So the Lord God said to the snake, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly 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 hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’
Genesis 3:14-15 NIVUK
A number of years ago, we decided to go on a family holiday at Christmas time. My wife really wanted to experience a white Christmas. Scotland doesn’t have white Christmases. Instead, we have white Februaries.
So off we popped to northern Finland, just a little short of the Arctic Circle, to the city of Rovaniemi. Our Christmas that year had every single stereotype you can imagine: deep snow, pine forests, log cabins, reindeer, sleighs, Santa Claus, Christmas dinner... but it lacked one thing:
Jesus was missing.
In the parade of seasonal clichés, there was nothing there to mark the birth of our Saviour.
These verses seem to be just like that trip. There is no mention at all of Christmas. Yet Jesus is there, between the lines, and all the Christmas clichés are absolutely absent.
But where is He? And what does a couple of verses about a cursed serpent have to do with the birth of a baby in Bethlehem?
That is what we are going to find out.
Before we examine these verses in any kind of detail, we need to understand the context. The snake is not being cursed because it ate someone’s pet, or because it escaped from the reptile house at the zoo. The snake, or ‘serpent’, of Genesis 3 is a physical manifestation of the devil. he has tempted Adam and Eve to disbelieve God’s nature and intentions and to violate the simplest of His commands (Genesis 3:1-6). This led to a catastrophic degradation of their relationship with each other, with creation and with God (Genesis 3:7-13). Its culmination is their being cast out of paradise and cut off from the tree of life: the embodiment of eternal life with God (Genesis 3:22-24).
There is no doubting that this is a tragedy, not just for Adam and Eve, but for the entire human race that would spring from them.
At this point in history, it would seem that the serpent – satan – has the upper hand.
Or does he?
We see three phases in this ancient curse against satan. The first is victory.
And this victory seems to be a little strange.
After all, moments earlier Adam and Eve have been successfully tempted to disobey God. Creation is marred: first with shame and then with death. satan has achieved his aim of destroying the good that God has created. Jesus is plain that this is his purpose and always has been (John 10:10).
But this is what God says to him:
So the Lord God said to the snake, ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:14 NIVUK
The picture of dust eating here doesn’t just refer to the serpent’s literal position of crawling along the ground. Neither does it refer to a serpent’s preferred diet – it’s clear that serpents do not eat dust
No, eating dust is a metaphor representing absolute and total defeat. God is condemning satan to lose, and lose big, without the right to reply or appeal.
Now, that might seem strange. After all, given what we have seen before, hasn’t satan already won?
No.
Not one bit.
Because these verses are the pronouncement of God’s plan to defeat satan once and for all.
A plan that was completed when Jesus rose from the dead.
In the 1970s, the Rolling Stones released a controversial song called ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. It seems that some people are taking this too far. Bands of feckless sinners, who feel constrained and rejected by Biblical Christianity, have gathered around the so-called ‘Church of Satan’. Although they don’t actually believe in the devil, they mock Christianity by destroying Bibles and worshipping satan, while giving free reign to their immoral and illicit whims.
I don’t understand that. I don’t understand that at all.
Why worship a loser, even in jest?
Because, make no mistake: satan is a loser.
God promises here that satan will one day be defeated completely and utterly. That day came when He resurrected His Son Jesus Christ from the grave. And what had to take place for this to happen?
Christmas.
Secondly, as well as victory, we see emnity.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.’
Genesis 3:15 NIVUK
satan, who had acted like he was a friend to Adam and Eve, would now become their mortal enemy. They would see him for who he is, a murderer and the father of lies (John 8:44), the accuser (Revelation 12:10), the destroyer (Revelation 9:11). Too late, they have seen through the deceptive marketing, they have lifted up his mask and they have outed him.
Interestingly, the word translated as ‘offspring’ here also means ‘seed’. The same word is used in Genesis 12:7 regarding God's promise to Abram that his offspring, or seed, will be given the Promised Land, and this word is constantly used hereafter to refer to the generations that will be born from Abram.
Or is it just the generations? Paul has a rather interesting comment on the use of this word:
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds’, meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed’, meaning one person, who is Christ.
Galatians 3:16 NIVUK
In other words, Paul applies verses like this not just in the general sense, to all mankind, but also in the particular sense, to Jesus Christ.
That is, there will be emnity, hatred and hostility not just between satan and human beings, but, and more significantly, between satan and the followers of Jesus Christ. That is a given. It happens and it continues to happen.
Why?
Well, it’s quite simple. Both sides set out to destroy each other’s work:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10 NIVUK
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
1 John 3:8 NIVUK
What we have to understand is that satan and Jesus are at complete cross-purposes. satan is a fallen angel (Revelation 9:1) who was cast from Heaven not because he was a misfit, but because he tried to usurp God’s sovereignty (Revelation 12:10-12; Isaiah 14:13-15 refers to Babylon, but is also thought to refer to satan).
But what relevance had this to Christmas?
Compare these two accounts. Firstly, we have the apocalyptic vision of Revelation 12, where a woman gives birth to a child – clearly identified as Jesus – and in verses 4 and 13-16 we see a dragon attempting to destroy Him.
Now look what happened after the Magi visited Jesus while he was a toddler:
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’ When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’
Matthew 2:13-18 NIVUK
A serial killing to eliminate one small child.
