VICTORIOUS OFFSPRING

Introduction

-{Genesis 3}

-As I consider the generations that have followed my generation, I got to thinking about the technologies that they might take for granted because for those generations these things have just always been around—there was never a time when these things didn’t exist in their lifetime. For example, for my kids, cell phones have always been a fact of life. Now, the phones weren’t always as smart as they are now, but cell phones have always been around for them.

~I remember Trish and I got our first cell phones when she was pregnant with Kyle, and have had them ever since. My kids never had to endure having a phone mounted on a wall, with a long cord connecting the handset to the other part, then having to use the rotary to dial the number. I remember as a kid getting a cordless phone and you could press buttons to dial the phone number. Wow, I thought we were in technology heaven. Now, we can’t even live without cell phones barely.

-I bring this us, because as we kick off the Christmas season, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, it made me think of so much that we take for granted. The biggest thing we take for granted is Jesus Himself. We are 2000 years beyond Jesus’ birth and life and death and resurrection, and these are givens for us. This has just been the reality of things for us—there has always been Jesus.

-I want you to think about living in a time when there was no Jesus. There is no manger. There is no cross. There is no empty tomb. Just imagining that sucks the air out of our spiritual lungs. God had not become man. God had not provided salvation and forgiveness from sins. Yet! Think about it, there are thousands more years of human history without Jesus than there is with Jesus. Imagine living in those times. The greatest thing you take for granted doesn’t exist.

-But God did not leave those people before Christ without hope. Throughout those dark times, God gave promises of what was to come. God did not lay out His plan all at once, but over 1500 or so years gave different pieces to the puzzle about what He was doing in human history. And all those pieces came together on Christmas day with the birth of Immanuel—God with us. What we take for granted was an amazing fulfillment for all those who waited in hope.

-So, this Christmas season, I want to look at some of the pieces of the puzzle so that we gain a fuller understanding of Christ’s person and work, as well as a greater appreciation for Christ Himself. So, we will look at different passages and see how Immanuel was prophesied in the times prior to His coming.

-Today, we want to look in Genesis 3 and see how from the beginning God said He would send One who would be the offspring who would gain victory over our enemies.

Genesis 3:8–15 NET 2nd ed.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” 13 So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the cattle and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

-{pray}

-Today, we start right at the beginning. God created the universe in anticipation and preparation for humanity who alone was made in His image. God formed humanity and placed them in a paradise on the earth, giving them the charge to increase, multiply, and subdue the rest of the earth, being God’s representative in creation. They were given one rule to follow—don’t eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But then, along came the serpent who tempted Eve who ate of the forbidden fruit, she then gave some to Adam, and sin and rebellion was introduced into the world.

-It seemed that the serpent accomplished what he desired—God’s creation was separated from God to endure the consequences of their rebellion. Instead of life, there was death. Instead of hope, there was despair. Instead of relationship with God, there was hostility. God had every right to give up on creation, turn it over to the serpent, and let it reap His just wrath and punishment. Humanity’s existence, short lived as it was, seemed to have ended in defeat. The serpent apparently had won the earth and humanity along with it.

-But, in v. 15, God declares to the serpent and to humanity that He has other plans. God was not giving up on His creation; instead He would intervene. So, what do these verses, especially v. 15, tell us and how does it tie in to the theme of Immanuel being prophesied?

1) The need for a victor

-Because humanity willingly rebelled against God, they were in many ways handed over to the consequences of their choices. Although I did not read the rest of the chapter, just as God curses the serpent in what I read, the rest of the chapter talks about the curses that befell man and woman due to their sin—curses that had repercussions for their descendants and the rest of creation.

-This included dire consequences for humanity’s relationship with God. After sinning, not only would they physically die, they were spiritually dead and were spiritually opposed to God. Mankind couldn’t do anything to bridge the gap or repair the relationship. They were left over to the curses. The world is cursed, humanity is cursed, the serpent is cursed. They all are in a hostile relationship with God. Humanity needed someone to overcome these spiritual hurdles. Thankfully, God was not giving up with humanity.

-But then we also see that the serpent’s curse has ramifications for humanity. We read that there would be endless hostility between humanity and the serpent. V. 15 says that God is going to put hostility between the serpent and the woman, his offspring and her offspring. When you think about it, God could have just let the serpent have mankind. God could have said I’M OVER IT, AND I’M OVER YOU, IF YOU WANT THEM YOU CAN HAVE THEM, and just let us be the devil’s slave. But He didn’t. Yet, due to the rebellion, He said that there would be constant battle. In essence, we were put to war.

