The coming of the Messiah to crush the serpent’s head is all of grace and mercy. It is entirely undeserved and unearned by fallen man. The man and the woman stood there that day utterly condemned, without any hope to escape the terrible judgment of God which proclaimed, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Ge. 2:17). They were facing eternal death, and no amount of sorrow or good deeds or religious works could undo what had been done and take away the just punishment of God. But God loved them, and He Himself planned and provided salvation for them by becoming their Substitute and rising from the dead.
This is the first mention of the seed referring to the Messiah. This revelation gradually unfolds through Scripture. He is the seed of Abraham (Ge. 22:18), the seed of Isaac (Ge. 21:12; 26:1-3; Ro. 9:7; Heb. 11:18), the seed of Jacob (Ge. 28:13; 35:10-12), the seed of Judah (Isa. 65:9), the seed of David (2 Sa. 7:12-13; Ro. 1:3). Paul plainly states that the promised seed is Christ (Gal. 3:16). See also Hebrews 2:16, “He took on him the seed of Abraham.” By saying that the seed is singular, Paul is saying that in some places the seed is used in the singular to refer to Christ. In other places it is used in the plural to refer to all of the descendants of Abraham, both physical in Isaac and Jacob (e.g., Ge. 13:15-16; 15:5; 17:7-8) and spiritual, meaning all true believers (Ro. 4:16). The Hebrew word for seed (zera) and the Greek word for seed (sperma) and the English word seed have both plural and singular meanings. Zera is used in the singular in Genesis 4:25 and many other places. “‘Seed’ may sometimes denote a multitude, yet here it denotes one Person, namely Christ. We ourselves would probably never see this in reading the OT, but the Spirit of God enlightens us” (Bible Believer’s Commentary). There are many who are a son of Abraham, but Christ is THE son of Abraham (Mt. 1:1). He is THE Seed.
Christ will be the seed of the woman. This is a prophecy of the incarnation of God through the virgin birth. It refers to something supernatural. A woman does not naturally have seed and cannot naturally bear a child without the seed of the man. The Hebrew word for seed, zera, is a masculine noun. Normally children are the seed of their fathers, but Jesus had no earthly father. Compare Galatians 4:4, “made of a woman.” Through the virgin birth Christ came into the world as a sinless man, Immanuel, God with us, to make atonement for sin. The sin nature is inherited through the father (Ro. 5:12).
Christ will be bruised in His heel by the serpent. This is a prophecy of Christ’s sufferings and death on the cross. It is described as a bruising of the heel because it was not permanent, since Christ rose from the dead. Isaiah 53:5, “he was bruised for our iniquities.”
Christ will bruise the serpent’s head. This is a prophecy of Christ’s resurrection and eternal victory over sin. A head wound refers to a deadly wound, which signifies the complete defeat of the devil’s program and his eternal judgment. See Hebrews 2:14-17. Through His incarnation and atonement, Christ has destroyed the devil’s power by redeeming sinners from the penalty of the law. Ultimately the devil will be cast into the lake of fire (Re. 20:10). “The Messiah, the eminent seed of the woman, should bruise the head of the old serpent the devil, that is, destroy him and all his principalities and powers, break and confound all his schemes, and ruin all his works, crush his whole empire, strip him of his authority and sovereignty, and particularly of his power over death, and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men; all which was done by Christ, when he became incarnate and suffered and died” (John Gill).
God prophesied that mankind will be divided into two streams: Satan’s family and God’s family, saved and unsaved, and there will be hostility between them. Compare Matthew 13:38. We see this age-long conflict that began immediately in Genesis 4 when Cain hated his brother Abel because he was a believer and a prophet of God. Compare 1 John 3:12.
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