals with male headship in the home and
in the church? He doesn't argue from culture. He doesn't argue
because men are better at it. He argues from the creation account.
Adam was formed first, and then the woman. And she, being deceived,
fell into transgression. 1 Timothy 2, verse 14. So this isn't the text that validates
male headship, and it's only to be seen connected to a fallen
estate. No, he had headship. But it was
a headship that was a much more blessed headship. There was a
one-flesh nest that we see at the end of Genesis chapter 2,
such that they're both naked and they're not ashamed. There
was the closest of intimacy between unfallen Adam and unfallen Eve. Now, at the entrance of sin,
Adam's throwing his wife under the bus, saying, she brought
this mess upon us. And now in this post-fall scenario,
if the woman is going to struggle with this desire to usurp her
husband's authority, men might struggle in being lords or tyrants
or despots over their wives. In other words, I think what
God or Moses is doing here is sort of foreshadowing everything
that Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians and Colossians with
reference to male-female relationships in a post-fallen world. In a
post-fall world, it's not going to be the case where headship
is exercised beautifully and perfectly and where women submitting
to their own husbands is exercised beautifully and perfectly. There's
going to be this tension. And when you have that tension,
maybe you ought to reflect upon the fact that this is an evidence
that we're in sin. We're sinners against God. We
ought to repent, we ought to forsake this sin, and we ought
to seek God who brings forgiveness and mercy and grace and kindness. So that's how I see 316. Again, you can go search the
internet and see the various interpretations that are out
there. I just think this one, in context, makes the most sense. Well, I think we should stop
there. One of those passages that you can get carried away
with. It's so wonderful and so glorious. But don't leave without the thought
that Christ is the skull crushing seed of the woman who has dealt
decisively with the devil at Calvary in accordance with this
promise of Genesis chapter three, verse 15. Well, let's close in
a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your
Word. We thank you for this promise. We thank you for its fulfillment
in the pages of the New Testament. And we thank you that you've
made us benefactors of so glorious a promise. We thank you for the
various spiritual blessings, every spiritual blessing that
we have in the heavenly places in Christ. We thank you for justification
and sanctification and for that glorification that we look forward
to. and how we thank you for his life, his death, his resurrection,
the third day, and for his current session at your right hand. We
ask now that you would go with us, that you would watch over
us in the remainder of this week, that you would bless and strengthen
us in our work, help us to rejoice in labor, help us to see that
this is to image God, who worked six days and on the seventh day
rested. We ask these things through Christ
Jesus our Lord. Amen.