-While the woman and the serpent themselves would be in hostility, it says that their seed or their offspring would be hostile toward one another. The generations to come would be at war with one another. But, the serpent couldn’t procreate as we think of it, so the distinction that was made here was on a spiritual level. There would be those who would spiritually belong to the serpent, and there would be those who would spiritually belong to the woman and the One who would come through the woman, which would be the same as spiritually belonging to God.

-God was saying that through the woman there would be a chosen lineage that belonged to Him. And that chosen lineage would be at war with the lineage of the serpent. So, when you’re reading the Bible and you come to those genealogies, you at first might be tempted to be bored stiff because it says this person begat that person and they were this many years old and they lived this long and they had other children—over and over again saying the same things. But these genealogies are important because this is God saying here is the chosen lineage. This is the offspring and seed of the woman. We might say that this is the lineage of faith.

-But then the serpent has his offspring, his seed—those who spiritually belong to him. We might say that this is the lineage of unbelief. Be they idolators, pagans, or even hard-hearted religious people, they belong to the serpent. The offspring of the serpent are those that are opposed to God, and if they are opposed to God, they are opposed to God’s people—the offspring of the woman. The two sides would be in constant conflict with one another.

-Ever since this fall of humanity there has been this conflict, and it still rages today. If you think of the past, Pharaoh and Egypt who enslaved the Jews were the offspring of the serpent, fighting against the offspring of the woman. Or if we think of modern times, the government of China that opposes true, biblical Christianity and imprisons or kills Christians is of the offspring of the serpent fighting against the church that is the offspring of the woman. Or, make it more personal, that coworker who despises you because you stand against an ungodly culture and hold to biblical values, they are of the offspring of the serpent and they are just continuing the war that God said would happen because God makes a distinction between the offspring of unbelief and the offspring of belief.

-But will this war ever end? Will there ever be a time when humanity does not have to do battle with the serpent and his seed? Is humanity doomed to an endless cycle of wrestling with the devil, as well as being under God’s just condemnation? Humanity is too weak to win this war, is there someone who can bring victory to humanity to bring them beyond constant conflict with the serpent and rebuild the lost relationship with God? Again, God made the way...

2) The provision of a victor

-I mentioned that the offspring of the woman would be the lineage of faith—but that lineage was leading to one specific person, one specific offspring, one specific seed. God had one particular person in mind, and ultimately the serpent and his offspring would be at war with this man. The lineage would follow from Eve to Seth to Noah to Abraham to David, and on down the line until the victor, God’s champion for humanity, was born.

-And this is why we celebrate Christmas, because God brought forth the One who would give victory to those who were lost, and reconcile humanity to God. Jesus Christ is the offspring, the seed of the woman. He is the offspring and seed of Abraham through whom all the world would be blessed. Jesus Christ is our victor and champion. And v. 15 prophesies what He was going to do.

-It says at the end of v. 15 that the serpent would strike the heel of this offspring. The serpent would do something to strike at this champion—but it would only be temporary. An injury to the heel is a temporary setback, but is not deadly. You don’t usually die from a heel injury. So, the serpent would do something to this offspring that would be temporary.

-But then there is the promise given that the offspring of the woman would strike the serpent’s head. A head shot is deadly—it is the final blow. God was prophesying that He would send a champion who would make a final defeat of the serpent and the serpent’s offspring. The serpent would not win. He would have temporary victories over time in the battle, but he could not win. And what is interesting is that the strike that the serpent would give to the heel of this offspring would actually bring about the strike to the serpent’s own head.

-Think about this. The Bible says that Satan entered Judas to betray Jesus so that the line of events would start that would end in His death. The serpent wanted Jesus dead, thinking that once the Son of God was dead he would have free reign over humanity—nothing could stop him. Little did he know that he had a part in his own doom.

-Yes, Jesus, the prophesied victor and champion of God was crucified and died. But it was through that crucifixion and death that Jesus took the punishment for the sin and rebellion of humanity. Jesus said IT IS FINISHED; THE DEBT IS PAID IN FULL. The door was now open for humanity to return to God. But this victor didn’t stay dead—God raised Him from the dead to demonstrate that His sacrifice was accepted, and all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him, including the power of life and death.

