TEXT: Genesis 3:1-15 TITLE: Stepping On Satan’s Head
OPEN: David Shepherd is a biology professor at Southeastern Louisiana University. In an experiment he conducted, he put rubber reptiles on or near reads and watched how 22,000 motorists reacted to them. They put fake snakes and turtles in places where the drivers would hit them if they kept driving straight; they also put the rubber reptiles where drivers had to go out of their way to hit them.
His conclusion: "There are apparently very few animals hit accidentally on the highway.”
A couple of examples Shepherd witnessed:
A policeman crushed one of the snakes with his tires, then stopped and pulled his gun.
One woman saw the snake in the road and swerved to kill it, then turned around and ran over it five more times. (Uncle John’s 2nd Bathroom Reader)
APPLY: Snakes are not generally well liked creatures
Both men and women have a healthy respect or fear of them
According to research I’ve read - women are more than 2x’s as likely to fear snakes as men.
Genesis 3 tells us that God put “enmity” or hatred between the serpent and the woman.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15 NKJV
Now, as much fear as women seem to have of snakes… I’m pretty sure THAT’S NOT what this verse is talking about.
First – the word “enmity” doesn’t mean “fear”.
Enmity mean hatred, a violent anger.
It’s an emotion intended for one’s enemy… not for a creature that you’re afraid of.
The serpent was the enemy and God intended to destroy that old serpent with the offspring of the woman.
Well, what does that mean?
When Eve heard the message I think she only heard what she wanted to hear.
Her sin had robbed her of her the Garden and of God’s intimate presence.
NOW, the promise was that a boy child would undo the damage
She figured that God was promising He would give HER a boy child and that this boy child would beat down the old serpent and she’d get back into the garden.
Who was Eve’s first born son? (Cain)
It was her first boy child.
In Genesis 4:1 we’re told “.. Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have ACQUIRED A MAN from the LORD.” NKJV
She had “acquired” the boy child promised in the prophecy.
She figured Cain was her ticket back into the garden.
Later she gives birth to Abel – and Abel’s name means “emptiness”, “vanity”.
Essentially, she was saying “I’ve got Cain… what do I need Abel for?”
But she was wrong.
Cain wasn’t her salvation… he was her heartache
He killed his younger brother Abel and then went into exile for his sin.
That wasn’t what the prophecy had meant.
So what did this prophecy mean?
What does it mean that the seed/offspring of “the woman” would bruise the serpent’s head?
Well, God used a fairly odd way of saying what He meant in this verse
He says it was the “Seed/offspring” OF THE WOMAN
Generally, that’s not how a child was spoken of in those days.
A descendent was rarely spoken of as being the “seed” of the woman… but rather of the man.
· The nation of Israel was either called the “seed of Abraham” or the “seed of Jacob”
· The priests serving in the Temple were spoken of as being the “seed of Aaron”
· God spoke of punishing some of the “seed of David”
Children were generally spoken of as being the seed of the man.
But this prophecy referred to the child as the “seed of the woman”
It’s almost as if there were no earthly father involved in this child’s birth.
Hmmmm??? I wonder who might have born that had no earthly father?
Do you know?
Ah yes – Jesus, born of a virgin – a woman who had never known a man.
So, if the “seed of the woman” is Jesus, who’s the serpent???
Well, it’s pretty clear from the story… it was Satan.
The seed of the woman (Jesus) was going to bruise the head of Satan.
And in the process, this young man (seed of woman) would Himself be bruised.
That’s what Isaiah 53 tells us. Prophesying about Jesus, Isaiah said:
“… it pleased the LORD to bruise him...” Isaiah 53:10 KJV
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
Now, Satan is a major player in the Passion.
And he is the primary focus of why Jesus came.
He’s one of the major reasons Jesus died on the cross.
1 John 3:8 tells us that “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”
The Christmas hymn “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” echoes this in one of its verses:
“Come, Desire of nations, come! Fix in us Thy humble home.
