The Seed of the Woman

By: Chris Johnson

Have you ever wondered what Adam and Eve must have thought when they heard God give the first gospel message in Genesis 3:15?

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Here was God’s first promise to send a savior who would conquer sin and death.

Adam and his sons would doubtless go on to dig many holes and plant many seeds in their role as gardeners whom God had given dominion over the earth; they would also learn about reproductive systems in man and animals; none of this would give them an understanding of how a woman might have a “seed.”

Even using the word other translations put in place of seed – offspring, doesn’t add much clarity. Throughout the Bible, children are referred to as the father’s offspring. The genealogies follow the format: “When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh,” for example. The mother gives the husband children, i.e. “Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham” or “Bilhah conceived and bore a son to Jacob.”

Of course, we know now about the one outstanding example, who alone in the Bible is referred to as the Son of His mother: Jesus, “the Son of Mary.” (Mark 6:3) Jesus is the promised “Seed of the woman,” but the woman was not Eve – at least not directly.

For thousands of years, generation after generation of God-fearing men and women would continue to hope for God’s promise to Eve to come true. They would learn more and more about what to hope for in His coming: “I will make the nations your heritage” (Ps. 2:9), …the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is 9:6)

They would learn where to look for Him – in Abraham’s family, in Judah’s tribe, in David’s line, in the city of Bethlehem.

But all along this mystery of the woman’s seed would make little intuitive sense. Even today, I think the explanations we commonly use don’t do God’s prophetic promise justice.

We typically explain it from the gospels’ making clear that Jesus did not have an earthly father – He was not Joseph’s son, He was God’s Son, “conceived by the Holy Spirit,” and of course that’s true. But there’s more to it, I think.

There is something the mother of our Lord and the mother of our race had in common besides hoping in the fulfillment of his promise.

They both had to plant their seed.

When Mary visited the temple, Simeon prophesied to her regarding her newborn son, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.” (Lk. 2:35) That was a feeling Eve doubtless knew too well.

I can’t help but wonder if something didn’t click for Eve as she watched her husband digging a hole as he had doubtless done many times before, not to plant a tree, but to bury her son.

What must she have felt with one of her offspring a murderer and the other his victim? If ever there were a need for hope in the promises of God that the work of the serpent would be undone, it was then. Where was the “seed” who would crush the serpent’s head? It was not her jealous, violent son, and it was not the lifeless shell her husband now planted in the dirt.

The fact is, women who believe in the promises of God have been “planting their seeds” since Abel, with every child born by a woman laid to rest. But when Christ died, was buried, and resurrected, the harvest began!

“…Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor. 15:20)

We like to celebrate Christmas and Easter as separate holidays, and so, the focus during Christmas tends to be on the humility of the circumstances of Christ’s birth, or on the gifts of the wise men, or on the welcome given to the Holy Infant by the local shepherds.

Those are all wonderful things to focus on and celebrate, but it only serves to magnify these aspects when we keep in the back of our minds that the sweet little baby in the manger came to conquer our greatest enemy.

To those who feel the loss of a friend, or a parent, or a child, or a sibling, Christmas is for you. That pain and loneliness you feel, that impotent hatred of sin and death?

Christ came to fix that.

“In Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ…” (1 Cor. 15: 22, 23).

As we anticipate Christmas this year, let us recall the suspense in which the whole world was held as it awaited the coming Champion. As we look forward to His second coming, they awaited His first. As we look back in awe, they looked forward in wonderment.

What a privilege to celebrate the coming of our Savior!

Joy to the world!
The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing

 

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