Genesis Chapter 3, The First Messianic Prophecy
Then God Almighty said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this, you are the cursed one out of all the domestic animals and out of all the wild animals of the field. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike him in the heel.”
WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS IN THE PROPHECY?
When the Bible speaks of offspring in a figurative sense, it is referring to those who think and act like their symbolic father.
So the offspring of the serpent is made up of spirit creatures and humans who, like Satan, resist God and oppose His people. That would include the angels who abandoned their assignments in heaven in Noah’s day as well as wicked humans who behave like their father the Devil.
—Gen. 6:1, 2; John 8:44; 1 John 5:19; Jude 6.
The identity of the woman mentioned at Genesis 3:15 is revealed in the last book of the Bible.
(Read Revelation 12:1, 2, 5, 10.)
This is no ordinary woman! She has the moon at her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.
She gives birth to a most unusual child—the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom is heavenly, so the woman must also be heavenly. She represents the heavenly part of God’s organization made up of his faithful spirit creatures.
—Gal. 4:26.
Who is the primary offspring of the woman, and when did he become such?
(Genesis 22:15-18) God’s Word also helps us to identify the primary offspring of the woman. This offspring was to be a natural descendant of Abraham.
(Read Genesis 22:15-18.)
True to the prophecy, Jesus was a direct descendant of that faithful patriarch.
(Luke 3:23, 34)
But the offspring would have to be more than a human because he was to crush Satan the Devil out of existence.
Accordingly, when Jesus was about 30 years old, he was anointed as the spirit-begotten Son of God.
At his anointing, Jesus became the primary part of the offspring of the woman.
(Gal. 3:16)
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, God “crowned him with glory and honor” and gave him “all authority . . . in heaven and on the earth,” including the authority “to break up the works of the Devil.”
—Heb. 2:7; Matt. 28:18; 1 John 3:8.
Genesis 3