The Promise (The Edenic Era)

In the beginning, God spoke “the world and all things therein” (Acts 17:24) into existence. God created the heavens and the earth by His word. Under His plan and by His design, creation was a direct response to His word. The Creator made all of creation for His sixth day creatures – Adam and Eve. Together they were built by God. Adam, the first man, was created from the dust of the earth and Eve, the first woman, from Adam’s side. “God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another.” Man was the only creature made in the likeness and image of God Almighty. This was not an act of chance, but an act of divine design according to God’s plan. The omniscient God saw through the annals of time, through all the events and circumstances of history, and had His plan in place from Genesis 1:1 even unto the end of the world.

All had been made in six days and God sanctified the seventh day for rest. By a series of actions, a series of blessings, everything that God had designed was complete. All of creation and the creatures were spoke into existence by the powerful word of God. He looked upon them and saw that they were “good,” however, “this was all an untested goodness.”

The Fall of Man happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God after following the deception offered by Satan, who was in the form of a serpent. Man was deceived by the great deceiver, Satan, to take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and therefore directly violated God’s command to not eat the fruit of this particular tree. And from a pool of free will and temptation, sin entered into the world. Sin must be judged. As a result of this transgression, God introduced the curse. In Genesis 3, the serpent (v.14-15), the woman (v. 16), and man’s habitat and living (v. 17) were cursed by God. Sin brought forth sorrow, shame, pain and death upon all of mankind. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

At this point, the cause and effect of sin seemingly looms large and hopeless for man. But, God’s plan was not sidetracked or derailed by these turn of events. God was not taken aback by the results of temptation and free will. God, full of grace and mercy, promises a seed.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15).


“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,”

God is speaking directly to the serpent, which was Satan, the chief instigator to the introduction of sin into the world. As a result of this deception, God states that the devil will be hated by all of mankind. God put enmity between good and evil. Even to this day, there is a constant struggle between God’s people and Satan and there always will be this opposition. “Heaven and hell can never be reconciled, no more can Satan and a sanctified soul.”




“…and between thy seed and her seed;”

Not only enmity between God’s people and the devil, but also, between the Messiah and Satan. “Her seed” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not natural for women to have seed, but this is a prophetic word spoken of the supernatural virgin birth of Jesus Christ. There is hostility between the serpent’s seed (Satan) and the woman’s seed (the Lord Jesus) ordained by God as He declared in this prophetic verse.



“…it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

“It,” the seed of the woman, will crush the head of the serpent, even though, the serpent will bruise its heel. A fatal blow will be dealt to the devil by the Messiah. “Bruise his heel” refers to the suffering of the Lord Jesus and His people, but not a mortal wound. This part of the promise was fulfilled at Calvary when Jesus suffered and died for atonement to all sinners. Although Jesus Christ was mocked, ridiculed, persecuted and tortured, it was for the sinner’s deliverance and Satan’s defeat. Even though God’s people are mocked, ridiculed, persecuted and killed, it is all just as a bruise on the heel compared to the victory won at Calvary by our loving Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

In the midst of man’s despair, God graciously decrees the first word of promise. His prophetic promise is that the Messiah will come to deliver the people from the curse which was divinely set as a result of having sin enter the world. The promise is an answer of gleaming hope of the Messiah to come and deliver “fallen man from the power of Satan.” The curse was warranted and resulted in apparent hopeless with the individual affliction and the expulsion from Eden, but by the mercy of God, the promise of a seed of the Redeemer was a blessing to fallen man. The promise of a coming Savior is the continuous theme that will provide an inner unity throughout the OT to form a solid theology that is under the authority of the Bible.