Transcript & Slides: Promised Offspring
Promised Offspring: The Gospel in Genesis 3:15
By David Feddes
The Old Testament begins with God's creation of the world and the sin of our first parents. It was a terrible day, when the old serpent Satan led Adam and Eve to disobey God. But even on that day, when humanity became corrupt and subject to death, God made a promise, which sparked hope in humanity and struck terror into Satan.
That promise set in motion the drama of all the rest of the Old Testament and of the Bible: God's people longing to give birth to the promised Savior, and the serpent eager to destroy the promised Offspring before the Child could destroy him. The Lord said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). These offspring would be at war.
Now, there's much more to this statement than the fact that women don't like snakes. It's unlikely that Adam and Eve knew fully the deadly devil who spoke through the snake. But they knew that something terrible had been behind the snake's words. It's unlikely that Adam and Eve knew the full details about the promised Seed, how Jesus would eventually defeat Satan. They may not have known exactly how that would happen, but they had a promise from God. And they could hold on to that promise by faith.
Genesis 3:15 is the first great statement of the gospel and of this conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. We can trace this, first of all, in the book of Genesis, and then throughout the Bible.
Serpent offspring
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 4:1). Maybe Eve thought this baby Cain was the seed of the woman who would defeat the serpent. Later Eve gave birth to Abel. Later, after they grew up, "Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him… Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden" (Genesis 4:1-16).
Although Cain was a seed of the woman in one sense, he was actually a seed of the serpent. Jesus called Satan "a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). Scripture says, "We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you" (1 John 3:12-13). There's a great conflict between the seed of the woman, who has given us God's Seed, and the seed of the serpent, the ungodly.
"Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives… Lamech said to his wives: … I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold” (Genesis 4:23–24). Lamech does what he wants. He takes two wives, when he is supposed to have one. He kills somebody who has only slightly wounded him. As generations appear in the line of the serpent's offspring, they keep getting worse. Lamech goes beyond Cain in his wickedness.
Godly offspring
But then we also read about godly offspring. "Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:25-26).
So you have the Cain line, and the Seth and Enosh line. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth… Enosh… Kenan… Mahalel… Jared… Enoch… Methuselah… Lamech… Noah" (Genesis 5).
Offspring at war
The word Genesis means “beginnings.” But in Hebrew the title of Genesis is Toledot, which means “generations.” It's the book of generations. Again and again, you read in Genesis, “This is the book of the generations of _______," whether of Adam or of Noah or of Cain or whoever. You have these genealogies, these generations. And in all of these generations, remember what's going on: there is offspring—offspring of the woman and of the promise, and offspring of the serpent who oppose the woman and want to destroy the child of promise.
As we look at this, I want you to notice three things. First, there is an unchanging gospel given already in Genesis 3:15. From the beginning, God gave the gospel. Salvation has always been through faith in the promise of a victorious offspring.
Second, notice that God has an intergenerational plan. His salvation plan stretches across history, from generation to generation. This explains why we see quite a few genealogies in the Bible—more than we want to read, more than we want to study. Genealogies to us are about as exciting as reading names in a phone book. And maybe we don't need to read carefully and scrutinize and memorize every word in all of those genealogies. But those genealogies send a clear message: God has an intergenerational plan that goes from generation to generation to generation.
Third, continual warfare runs throughout the whole Old Testament, comes to a head in the New Testament, and continues in the lives of God's people. Satan and his offspring try to destroy the woman's offspring by exterminating, wiping them out, or else by adulterating, by corrupting them and making them mingle with the serpent’s offspring, turning them into serpent offspring.
1. Unchanging gospel
Notice what the New Testament says about the gospel: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” … Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ" (Galatians 3:7-8, 16).
Now compare that statement to what God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between your offspring and her offspring.” The word "offspring" is used to refer to people who are loyal to the devil, and it is used to refer to those who come from the woman and are loyal to God. But the main focus is on one particular Offspring who is going to be the fulfillment of God's promise. The unchanging gospel is that there is one particular Offspring, promised to Adam and Eve, promised to Abraham, promised to others as well, and this one particular Offspring is going to be the key to it all—the fulfillment of God's promises. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promise to give Offspring that would defeat and destroy the serpent.