Do you see the parallel?
We have a picture postcard view of Christmas, likely fuelled by the idealistic images we see in the media and on Christmas cards.
It’s not accurate.
Christmas was a battle in a war between God and satan. It was tough and it was bloody, but satan lost.
As he is doomed to do so.
So we see that the coming of Christ was the working out of His certain victory over satan, and that there is emnity between the two (which explains much of what we experience nowadays). However, these verses go on to explain their strategy, in a rather strange and interesting verse:
He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
Genesis 3:15 NIVUK
What on earth could this be about?
The verse talks about the offspring or seed of the woman – ultimately expressed in Jesus Christ – crushing, or literally ‘bruising’ satan’s head.
What do you do with your head? What’s in it?
I’m sure we’ve all been asked this numerous times. Inside our head is our brain: the command centre of our bodies. We also have our senses of taste, hearing, smell and sight there. It is a very important part of our body. The same word, as it does in English, refers to a chief or commander.
What this verse says is that Jesus will mount a full-frontal attack on satan’s means of command and control.
And how does he control?
Through fear.
Through fear of what?
Death.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15 NIVUK
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 NIVUK
So satan conceives of a plan to destroy us by using our fear of death to manipulate us like puppets on a string, but God comes along, raises Jesus from the dead and cuts that string once and for all.
We are free!
If God can free us from our ultimate fear, then He can just as well free us from any other of satan’s attempts to manipulate and enslave us.
But what about the next part of the verse, which states that satan will strike Jesus on His heel?
This is where I would like to differ from the traditional interpretation of this verse.
Traditionally, this verse is said to refer to satan’s attempts to kill Jesus by having Him hung on a cross. However, the heel is one of the few parts of the body that is not affected by crucifixion. Even the nails that were probably hammered into Jesus' feet (Luke 24:40), not into his heel.
So what could this verse really mean?
It has been pointed out that the heel is quite an insensitive part of our body – there are fewer nerve endings there. Also, unlike an attack to the head, an attack to the heel will always leave the victim unsighted – we do not have eyes in the back of our head. So what we see described here is an underhand ‘sneak attack’ on a part of the body where we do not see well and do not feel well. The snake venom could be circulating through our veins and we would think that we had maybe been stung by a small creature or plant.
The Greek word that was used for its Hebrew equivalent for ‘bruise’ in the first translation of the Bible into Greek can also refer to an wound inflicted by a wrestler on their opponent to illegally shorten the bout.
So what we are talking about here is a thoroughly underhand, deceptive attack on an exposed and vulnerable part of our life where we don’t see or feel it coming until we are too late.
And that is one hundred percent in keeping with his nature:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44 NIVUK
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:14 NIVUK
In fact, in every interaction with satan in the Bible, he is deceitful and conniving. Think about what happened in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-6), or when satan incited God against Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6), or when tempting Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Look how he used Judas to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3; John 13:27).
The one time – the only time – satan is ever up front and honest about his intentions is when he is accusing God’s guilty people of sin (Zechariah 3:1). That is why he is known as the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10).
Tactics are important. Knowing them helps us to defend against them (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
One Rabbi noted that when Jacob, who was known as something of a conman himself, was born, he was grasping his brother Esau’s heel (Genesis 25:26). He took this to mean that Jacob was set to grasp at Esau’s character deficiencies and flaws – his weaknesses – to get the better of him, which is precisely what happened. And satan does the same to us. That is precisely how he gets his way. And when he has his way with us, he then accuses us to the point when we believe there is no way back to God for us, which causes despair and regret (2 Corinthians 7:10).
So how do we overcome this seemingly overwhelming strategy?
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:24-25 NIVUK
Freedom comes through Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. That freedom is reinforced when we know ourselves and strengthen our weaknesses through changes in behaviour and attitude and making ourselves accountable to others.
But what does all this have to do with Christmas?
As I said before, Christmas should never be seen as one joyous escape from a life of misery, or one day of light amidst the darkness.
No, it is a single play in God's wider strategy to defeat satan once and for all to set us free. It might seem insignificant at first – like a chess player moving a pawn at the start of a game – but even the birth of a tiny baby in an occupied Jewish backwater is hugely significant in God’s great plan.
You see, satan’s strategy might seem hard to beat, but Jesus knows how to defeat him – and He will, no doubt about that. There is deep emnity between Jesus and satan, and their followers, but take heart, Christian: Jesus has overcome and will overcome (Romans 16:20, c.f. John 1:5). And His victory has already been declared.
Christmas is a time for more than optimism; Christmas is a time for hope. Hope that the sins that beset us and betray us will one day be conquered. Hope that Jesus will make all things new. Hope because the devil is defeated.
But Christmas is more than that. Christmas reminds us that these things are a matter of absolute certainty.
And nothing will ever change that.
It’s just a matter of time.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You for the reminder at Christmas that I can be free, and that if I trust in You I will prevail. I don’t want to be a victim of satan anymore. I want to be free. Amen.
Questions
1. What do these verse say about the outcome of the battle between Jesus and satan? Who will win and why?
2. What do these verses say about the nature of satan’s relationship with human beings and Jesus Himself? How does this show itself?
3. What do these verses teach us about satan’s tactics to destroy us? What do they say about Jesus’ tactics to defeat him? Which of these sets you free from sin and how?
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