Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #19 of Genesis, chapter 3 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 3:15:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

In our last study we saw that the enmity between the serpent and the woman involves the Gospel, the Word of God. It is the spiritual warfare that has been raging since the fall of man into sin. God already had in place His Gospel program in which He had determined to save a people for Himself. God made that determination before the world was and all the necessary provision and work was finished before the foundation of the world.

Here, God is describing the battle that would continue for thousands and thousands of years between the seed of the wicked one, as we saw in Psalm 37, verse 28 and the seed of God’s elect that are in Christ, the seed (singular).

The last part of the verse says, in Genesis 3:15:

… it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

We can see from the way the pronouns were translated that it is incorrect. They do not match. First of all, the first pronoun is not male or female, but is the word “it.” Then the second reference is translated in the masculine “his” and, of course, it should be translated, “He shall bruise they head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Then the pronouns are in agreement. This is actually how it should be translated because it is referring to the “seed” (singular) who is Jesus. Jesus shall bruise the serpent’s head. For example, we read in Psalm 68:21:

God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.

God shall wound the head, just as it was prophesied in Genesis 3, verse 15. Ultimately, the wounding of the head of the serpent happened at the cross. In Revelation, chapter 13, where God discusses the beast rising out of the sea or the loosing of Satan at the time of the Great Tribulation, the “beast” is one of the names God assigned to Satan, but it particularly applies to his rule during the little season of the Great Tribulation, the 23-year period that went from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011. It says in Revelation 13:3:

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

In some places God pictures the beast as having seven heads and ten horns. The seven heads point to the different periods of Satan’s rule over the earth. For example, we see this in Revelation 17:9-10:

And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

Again, the seven heads are said to be seven mountains that point to various epochs or periods of reign of Satan over the course of the world’s history. God is picturing the entire rule of the devil as “seven heads.” The Book of Revelation was written in the 1st century AD and God tells us that five have fallen, one currently is and the other has not yet come, but when he would come he would continue for a short space. That “short space” was the final rule of Satan during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation. Therefore, five periods of Satan’s rule led up to the time of the cross and at the cross there was a change in the way Satan would rule because when Christ went to the cross, He “bound the strong man” and He cast Satan, as it were, into the bottomless pit and shut him up for a figurative thousand years, the entire period of the church age which worked out to be 1,955 years. But at the time of the cross was when Satan’s head took a blow. It was like a “death blow” that Christ struck against the serpent and that is why it says in Revelation 13 that when Satan was loosed to begin his final rule that “one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed.” Prior to this he had been constrained in the bottomless pit and he could not prevent the evangelization of the world through the New Testament churches, but then he was loosed and he took his seat as the man of sin in the churches. He had renewed strength and power and authority inside the churches and outside the churches in the world. It was like the cross never happened. So the “deadly wound” was healed, for God’s purposes, and God would complete His salvation program outside the churches to save the great multitude and then bring to pass the Day of Judgment.

This is what is in view in Genesis 3, verse 15 concerning God’s prophesy: “He shall bruise they head.” Jesus Christ did fulfill this verse when He struck that death blow against the head of Satan, as Revelation 13 indicates that the deadly wound was healed. Of course, at this time in history it does not seem that it happened, but it did.

Then it goes on to say as God addresses the serpent, in Genesis 3:15:

… and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This is rather strange and unusual. It is difficult for our minds to grasp what is being said here and the only way we can understand is by God’s grace as we follow the Word, comparing Scripture with Scripture.

The heel that is bruised is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is part of Christ’s body and the “heel” is attached to the foot or body. We know that God does speak of His “body” as all those that are saved and they are members in particular of His body and He is the head. The Lord views the body of believers that He sends into the world to carry forth the Gospel (in the day of salvation) as the “feet.” The heels are part of the feet. That is one way we can see that it relates to God’s elect.

When we look at this word “heel,” we see it is used in regard to Jacob in Genesis 25:24-26:

And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

Here, we read of the birth of twins Jacob and Esau. Jacob grabbed hold of his brother Esau’s “heel” and that is significant as far as God is concerned. In Hosea the Lord continues to focus in on the fact that these twin babies were born and one brother grabbed hold of the other brother’s heel. It says in Hosea 12:3-4:

He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

Jacob took his brother by the heel while in the womb and God connects it to “strength” and “power” with God.

