Satan's Doom Announced

Then the Lord sought that which was lost, the guilty pair, and
addressed the serpent. The words the Lord then spoke contain the first
prophecy of the Bible. It concerns Satan, how God will deal with him
and his final doom. "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" (Gen. iii:15). Without fully explaining this
prophecy, which may well be termed the germ of all subsequent prophecy,
we but point out what it means. From the woman there is to come a
seed, an offspring who is to bruise the head of the serpent (Satan),
that is, overcome the serpent, and that the serpent is to bruise the
heel of the seed of the woman. Furthermore, there is to rage a
conflict between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent's
seed and the seed of the woman. There can be no question whatever that
the seed of the woman means the Son of God in His incarnation. Paul
writes to the Galatians, "But when the fulness of time was come God
sent forth His Son made of a woman" (Gal. iv:4). He is the seed of the
woman, the virgin-born Son of God. His death is mentioned in this
first prophecy as the bruising of His heel. Then the final victory
over Satan and his final doom, his head is to be bruised. And till
that is accomplished there is to be conflict between the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent, a conflict between those who side
with God, believe on and wait for the promised One, and those who side
with Satan and his works. Satan heard then from the lips of Jehovah
that the seed of the woman would conquer him and seal his doom.

His Work and the Conflict Begins

The predicted conflict began at once. Two sons are born to Adam and
Eve. Satan watched them. He is interested to see if one of them might
be "the seed." He saw Cain bringing an offering of the fruit of the
ground (the labor of his hands) unto the Lord.[2] Satan must have been
delighted with Cain, as he beheld him, as a self-righteous man,
rejecting God's provision for him as a sinner. He knew Cain was his
man and belonged to his seed. It was different with Abel. Abel
brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof. "By
faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by
which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his
gifts" (Heb. xi:3). He was a believer, who owned himself as a sinner
and because he believed, God accepted his offering. As Satan beheld
this scene he must have imagined that Abel was "the seed of the woman."
Then he filled Cain with wrath and moved him to slay his brother Abel.
Thus Satan manifested himself in the beginning of the human race as the
liar and the murderer. Our Lord testified of this character of the
enemy when He spoke to those who conspired to kill Him and who belonged
to the Devil's seed: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father
of it" (John viii:44). But the murder of Abel was unavailing. Eve
bore another son "and called his name Seth, for God, said she, hath
appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew" (Gen.
iv:25). Satan was defeated for the first time.

Next: An Interesting History Of Satan
Previous: Where Was His Satan Original Dwelling Place

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Satan's Doom Announced