By Brock Bondurant
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”- Genesis 3:14-15
The serpent tried. But God has continued to make a way for humanity.
When the LORD appointed Adam and Eve – humankind – to rule over the earth instead of Satan, the devil could not stand it. He sought to corrupt humanity and take the earth for himself. After he convinced humans to rebel in the above passage from the Garden of Eden scene, God predestined that One would rise up from among humanity, from the seed of the woman, to restore mankind by vanquishing the serpent –“He will strike your head,” – thus reestablishing man and woman as the rightful rulers of earth.
You may be thinking, but what about the bruised heel part? Though Satan was cursed to crawl about, he still had bite. In particular, his demented appetite hungered for destruction—and ultimate destruction would be preventing God’s proclamation from coming true: thwarting this prophesied “offspring” of the woman.
We see this throughout Scripture—Satan attempting violence on the seed of the woman. Recall Pharoah’s violent command concerning the Hebrew babies in Egypt (Exodus 1:22); or Israel’s willingness to sacrifice their children to a false god (Jeremiah 32:35); or the most obvious case related to the Advent season when Herod placed a death sentence on boys under the age of two after hearing of the birth of Jesus (Matthew 2:16-17). Yet each time, God maintains the way for humanity’s restoration. This Chosen One who was spared through the generations is Jesus of Nazareth who would come to destroy the works of the Enemy.
Jesus is the One who would “strike,” or crush, the head of the serpent. And he did so by the most humble means imaginable. As if God coming to dwell with humanity in the form of an infant wasn’t enough, Jesus embraced the pain of death by laying down his own life (John 10:18), being crucified in humiliation before his foes. It looked like the hoped-for Messiah had lost, that Darkness had won.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan willingly walks before the creatures of darkness and gives himself up, while they mock him, bind him, strip him of his fur, and put him to death. But oh, the roar that came that next morning!
A better, true roar occurred on that third day two-thousand years ago when the Son of God, the Son of Man, was raised to life! The Enemy was defeated! The enemy IS defeated!
Every Advent season we come together to celebrate this child that was born despite the will of the enemy for his destruction. We celebrate God coming as a baby born in the town of Bethlehem. The One that would fulfill all prophecies, including the very first prophecy of his coming victory found in Genesis 3. The enemy is defeated! Victory in Jesus!