In Jeremiah we find a related Hebrew word for “heel.” You can look it up in the concordance. Our word “heel” is Strong’s #6119 and the related word is Strong’s #6117. They are identical in spelling with all the consonants. The consonants are the Word of God. The vowels are known as “vowel pointing” and they were added later; they were not in the original Hebrew text and they are not part of the original Word of God. So, if we have a word that has identical consonants, then they are identical words. We have this word “heel,” but it is translated as “supplant.” It says in Jeremiah 9:2-4:

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith JEHOVAH. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

The word we are looking at is found twice, as the word translated as “utterly” and the word translated as “supplant.” It is like saying, “supplanting supplant,” and this is what every brother will do. So, the word “heel” means to “supplant.” And we know that to be true because of what Esau said concerning his brother Jacob in the account where father Isaac blessed Jacob before Esau; he had meant to bless the elder Esau, but through Jacob’s deceit, he blessed Jacob instead. It says in Genesis 27:32:

And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

Then Isaac went on to give Esau an earthly blessing, but it was said that Jacob was rightly named. Why was he named Jacob? It was because he had grabbed hold of his brother’s heel. He supplanted his brother and he went in the stead of his brother to receive the birth right and the blessing. Of course, it was all according to the will of God because, ultimately, it went back to God’s choice that was made before Jacob and Esau were born. In the Book of Romans, God tells us that Jacob He had loved and Esau He had hated. Before either was born, God made that choice and things worked out as they did in history, but it all went back to God’s selection of Jacob and leaving Esau in His sins. So, this supplanting involves salvation and it is related to the “heel” and we can see how the “heel” identifies with Jacob and Jacob identifies with God’s elect. So, this is a second truth about the spiritual significance of the word “heel.” I mentioned earlier that the “heel” is part of the foot and the foot is part of the body of Christ, which identifies with God’s elect. Also, the “heel” is that which supplants as represented by Jacob or God’s elect.

So, what is being said in our verse? When it says, “And he shall bruise thy head,” we understand what is going on there. Christ struck a death blow against Satan at the cross. Then it says that the serpent “shalt bruise thy heel.” It is the “heel” of Christ (his body), referring to the elect. Again, for almost 2,000 years, if you wanted to find God’s elect, they could be found in the churches and Satan certainly did because they were his target; he went after the “woman” because of the enmity between her seed and his seed that began with man’s fall into sin. Where would he find the “woman” or God’s elect people? He would find them in the churches and congregations in every century since the 1st century AD. The “woman” would be in the church, so Satan assailed the churches. He had some success all throughout the church age as he sowed tares among the wheat. He may have been able to deceive a certain congregation over here or maybe an entire denomination over there, but God’s spirit was within the midst of the churches and God was blessing them according to His will for centuries until we reached the time of the end.

Then at the time of the end God loosed Satan – the “deadly wound was healed.” Now the final “head” of beast or the final rule of Satan would be his greatest reign. He took over the churches and, in so doing, he “bruised the heel” of Christ. He injured the elect in the sense that this was his intention as he came against the congregations. In other words, he supplanted the Lord Jesus Christ in the churches. God’s Spirit had departed out and Satan’s evil spirit came in as the “abomination of desolation” stood in the holy place and Satan took his seat in the temple showing himself that he was God. There was finally a victory for Satan. Jacob had laid hands on the heel of Esau and, again, Esau would be of the seed of the serpent. He is a picture of the unsaved and Jacob was continuously victorious over Esau in the matter of the birth right and the blessing. But, at the last, the serpent is “winning.” The serpent is supplanting Christ and the serpent is the one that seems to have gotten the upper hand.

You know, it is interesting when father Isaac tells Esau of the only blessing that remains for him, it says in Genesis 27:38-40:

And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

Here, God prophesied thru Isaac that Esau would have the dominion; Esau would “win” in his time and when we fit this in with the rest of the Bible, we know there was the Great Tribulation when Satan overcame the camp of the saints. It says in Revelation 13:7:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them…

This would be the time of Esau’s victory. He is rejoicing at the terrible plight of his brother and that is one of the components in the Book of Obadiah where God finds fault with Esau for doing so. This was at the time of the end when God had reserved the time for Satan to “bruise his heel.”

It was all according to the plan of God and everything has worked out according to God’s perfect will all through history. And here we are, as we remain living on the earth after the Great Tribulation, the time when Christ’s heel was bruised, and now we are living in the Day of Judgment. We see that God has fulfilled both aspects of this prophecy, spiritually. The prophecy was given long ago in 11,013 BC at the time of the fall of man into sin when man was deceived by the serpent. God prophesied a prophecy that took the rest of history in which to unfold, but then it was fulfilled and now we are waiting on the Lord to finally complete all else that is in accord with His Word concerning the final judgment.