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed, bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Adam’s likeness now efface, stamp Thine image in its place;
Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love.
Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.’”
Jesus came to defeat Satan.
But then, that got me to thinking.
What exactly had Satan done to make him the focus of all this?
Had God set the devil up so that there would be a bad guy in the story?
Had He just chosen Satan to have somebody to pick on?
Well, no. In fact, it was kind of the other way around.
Isaiah gives us an insight into the serpent’s motivation
“How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the dawn! … You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:12-14
Lucifer’s objective was a takeover
He wanted to overthrow the God and rule in His place.
Revelation 12 tells us Satan had even succeeded in enlisting 1/3 of the angels in his cause
(pause…)
So, that was his objective - but how was Satan going to accomplish this?
How did he think he could pull God down and put himself on the throne?
That’s where Genesis 3 comes in.
If you didn’t know better, you might think this encounter between Satan and Eve was accidental. But Satan hadn’t just been strolling thru the garden that day.
He didn’t just happen to bump into Eve beneath the tree.
Satan was there because that was part of his plan.
Genesis 1 and 2 are all about God creating the world and everything in it
And then God gave the world to somebody.
Who did He give it to?
He gave it to Adam and Eve
In Genesis 1:28 we’re told “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. RULE over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth.
He gave them authority over everything in His creation.
Essentially, God gave the warranty deed to this world to Adam and Eve
The earth was the focus of all of God’s creative power
And Adam and Eve were the crowning glory of His efforts
It seems that Satan reasoned that if he could take those away from God… he could effectively take His throne as well.
And Scripture says he succeeded in part of his plan.
1st – he took over ownership of this world
John 12:31describes Satan as “the prince of this world.”
Ephesians 2:2 says he is “… the ruler of the kingdom of the air…”
And 1 John 5:19 says “… the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
When Adam and Eve took and ate of that fruit in the garden he effectively turned over the deed to this world to the devil.
Then – Satan took ownership of man away from God
That’s why the Bible speaks so often of us being “redeemed” or purchased by Jesus
1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us “… it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Hebrews 9:12 says that “… by his own blood (Jesus) entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Or as 1 Cor. 6:20 says “you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, Satan owned this world
And for that same reason, Satan even owned us at one time.
And Satan’s objective was to bring God down from His throne and lift himself up and become god himself.
That’s why, when Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, Satan offered Jesus a deal. In Matthew 4:8-9 “… the devil took (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
“Just give me what I want” Satan tells Jesus.
“Make me God… worship me… place me on the throne.
Then I’ll give you back SOME of what I’ve taken away.”
But, of course, Satan had no intention of giving up his control of us.
We had the breath of God within us
We were made in the image of God.
As long as he held us… Satan held the trump card.
But how did Satan have hold of us?
It tells us in Scripture that he had the power of death in his hand.
You see - because of the sin of Adam – everybody dies. That’s what it told us Romans 5.
Romans 5 also tells us that because Adam let sin loose on us… all of us sin
And Romans 6:23 tells us “… the wages of sin is death…”
Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that the focus of Jesus on the cross was to defeat the power of death
It says He came and became like us “… 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.”
Death was Satan’s ultimate power over mankind.
Now, Satan knew the prophecy
He knew that this “seed of the woman” – this Jesus - had come to crush his head
Thus, he knew that he had to take Jesus out, before Jesus took him out.
How was he going to do that?
The Bible tells us that Satan had a number of tools as his disposal
➣ We’re told that he is the master of deception (II Cor. 11:14)
➣ He’s a liar John 8:44
➣ A tempter Matthew 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5
➣ And that he’s the accuser of our brethren. Rev. 12:10
Throughout the Gospels, we see him using deception, lies, temptation, and false accusation on Jesus. But none of it works…
So ultimately he fell back on his most powerful tool – death
Satan figured if he could kill this Jesus before Jesus could do what He’d come to do…
… then he was home free.
… he’d no longer have to fear the threat of God’s prophecy in the garden.