2. Intergenerational plan
Then Abraham is given that very specific promise: to your offspring. And then Isaac and Jacob, the son and grandson of Abraham, receive the same promise that through their offspring all the world will be blessed. It’s not just that Jacob's offspring, the Israelite people is so special—though it is—but that Jesus, that ultimate Offspring, is coming. Through Jesus, all the nations will be blessed. One son of Jacob, Judah, is identified as one whose offspring will be the ruling one. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Genesis 49:10). So, as you start in Genesis chapter 3, you have the offspring of Adam and Eve. And by the time you get to the end of Genesis, and thousands of years have passed, you have it focused on Judah in particular. And as we read further in the Old Testament, David is the descendant of Judah who is given a promise that his offspring will be the one whom God has promised to bring salvation to the nations and to rule Israel.
When you get to the culmination of that intergenerational plan, you open your New Testament, and what do you get? A genealogy! The gospel according to Matthew starts with these words: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Matthew then lists name after name, generation after generation, from Abraham to Jesus. God always had this intergenerational plan in mind, and he fulfilled it when he brought Jesus.
Luke also gives us a genealogy: “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli” (Luke 3:23). Luke then works backward from Jesus through a lot of generations to "the son of David" through some more generations to "the son of Abraham" through some more generations to "the son of Shem, the son of Noah" through some more generations to "the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:23-38). The Son of God, Jesus, the second Adam, fulfills God’s intergenerational plan that got underway with the first Adam, "the son of God," and his wife Eve, carrying forward God's promise that the offspring of the woman would come to destroy the seed of the serpent.
3. Continual warfare
The promise of Genesis 3:15 is a gospel promise, it’s intergenerational, and it’s a promise that there’s going to be conflict. There’s enmity. There is war. And this promised Offspring is going to suffer some damage. But ultimately, this promised Offspring is going to bring victory and crush the head of Satan, the serpent.
The book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, gives a similar vision to that which we have in the first book of the Bible. In Revelation 12, John receives a vision in which he sees a dragon. "The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born" (Revelation 12:4). This is echoing what was going on in Genesis 3:15—the serpent, that old dragon, is wanting to destroy the offspring of the woman, and the woman is wanting to give birth to this promised Offspring to gain victory over the dragon.
How’s it all going to turn out? We have this continual warfare, where the dragon, the serpent, wants to exterminate, or else adulterate and corrupt, the promised Offspring.
Trying to exterminate or adulterate
At the beginning, the very first offspring of Adam and Eve, Cain, the evil one, murders his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8).
Then, before the flood, it says the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of men (Genesis 6:2). And so the line of promise was starting to intermarry with that wicked line of Cain, controlled by Satan and his demons, and was becoming more and more godless. But God preserved believing Noah and his righteous family (Genesis 6:9).
After the flood, we see the serpent trying again to destroy the promised Seed. God promises Abraham that Abraham’s family is going to produce this Seed that’s going to bless all the nations. And what happens? Sarah is infertile—she can’t have a baby. Eventually, through a miracle of God, she has Isaac (Genesis 21:1–2). Then Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, can’t have a baby. And through a miracle of God, she’s able to have offspring—Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:21).
So, you see, the attacks always try to prevent this promised Offspring.
When the people of Israel were in Egypt, the wicked Pharaoh tried to wipe out the baby boys of Israel. This wasn’t just Pharaoh being nasty and trying to control things. Behind Pharaoh stood the power of the serpent, Satan the dragon, trying to wipe out the promised Seed (Exodus 1:15–22).
Later, King Saul had an evil spirit troubling him, and he tried to spear David. Even though David was always doing what was faithful and good for Saul, Saul was trying to kill David (1 Samuel 18:10–11). At one level, we might say, “Saul was a little off in the head. He didn’t want David to inherit the throne, and that’s why he wanted to kill him.” But there’s more to it than that. That evil spirit of the dragon, the serpent, was trying to kill David, because through David would come the promised Seed.
Later on, in the time of the wicked king Ahab, there was an intermarriage between Ahab’s line and the line of the godly King David. Jehoshaphat, who was a godly king, allowed his son to marry a daughter of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel. That daughter, Athaliah, eventually tried to wipe out the whole line of David, including some of her own grandkids, in order to make herself queen (2 Kings 11:1–3). You might say, “Wow! That was a nasty, nasty woman.” Yes, she certainly was. But there’s more to it than that. Whether Athaliah realized it or not, she was doing the work of the serpent in trying to wipe out the Seed of the promise. But God had provided for a godly priest to hide one baby boy from David’s line, and that little baby was kept safe. When he got a little older, the boy Joash was brought into the open and announced to be the offspring of David, and Athaliah was killed (2 Kings 11:12–16). The serpent's attempt to wipe out the line of promise failed again.
