Wars are brutal, wicked, and sinister and leave untold damage not only to buildings and infrastructure, but also to people. My son-in-law says that more people have been maimed in the Ukraine war than the last world war.
When thinking back to the war the old South Africa fought from the then South West Africa (now Namibia) into Angola against Swapo, it was brutal. So many of our men were injured and lost limbs because of landmines being planted … some planted by themselves. In walking through 1 Military Hospital’s Ward dedicated to those injured in the war, some permanently in ICU cubicles, covered with special sheeting … not because their limbs were gone (which they were), but because their skin was gone. Pipes and leads, machines and nurses 24 hours a day.
War is gruesome, brutal and terribly horrible. Standing at a distance, only reading about the results and effects, the losses and gains of a war never provides the full picture. Yet being part of the command structures reveals reality … and the worst for me are the casualties. The dead … what did they die for? The injured and maimed and shell shocked … their lives are a misery, a battle and a continual struggle.
Where does this all come from? What seed caused one nation to rise up against another? It all started in the Garden … in Genesis chapter 3. Every bit of evil started there! You will recall how we mentioned that the word “enmity” includes brutality and hatred and vengeance. Read again:
Ge 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
1) Although “enmity” is such a brutal concept, it is also filled with grace because God put this enmity into place. Between the woman and the serpent God place enmity. The serpent targeted her, causing her downfall into sin. He damaged her innocence, He stole her life. He cause her continual pain and suffering and enmity means that God hates this enemy and will deal with this enemy in the most brutal manner no human can understand. The level of onslaught shall be more than all the wars from the start of the planet to its end put together. God’s intended end for the serpent (devil) is eternal hell, the burning lake of sulfur … relentless raging fires that never burn out because the materials causing the fires never burn up.
2) We have said that this enmity would be shaped in a person, God the Son. He is the evangel of verse 15. He is the offspring of the woman … God incarnate! The battle the Evangel shall fight against the devil shall be fierce and brutal but there shall be only one victor! “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” These are the Words of God to the serpent. Let’s deal with the later part first.
(1) You will strike his heel. When walking in the bush you will be wise to use proper boots because should you step on or near a snake, it shall attack the lowest part of your body. Should you not have boots on, it will bite your heel. You can cauterize the wound, extracting the venom and prevent a fatality. The devil will strike Jesus’ heel … meaning that throughout the life of the people of God, the devil tried to kill off the offspring of the woman to prevent the Messiah. Cain killed Abel, yet Adam and Eve had other children. The devastation of the flood, yet the three sons of Noah, Seth in particular, produced an offspring. Abraham lied about his wife and she could have fallen pregnant … and run through the blood line of Israel to Jesus and see each time evil rose to strike the Messianic heel. He tried to kill him at birth at the hand of Herod. He tried in the desert temptations. He tried on the Cross. Each time he was unsuccessful because Messiah is God … the devil is a created, limited being. Just as the damage a snake can do to the heel causes pain, discomfort and slows you down … so the devil’s attack on the heel of Messiah might have slowed things down.
(2) However, God’s promise is that the Messiah shall crush the serpent (devil’s) head! The difference between strike the heel and crush the head is enormous. Striking the heel in minor and temporal. Recovery shall happen. Whilst crushing the head implies the death nail. God is saying that the Messiah He shall send will completely destroy the serpent (devil). That is what crushing the head means. Total and absolute victory with the enemy being destroyed completely. A crushed head means rendered totally useless never to recover.
3) It is God’s grace that as soon as sin entered we are told of a restoration that shall occur. It shall take many years, from Adam through to Jesus (see Matthew and Luke’s genealogy records in their fourth chapters), and during this period the Messianic heel shall be attacked but at Calvary God crushed satan’s head! He rendered satan useless! Although salvation was always by faith, the Old Testament had an elaborate method of presenting animals at the temple to be slaughtered … but God warned that these were imperfect offerings. They were temporal. They were never intended to remain.
At God perfect time, He sent His Son into this world to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World. Satan thought that with Jesus being crucified, he had eventually gained the victory over God. How naïve and stupid. How short sighted and immature. Jesus’ death would be the greatest event in the life of the planet, for through it, each of the souls God chose before creation for salvation will be saved! Jesus death was followed by his resurrection. He willing died … He willingly gave His life as full payment for sin … only to take back His life again.
Where the devil thought God’s promise of death for probationary disobedience would hamper man eternally, he miscalculated because God is more clever … the death of Messiah pays the sin price, but the resurrection of Messiah assures the death blow … the crushing of the serpents head. At present he has limited reign … but we know:
Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
Rev 20:7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
You cannot read Genesis 3:15 without knowing the final account.
Our Father thank You for promising the end of our adversary and in showing how his end shall be. Amen.