The Seed of the Woman – Genesis 3:14,15

Yahweh Elohim has questioned Adam about his sin, then questioned Eve, but He does not question the serpent.  Instead, He curses the serpent.  Serpents, or snakes, have historically been symbols of evil, from stories as old as The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter.  All this springs from a collective memory of the beast of the field that caused Adam and Eve to lose the garden by their sin, and God’s perfect kingdom to be spoiled.

14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  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.” (Genesis 3:14–15, ESV)

Did the serpent originally walk on legs and feet?  There is both Jewish and Christian commentary to this effect, and it may be the case, though the curse pronounced by Yahweh may be a way of saying “may your posture be one of non-hostility [snakes raise up to attack] and the dust of death be your lot.”  In either case, the serpent is cursed above all the beasts of the field, suffering more than they do as God puts the world, in general, under a curse (see verse 17 and Romans 8:20).

Whereas the serpent and the woman spoke freely and without enmity before, from now on there will be enmity between them and their offspring (seed).  This will be a kind of continuing civil war between unbelievers who are under the sway of Satan (see 1 John 3:12 of Cain) and those who seek to follow Yahweh.  It is played out immediately in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel.  Egypt, which is identified as a serpent called Leviathan (Psalm 74:13), seeks to destroy the seed of the woman Israel while in captivity there (Exodus 1).  Satan wishes to destroy those who follow the authority and kingship of God his rival.  He worked to get Jesus destroyed (Luke 22:3) and succeeded, but only temporarily, and it backfired on him in the worst way possible (Hebrews 2:14).

The seed of the woman, on the other hand, becomes the agent through whom the serpent’s attempts to destroy God’s people and plan will be foiled.  The serpent will strike his heel, but he will strike the serpent’s head.  God will deal with this kingdom spoiler, the serpent, through Eve’s own offspring.  Eve anticipated this (Genesis 4:1,2,25).  But it was finally Mary’s offspring, Jesus, who fulfilled this great promise.  This is why throughout Scripture there is such emphasis on families having children, since any one of them could be this one offspring who restores God’s kingdom and rescues humanity.

The promise given here of God’s restoring his kingdom on earth is the theme of the rest of Scripture.  The world needs redeeming and God wants to accomplish this redemption through a human offspring.  That this offspring will also be the Son of God is a mystery revealed in divine timing.