Later on, during the time of Esther—a little over 400 years before Jesus—we read about wicked Haman, who was an enemy of God’s people. He was so furious at Mordecai, a Jewish man, for not bowing down to him, that he tried to wipe out all of the Jewish people. Haman got an order from the emperor of Persia to wipe out the Jews. But unknown to him, the Persian ruler was married to a woman who was secretly a Jew: Queen Esther (Esther 3–7). Through her, God saved the Jewish people from being exterminated. Again, you see the offspring of the serpent trying to wipe out the promised Offspring who would bring salvation.
After the exile and after Haman, there were attempts by people from various backgrounds and worshiping various gods to try to intermarry with Jewish people and get those people to become pagan. These intermarriages might have destroyed the line of promise by blending the Jewish people into the nations, but Nehemiah and Ezra stood up against intermarrying and insisted, “We’ve got to remain loyal to the Lord. We can’t just marry these daughters of pagan gods and then follow those gods” (Ezra 9–10; Nehemiah 13).
During the time of the Maccabees, about 170 years before Jesus, a vicious ruler called Antiochus Epiphanes wanted to destroy Jewish identity and loyalty to God. Antiochus was a foreshadowing of the final Antichrist. He tried to destroy the Jewish people by killing many of them or by forcing them to act like pagans. All of this was the serpent trying to wipe out the promised Seed.
Satan vs. Jesus
It all came to a head when the promised One was literally about to be born from a particular holy woman. This was the fulfillment of God's promise, the fulfillment of all the dreams of God’s people—that the Virgin Mary was about to give birth to the Savior of the world. After Mary gave birth to Jesus, King Herod tried to kill all the newborn babies, because he wanted to destroy the newborn Messiah who was born in Bethlehem, the city of David (Matthew 2:1–18). Herod the Great was a vicious, evil, wicked, no-good, rotten, nasty, paranoid man. But this was beyond merely being a very bad human; Herod was dominated by the devil. Herod was doing the devil’s work when he tried to wipe out the baby Jesus before Jesus could even grow up and offer himself for the world.
The devil came to Jesus in the desert and tempted him again and again to go over to Satan rather than continue serving God the Father (Matthew 4:1–11). You see that warfare.
The devil can even come to you through a close friend. Peter had just finished confessing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. But when Jesus said, “I must suffer and die," Peter objected: "No! That must never happen.” What did Jesus say? “Get behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:21–23). Jesus knew that the serpent was trying to turn Jesus away from his mission.
After failing to divert Jesus from his mission, Satan in a frenzy of hatred and anger and murderousness entered Judas’ heart and got Judas to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3–6; John 13:27). He corrupted the priesthood: Annas and Caiaphas. He corrupted the Roman governor, Pilate. Satan got all of them to have phony trials and convict Jesus of crimes that Jesus never committed. Jesus was totally innocent, and they knew it, but they still sentenced him to death. Satan struck Jesus with the worst sin and betrayal in the history of the world. The serpent struck Jesus even with death itself.
At that point, it seemed that God's promised Seed had failed. It seemed that the serpent crushed the head of the promised Seed—because he had killed him. But Jesus paid the full price of sin by his death, and he rose from the dead, and he crushed Satan’s head in rising from the dead. He took Satan’s own weapons—the worst sin ever committed and the worst death ever suffered—and he used those weapons, which bruised his own heel, to crush Satan’s head.
You see, this promise of Genesis 3:15 is really revealing to us a main thread that runs all the way through the Bible—through the Old Testament, through the life of Jesus Christ, and through his death and resurrection. The promised is fulfilled in Jesus’ triumph over Satan.
Woman's Son Defeats Dragon
All that is summarized in Revelation when it says that the woman—this is not just Mary, but the people of God, "the Jerusalem this is above and is our mother" (Galatians 4:26), but it includes Mary too—the woman gave birth to a Son, a male Child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her Child was snatched up to God and to his throne” (Revelation 12:5). There’s an awful lot of history in just those few verses. Here Revelation doesn’t go into all the details of what happened throughout all that Old Testament history of Satan trying to swallow up the Seed. It doesn’t go into much detail about how Satan tried to destroy Jesus. All it says is: the woman gave birth to the Son, and he was snatched up to God and to his throne.
