Bible Basics 3.2 The Promise in Eden

The Promise in EdenThe story of humanity’s fall is related in Genesis chapter 3. The serpent was cursed for misquoting God’s word and tempting Eve to disobey it. The man and woman were punished for their disobedience. But a ray of hope comes into this dark picture when God says to the serpent.“I will put enmity (hatred, opposition) between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her (special, notable) descendant; it (the woman’s descendant) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15).This verse is highly concentrated; we need to carefully define the various things involved. We will see later that Abraham’s special descendant was Jesus (Gal. 3:16), but that if we are in Jesus by baptism, then we also are the “descendant” (Gal. 3:27-29). This word “descendant” is translated “seed” in some versions, as it also refers to the idea of sperm (1 Pet. 1:23); so a true ‘seed’ will have the characteristics of its father.The seed or descendant of the serpent must therefore refer to that which has the family likeness of the serpent.§ distorting God’s Word§ lying§ leading others into sin.We will see in Study 6 that there is not a literal person doing this, but that within us there is.§ “our old man” of the flesh (Rom. 6:6)§ “the natural man” (1 Cor. 2:14)§ “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22)§ “the old man with his deeds” (Col. 3:9).This “man” of sin within us is the Biblical “devil”, the serpent.