And so, behind the scenes, Satan worked on the people closest to Jesus
John 13:2 tells us that “… the devil… prompted Judas Iscariot… to betray Jesus.”
And Jesus warned Peter " … Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” Luke 22:31
If he could only kill Jesus.
And then it occurred to him to use the cross to do his work.
Satan thought the cross was his idea.
It was the cruelest form of execution that had ever been devised, and thus I suspect he intended to use it as the ultimate expression of his contempt for God.
Ø Make God suffer one last time
Ø Make God feel the pain that man had felt for hundreds of years
Ø Make God understand that HE was still in command of this world.
I hold the trump card God… and don’t you EVER forget it!!!
ILLUS: I remember in one of the older movies about Jesus’ life.
There’s a part where Satan is in the crowd – moving from group to group egging the leaders and the people on to call for Jesus to be crucified.
“Crucify Him” he whispers to one person.
“Crucify Him” he nearly shouts from another area
And all the while, the people respond - and call for Jesus to die
Satan thought it was his idea.
But he was wrong.
This is what Jesus had to do.
Several times Jesus warned His disciples:
Luke 9:22 "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
That’s what the prophecy of Is 53 – written 100s of years before Jesus was born - was all about
”… he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (vs. 3)
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. … he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Isaiah 53:7-8
By His death on the cross Jesus defeated death – Satan’s most powerful tool
By His blood He purchased us from the dominion of Satan
As Colossians 1:13-14 says “(The Father) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
At one time, we belonged to Satan.
But by the blood of Jesus, we’ve been bought back and brought into God’s love and mercy.
(pause)
Now, there will be people who will try to tell that they can get into heaven by being a good person. They believe that Heaven is reserved for people who do good things and that hell is reserved only for those who do bad things.
But Hell was never designed for people like you and I.
Jesus told us "… the eternal fire (was) prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:41
The people who end up in hell are those who belong to Satan
No matter how many good works people may do, they can’t change who OWNS them
By default – they belong to Satan
By default – (if you don’t belong to Jesus) you belong to Satan.
Until you’ve made the choice to accept His free gift - until you decide that Jesus came to buy you for Himself – your destination is the same as the devil and his angels.
In the end, you’ll end up going where your owner lives.
CLOSE: Years ago, there was a preacher in Boston Massachusetts named S.D. Gordon.
One Sunday he got up into the pulpit and pulled out a rusty, old, beat-up rusty bird cage
First he explained how he had come by the cage. He said that that week he had encountered a boy of about 10 years old carrying this cage containing several miserable small birds that the boy had obviously trapped for some reason.
Curious, he asked the boy what he was intended to do with them.
"I’m going to play with them...have some fun with them." the boy responded.
Gordon thought about that for a moment - then asked "What will you do with them after that?"
"Oh, I have some cats at home, and they like birds" said the boy.
That didn’t set too well with Mr. Gordon, so he asked the boy what he would take for the birds.
Surprised, the boy blurted: "Mister, you don’t want to buy these birds. They’re ugly… They’re just field birds. They don’t sing, or anything."
Nevertheless, the preacher persisted, and soon struck a bargain with the boy for the birds.
When the boy was out of sight, he opened the cage and set the birds free.
In the pulpit, Gordon held up the empty cage and then he told another story
He told of how Satan had boasted that he had baited a trap and caught a world full of people.
"What are you going to do with them!" Jesus asked him.
"I’m going to play with them, tease them; make them marry and divorce, and fight and kill one another." Satan replied.
"And when you get tired of playing with them. what will you do with them then!" Jesus queried.
"Condemn them." Satan answered. ’They’re no good anyway."
Jesus then asked what Satan would take for them.
"You can’t be serious," the devil responded. ’They would just spit on You. They’d hit you and hammer nails into You. They’re no good."
"How much?" the Lord asked again.
"All your tears and all your blood; that’s the price." Satan said gleefully.
So Jesus paid the price, took the cage, and opened the door.