This triggers a victory and a defeat: a victory for the Seed and a defeat for the dragon. “The great dragon was thrown down—that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Revelation 12:9). They’re thrown down as a result of what Jesus has done. When things get bad, we're tempted to think it means Satan is winning. But it means the opposite. It means Satan has already lost, and he knows it. "He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12). He’s a defeated dragon. He’s a crushed snake. His time is running out.
Why was Jesus born? We can reflect on a variety of reasons, but one major reason Jesus was born was simply this: to destroy the devil. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14–15). The Son of God came to destroy the devil. He had other purposes, but that was a major one—to crush the head of the serpent, and in so doing, to release us from the serpent’s grip. He was born to defeat a deadly dragon. That’s the message of Revelation 12, it's just picking up on the message of Genesis 3:15.
Promised Offspring
- Unchanging gospel: From the beginning, God gave the gospel. Salvation has always been through faith in the promise of a victorious offspring.
- Intergenerational plan: God’s salvation plan stretches across history from generation to generation. (Biblical genealogies matter!)
- Continual warfare: Satan and his offspring try to destroy the woman’s offspring by exterminating or adulterating.
When we read of this promised Offspring already in the very first part of the Bible, God is giving us the basic outlines of what he’s going to do—the unchanging gospel from the very beginning. Salvation has always been through faith in God’s promise of a victorious Offspring.
God has had this intergenerational plan through the Toledot—the generations and genealogies of Genesis and throughout all the generations of the Bible. God’s salvation plan stretches across history from generation to generation. And so the genealogies matter. God’s generational plans matter. The fact that God’s promises are for us and our children matters.
Finally, there’s continual warfare. Throughout the Old Testament era, throughout the career and ministry of Jesus on earth, through his death, Satan and his offspring tried to destroy the woman’s offspring by exterminating or adulterating that offspring.
It’s important to have the big picture as you’re reading the whole Bible. And Genesis 3:15 is one of those big-picture verses that helps us to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.
The story continues
- Unchanging gospel: Jesus fulfills God’s promises, and salvation comes through faith in him.
- Intergenerational plan: God’s promises are for believers and their children from generation to generation.
- Continual warfare: Satan, mortally wounded and doomed, still tries to exterminate or adulterate God’s people.
The story continues. The canon of Scripture is closed, the Bible is complete, but God continues to work, and Satan continues to fight.
The unchanging gospel still holds true. Jesus fulfills God’s promises, and salvation comes through faith in him. People before Jesus were looking ahead to a promised Seed and receiving salvation through faith in God’s promise. We look back—we know the fulfillment. We know all that God has done in Jesus, and what a marvelous salvation it is! We’re much more privileged than those who came before Jesus, who simply had this promise of an Offspring but couldn’t know everything that God was going to do. We can trust this unchanging gospel, now completed and fully revealed.
The intergenerational plan continues. “The promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off” (Acts 2:39). God’s promises are for believers and for their children from generation to generation. God still has intergenerational plans. He plucks people from the grip of the evil one, and he wants us to believe in him and then transmit that faith and that love for him to our children and to succeeding generations.
And let's be alert to the continual warfare. Satan, though mortally wounded and doomed to hell, still tries to wipe out God's people, exterminate them. He still tries to corrupt and tempt and swallow them up by adulterating them. We need to be aware of this warfare and live with a full knowledge of it and be ready to resist him, to be able to stand against the persecutions he sends. Those persecutions are very intense in some parts of the world, where Satan still harms and kills people. We also need to beware of his temptations—ease, and wealth, and wickedness. Those are ways in which he tries to adulterate and corrupt God's people still today.
In Revelation 12, the dragon becomes furious with the woman. He's furious because the woman has given birth to the Offspring, and the Offspring has triumphed. He can't touch Jesus anymore. Jesus has won. Jesus is enthroned with all power in heaven forever. The devil can't do a thing to lay a finger on Jesus anymore. That’s why he’s furious. "Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (Revelation 12:17).
