God Promises a Savior

Genesis 3:14-15 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 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.”
 
TODAY begins a series of promises pointing to Jesus. In truth, the entire Bible points to Jesus. But we’ll look at some of God’s specific promises regarding Jesus’ saving work. We begin with a three-part look at God’s judgment of Satan, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:14-19. They are standing before God. Satan has tempted the first couple to sin, and God is passing judgment on the Tempter and the tempted. In this passage the LORD God judges Satan. He promises a Savior will destroy Satan.
   The title of this lesson could be “God Promises a War”. Conflict marks God’s message to Satan. God’s first act of war is to curse the snake. No longer would it walk upright as it had been created. It would crawl along the ground and be an object of fear and aversion to mankind. We may see the snake as an innocent tool of Satan’s destruction. But it is at God’s authority that he re-created the snake to remind us of sin’s curse.
   Then the LORD directly promises there will be conflict between mankind and Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. We may stop to wonder if this is true. After all, most of the world since that day have submitted to Satan’s rule. Cain is the first of Adam’s and Eve’s offspring, and he lived as Satan’s friend! And we know sin’s horrible effects on the world.
   But this is a promise of hope. God is telling Satan there will be people in the world who will reject him. They will hate him to the point they despise his temptations and turn in pleasure to God’s salvation. The hatred toward Satan is revealed in the human race through the law, prophets and gospel. We hate Satan when we hate sin’s condemnation and its destruction of all things good. God’s Word discloses the battle against evil and the ultimate triumph of Good.
   God promises that triumph in his next statement to Satan: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This points to Jesus. The Savior will come to crush Satan’s head – his authority – over Jesus’ church. The apostle Paul testified to Jesus’ words that confirmed this promise: Acts 26:17d-18 “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”  God’s forgiveness is crushing Satan’s condemnation.
   But there is a cost to Christ. God’s promise you will strike his heel means that Jesus’ saving work will cause the Savior to suffer physical harm. It also means that the faithful will suffer physical persecution.  
   From the very first prophecy of the Savior, God is telling us that salvation requires a battle to defeat the Tempter. Jesus is called “Savior” for a reason.