Genesis 3:15 – I will put enmity between you and the woman

Genesis 3:15 – 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.

The words in this text are words of conflict. What happened to the joy and peace that existed as the Creator rejoiced in His creatures made in His own image? After all, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Earlier in Genesis 3 we learn that a mysterious serpent appeared and successfully tempted the world’s first woman to go against God’s expressed command.

God knew that there was evil in the universe and that the pure and innocent humans would eventually meet it. Therefore, he devised an exercise in self-control to give them experience in resisting evil. Although there was abundant food in the garden home of Adam and Eve, one tree was set aside. They were forbidden to eat it.

Genesis 3:9 – The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat

Eve entered into discussion with the serpent in the tree, and in her naivety, succumbed to the superior intelligence of the serpent. The test was whether the new humans would trust God’s word. They failed the test. It should have been an easy test too, but they failed. The penalty for failure was death.

On that day, there was a symbolic death in that an innocent animal died to provide clothing to Adam and Eve. This innocent dying for the guilty is the beginning of a theme that is taught throughout the Bible.

Genesis 3:21 – the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

On that day, Adam and Eve, who had been intended to live forever, began to die. They lived about 900 years more, but they eventually died.

So, now, how do we understand our main text in Genesis 3:15? An argument could be made that this is the most important text in the entire Bible. The entire remainder of the Bible flows from this text. Very little of the remainder of the Bible makes sense without this text.

Genesis 3:15 is a promise of hope that eternal death can be avoided while God’s law can be upheld. First, let’s identify the characters. “I” is God. “You” is the serpent. “The woman” is Eve. “He” is the specific descendant of Eve that is promised. Thus, a descendant of Eve would be born that would enter into conflict with the serpent and his followers. This conflict would cause injury to the descendant but would ultimately result in the death of the serpent. This is the very first promise of a Savior to come who would pay the death penalty of the law so that humans could live.

Many details of this plan are lacking in this incipient explanation of it. The plan would be expounded upon in the Old Testament, especially in the ancient service of sacrificing an innocent lamb. The plan would become glorious in its fulfillment at the cross. The unfolding of the plan will be explored in later discussion in this book.

But we are left with a number of questions unanswered:

Who is this serpent?

Where did he come from?

Why is he there in the garden?

How is it that evil appears in God’s perfect universe?