You see, you and I are seed of Abraham. We are children of God. And Jesus, the ultimate Seed of Abraham, the Son of God, is beyond Satan’s reach. He can’t be touched by Satan. So, Satan takes it all out on you and on me who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to feel the brunt of his fury.
Satan’s special targets
- Jews: Satan hates the group that gave birth to the Messiah.
- Babies: Satan hates each new baby that reminds him of the promised offspring who was born as a baby.
- Christians: Above all, Satan hates God’s elect, who stand against him and carry on in Christ’s victory.
The world often excuses attacks on Jews, babies, and Christians.
There are some special targets for Satan in our world today. One target is still the Jews, as it has been for thousands of years. Satan hates the group—the nationality—that gave birth to the Messiah. The children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were chosen by God long ago for that high purpose of living for God and shining for him and bringing to birth the Messiah. Satan hates the Jews, mainly because Jesus was and is a Jew. Sad to say, some foolish and wicked people calling themselves Christian have persecuted Jews from time to time. But that’s the work of Satan, not the work of Jesus. Satan hates the Jews. The Holocaust was an attack of Satan. Anti-Semitism and other attacks on the Jews have been the work of Satan.
Another group that Satan targets is babies. Even before God drove our first parents out of the Garden of Eden, God promised an Offspring to the woman. Satan hates babies because he knows that the offspring of woman has been the cause of his downfall. Every baby reminds Satan of the promised Offspring who was born as a baby. When you see millions of babies being aborted—being murdered before they can even be born—do not think that this is some great liberation for women or some great advance in culture. This is Satan’s hatred of babies and his deception of people into thinking their lives would be better if they would kill their own babies. Babies are special targets of Satan, and millions upon millions of them are being murdered in our world still today. We must recognize this as the work of Satan.
Above all, Satan hates Christians. He hates God’s elect. He hates those who stand against him and carry on in the victory of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11). We Christians are not going to be defeated by Satan; we overcome him by the blood that Jesus shed for us and by the word as we testify to him.
The world will often excuse attacks on Jews, on babies, on Christians—even when it’s trying to be open-minded. There are people who claim to respect all peoples and nations, but they are quick to denounce Jews and Israel. There are people who claim to be defenders of the weak, but they are busy championing the aborting of babies. There are people who claim great tolerance for all religions and interest groups, but they will not object when Bible-believing Christians are mocked, and they’ll even do some of the mocking themselves. The world often excuses attacks on Satan’s special targets. Why? “We are the children of God, and the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Jesus has won the victory. But the worldlings—those who don’t acknowledge Jesus’ victory—are still under the control of the evil one. And Satan’s hatred flows through them in targeting others.
Victory for woman’s offspring
Genesis 3:15 helps us understand the Bible. It also helps us to understand our own time—to understand the hatred of Satan for us and the victory that we have in Jesus. Jesus said just before he went to the cross, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die (John 12:31–33).
Jesus’ death did not take him by surprise. He knew the prophecy that his heel would be bruised when he went to the cross. But he also knew the prophecy that he would crush the serpent’s head. And he came to bring judgment on the so-called ruler of this world. He told his disciples that night before he died, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Jesus said to them that same night, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18–20). If they hated Jesus, the Seed of the woman, they will hate the other believing seed of the woman.
Warning to Serpent’s Offspring
Jesus also gave warnings to those who were the serpent’s offspring. Jesus told some people who were religious, who were ethnically Jewish, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires” (John 8:44). Jesus would speak to the seed of the serpent and he’d say, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33). Jesus didn’t say these things out of hatred. He was calling many and warning them so that they could repent and become children of God—that they could become seed of the promise by faith in Jesus Christ.
Stomping on Satan
Still today, Jesus gives these promises and warnings. Remember that serpent whose head is going to be crushed? Jesus tells his followers, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you (Luke 10:19). Jesus says through the apostle Paul, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Romans 16:20).
The very end of the Bible sees a day when “the devil... was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur” (Revelation 20:10). That is the end of the serpent. And that is the end that awaits all who belong to the devil. Jesus says that at the end of time, he will say, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). That’s the destiny of the serpent and of his offspring.
But the destiny of the righteous is to tread on the head of the serpent and then to live forever with God in his new creation. The last two chapters of the Bible bring us right back to the first two chapters: to Paradise, to the Garden of God, to the tree of life, to the wiping away of all tears, and into the renewing of all creation. The final chapters of Revelation picture a restoration of the first chapters of Genesis, only better and everlasting.