-The Bible tells us that by this death Jesus took the keys to death and hades from the serpent (meaning He took over power and authority over death) and the serpent no longer had any power over humanity. Paul says that Jesus paraded the serpent and his demons in front of all of creation to show that they were defeated. And Revelation tells us that the serpent and his offspring are going to be thrown into the lake of fire.

-All because God sent a victor, a champion—One Who was both God and man. Right from the beginning God prophesied Christmas—God would send an offspring from the woman who would defeat all of humanity’s greatest problems and enemies. And if you have believed in Christ and trusted in Christ, you are part of the victory. Immanuel, God with us, has won all our battles. God can now be our Father, not our enemy. And the serpent no longer has us in his grip, and death no longer has the final say.

-This makes for a good set-up for Christmas, but what are some lessons that we can take from this passage?

*On this earth we are at war

-Yes, Jesus Christ is our champion who saves us from sin and death and the devil. But as long as we are still journeying in this earth, we are going to have struggles and battles. The conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman is far from over. When we have come to Christ, we might no longer belong to Satan’s Kingdom of Darkness, but he still tries to fight against us to prevent us from being useful to God on this earth.

-Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, powers, and spiritual forces of evil who want to make us ineffective on this earth. So Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God so that we can we can stand our ground and stand firm. If we make the logical conclusion here, if we do not put on the armor of God and leave ourselves spiritually vulnerable, then we are going to be pushed down, we are going to be weakened. Yes, we have eternal victory, but we will not experience much spiritual victory on this earth. But we can experience victory here if we put on the armor and trust in Christ.

-Not that this is a blanket promise that there won’t be adversity. There will always be adversity and lots of it. The question is what is going to be the outcome of the adversity. Will it knock you out of the battle, or will you come out on the other side with a stronger resolve? One author said:

He is a foolish dreamer who expects an easy and bloodless victory for any noble plan. But yet, success waits before every good cause if it can only persevere and struggle on with its wounded heel.

-Yes, we might get our heels struck in many a battle on this earth. But we put on the armor and persevere knowing that ultimately our champion struck the enemy on the head, and he has already lost.

-Usually we think of Christmastime as a time of peace and hope and joy and love—and it truly is. And we rejoice in the victor born on that day who made peace, hope, joy, and love possible. But it ought to also remind us that there is a serpent who is trying to steal our peace, hope, joy, and love while we are here on earth, so we have to fight for it. We rejoice in the victor, but also join Him in the battle.

*We have the greatest news to share

-Genesis 3:15 is often called the PROTOEVANGELIUM, which means that it is the first gospel. It is the first declaration of good news that God was going to send a deliverer for humanity who would strike at and destroy the serpent and all his works. You might not look at Genesis 3 and think that this is a Christmas story. There’s no angels, no shepherds, no manger—just a serpent and a couple of humans. And yet, Christmas was declared on this awful day.

-Yes, the serpent deceived. Yes, humanity rebelled. Yes, sin and death became a reality. And yet, there is an offspring of the woman who would reverse it all. The good news is that the serpent already lost and his fate is sealed. Yes, humanity joined in his rebellion, but their fates don’t have to be sealed. On Christmas day, born of a virgin, the God-man was born to die for humanity and rise for humanity, so that for eternity they can have peace, hope, joy, and love that can never ultimately be taken from them. As one author poetically put it:

When God wanted to save the world, He didn’t send a committee, He sent His Son.

When God wanted to say, “I love you,” He wrapped his love-note in swaddling cloths.

When God wanted to crush Satan, He started in a stable in Bethlehem.

-Such good news is not to be kept to ourselves, but we can share with the world that Jesus brings the victory.

Conclusion

-I’ll conclude with this thought....I love Christmas hymns, and one of my favorites is Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! But our hymnals only give us three out of the five verses that Charles Wesley wrote. So, the fourth verse had our passage in mind. {Just imagine it to the music, because I’m sure not singing it}

Come, Desire of nations, come,

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving pow’r,

Ruined nature now restore;

Now in mystic union join

Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

“Glory to the newborn King!”

-Christian, come to the altar today and give glory to the newborn King, our Victor. Or maybe you are fighting a hard battle, come to the altar and seek strength from our Champion.

-But if you are not in Christ, you are actually the offspring of the serpent. Come to Christ and find victory over sin and death and the serpent...