Did Adam and Eve Understand the Prophecy of Genesis 3:15?
Today, we have the benefit of a full Bible. We can read from Genesis to Revelation and see how the ancient prophecy in Genesis 3:15 plays out through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and on into the visions of Revelation. But did Adam and Eve understand what God was telling them?
I believe they understood it well enough to know that a future hope had just been promised to them that would right the wrongs they’d just created. If you had been in their woven fig-leaf sandals and were suddenly promised a way back to the paradise you’d just been forcibly removed from, wouldn’t you understand what was at stake?
Consequently, we can view the story of the Old Testament as the hopeful and long-awaited expectation of the one who will crush the serpent’s head. With every new male child born, the people of Israel likely cautiously whispered among themselves, “Might he be the one to save us all?” C. I. Scofield called this the “highway of the seed,” and others have named it “the scarlet thread of redemption.” Of course, the highway finds its end in Jesus Christ.
What Did Adam and Eve Do After Hearing the Curse of Genesis 3:15?
Adam and Eve's actions help us to discover whether or not they truly understood the prophecy. After God essentially said that one of their descendants would ultimately fix what they had broken, what did they do? “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord” (Genesis 4:1).
They responded with belief.
They may have even believed that Cain was the promised one. After all, no births had ever happened before. Additionally, the Hebrew in this verse could be translated as, “I have gotten a man who is the Lord.” But Cain’s actions would prove soon enough that he was not the one, and then the Old Testament continually recounts the constant hope for the seed who would crush Satan’s head.
Waiting for the Promised One
With each new son of Adam and Eve and their subsequent descendants, the field for “the one” keeps narrowing. By the end of the Old Testament books, we can assume who the promised one may be with almost pinpoint accuracy. In those books, we’re given prophecies regarding his place and time of birth, how he’ll be born, his lineage, and much more. That’s why the very first book of the New Testament, Matthew, goes to such great lengths to show Jesus’s lineage and to account for many of the Old Testament prophecies about this promised one. So Matthew calls for all to rejoice, for the Savior who will crush the serpent’s head has finally been born.
When we understand Israel’s underlying desire for a specific heir, many of the stranger stories of the Old Testament begin to make sense. Up until the birth of Jesus, the Bible recounts story after story of women who experience almost unmatched despair when they’re not able to produce a male child. Such grief is still common today (regarding both male and female children), but the authors of the Bible go to great lengths to record the anguish these ancient women felt when they weren’t able to conceive. I’m convinced the reason for such deep grief is the cultural and spiritual despair they felt over not being able to possibly provide the offspring who would crush the serpent’s head.
The High Necessity of Marriage and Procreation in Ancient Israel
Lastly, in light of Genesis 3:15, consider the seeming hypocrisy in some of the Israelite laws regarding marriage. Hebrew law forbade adultery, polygamy, and sleeping with a brother’s wife. Yet when a childless man died and left a widow, the widow was expected to both marry her former husband’s brother and to lie with him so as to conceive a child. It was the brother’s God-given responsibility to impregnate his deceased brother’s widow. Why? Because the promise of God to bring about a savior required women to have babies.
The preceding post is an adapted excerpt from my upcoming book, 30 Things You Need to Know about Your Bible (If You Claim to Know Your Bible).