The gospel that God reveals already in Genesis 3:15 and then unfolds through the rest of Scripture is a marvelous gospel indeed. And as we study God’s Word, the Bible, let’s keep that wonderful, victorious big picture in mind.
Promised Offspring: The Gospel in Genesis 3:15
By David Feddes
Slide Contents
Offspring at war
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Serpent seed strikes
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel… Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him… Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Genesis 4:1-16)
Serpent offspring
We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. (1 John 3:12-13)
Generations of serpent offspring
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives… Lamech said to his wives: … I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:17-24)
Godly offspring
4:25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Godly generations
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth… Enosh… Kenan… Mahalel… Jared… Enoch… Methuselah… Lamech… Noah (Genesis 5)
Offspring at War
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Promised Offspring
- Unchanging gospel: From the beginning, God gave the gospel. Salvation has always been through faith in the promise of a victorious offspring.
- Intergenerational plan: God’s salvation plan stretches across history from generation to generation. (Biblical genealogies matter!)
- Continual warfare: Satan and his offspring try to destroy the woman’s offspring by exterminating or adulterating.
1. Unchanging gospel
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” … Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3:7-8, 16)
2. Intergenerational plan
- Adam’s offspring
- Seth’s offspring
- Noah’s offspring
- Shem’s offspring
- Abraham’s offspring
- Isaac’s offspring
- Jacob’s offspring
- Judah’s offspring: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah… and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” (Gen 49:10)
- David’s offspring
2. Intergenerational plan
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)
Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,… the son of David… the son of Abraham… the son of Shem, the son of Noah… the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:23-38)
3. Continual warfare
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Dragon Against Woman’s Offspring
The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. (Rev 12:4)
3. Continual warfare: exterminate or adulterate
- Cain against Abel
- Intermarry godly & godless before flood
- Infertility of Sarah and Rebekah
- Pharaoh: wipe out Israelite baby boys
- Saul: moved by evil spirit against David
- Intermarry David’s line & Ahab’s line
- Athaliah: wipe out David’s royal line
- Haman: massacre all Jews
- Intermarry Jews with pagans after exile
3. Continual warfare: Satan vs. Jesus
- Herod: sought to kill newborn Messiah and all babies born in the city of David
- Wilderness temptations
- Poisoning Peter’s words
- Entering Judas’s heart
- Corrupting Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate
- Striking Jesus with sin and death
- Jesus paid the full price of sin, rose from the dead, and crushed Satan’s head
Promised Seed Succeeds
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. (Revelation 12:5)
Defeated Dragon
The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world— he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:9)
Why was Jesus born? To destroy the devil.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1 John 3:8)
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
Born to defeat a deadly dragon (Revelation 12:1-5)
Promised Offspring
- Unchanging gospel: From the beginning, God gave the gospel. Salvation has always been through faith in the promise of a victorious offspring.
- Intergenerational plan: God’s salvation plan stretches across history from generation to generation. (Biblical genealogies matter!)
- Continual warfare: Satan and his offspring try to destroy the woman’s offspring by exterminating or adulterating.
The story continues
- Unchanging gospel: Jesus fulfills God’s promises, and salvation comes through faith in Him.
- Intergenerational plan: God’s promises are for believers and their children from generation to generation.
- Continual warfare: Satan, mortally wounded and doomed, still tries to exterminate or adulterate God’s people.
War on other offspring
Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. (Revelation 12:17)
Satan’s special targets
- Jews: Satan hates the group that gave birth to the Messiah.
- Babies: Satan hates each new baby that reminds him of the promised offspring who was born as a baby.
- Christians: Above all, Satan hates God’s elect, who stand against him and carry on in Christ’s victory.
The world often excuses attacks on Jews, babies, and Christians.
Victory for woman’s offspring
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:31-33)
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Hated by the world
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:18-20)
Warning to Serpent’s Offspring
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. (John 8:44)
“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)
“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matthew 23:33)
Promise to chosen offspring: Stomping on Satan
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. (Luke 10:19)
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (Romans 16:20)
Destroyed Dragon
The devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. (Revelation 20:10)
Last modified: Monday, June 23, 2025, 5:20 PM