Crushing The Serpent’s Head…Genesis 3 pt 11

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.(Genesis 3;15)

The first preaching of the gospel was God’s announcement of judgement to the serpent. The woman would bear a seed who would one day deliver a capitol blow to Satan, but at the cost of great pain to himself. In the meantime there would be continual conflict between the seed of the woman and of the serpent.

The prophesied crushing of he serpent’s head has been anticipated by the prophets and in various episodes of salvation history. Consider the strange story of Balaam.

When the children of Israel made their Exodus out of Egypt, the nations trembled in fear. Moab was ruled by a Midianite King named Balak. He hired a pagan prophet from what is now known as Iraq named Balaam to curse Israel, that they be not able to repossess their land.

When Balaam presented himself to the King He warned him that he could only say what the LORD told him to, having been warned by God already. Every time He went to curse Israel, amazing blessings came out of his mouth, for he prophesied the separation, fruitfulness and prowess of Israel, from three different locations around their camp!

Finally the enraged Arabian King ordered the prophet to go home. But the Spirit of God wasn’t done,

And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days…I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.(Numbers 24:14-17)

In the last days, a star shall arise from Jacob, a Scepter from Israel, who (lit.)” shall smite the head of Moab” and “destroy the children (lit) of Tumult”. The head blow to Moab, (as the representative of all of heathendom) typifies the victory of the seed of the woman.

The story of Deborah also comes to mind. When God routed the numerically and technologically superior  army of the Canaanites, the pagan general Sisera fled the battlefield on foot, eventually seeking refuge in the tent of the wife of a perceived ally.

But Jael was a believer in the God of Israel. She gave the exhausted general warm milk, and allowed him to rest his weary head in her tent. When he fell asleep, she pulled out a tent stake and a hammer and drove the stake into his temple ! For this the Spirit of God called her “Blessed above women”, the same blessing Gabrielle would pronounce upon Mary.

Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.  She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.  At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.(Judges 5:24-27)

There is a story in I Samuel which also portends the crushing of the serpent’s head. I refer to the capture of the Ark in the battle of Aphek, (I Samuel 4-6). The gospel is portrayed there, for the Ark being a type of Jesus, was “handed over to the gentiles” by the corrupt Jewish High Priests. What looked to be a catastrophic defeat, “Ichabod”, was turned instead to a great demonstration to the pagans, of Jahweh’s superiority.

When the Philistines put the Ark in the temple of Dagon,(a tomb of death and decay) they thought Dagon had triumphed. But when they rose early the next morning to resume their celebration of the death of the God of Israel, they found out He wasn’t as dead as they imagined Him to be, for they found Dagon prostrated before him.

So they propped their god back up again, in his own temple. But when they came back the next morning, this time Dagon’s head and hands were broken ! He shall bruise the serpent’s head!

Perhaps the greatest type of the victory of the seed of the woman over the serpent is seen in the story of David and Goliath.

Goliath is the champion of his people, the representative of heathendom, taunting and abusing the faith of the people of God. Note that he is described as covered in a “coat of  mail”, like a scaly serpent. Like the coming AntiChrist, the serpent stands there openly defying God and the people of God.

There are sixes all over the description of Goliath, for he is six cubits, has six pieces of armor and the Head of his spear weighs six hundred shekels!

But David, (from Bethlehem) slings a stone which crushes the Goliath’s head! Thus is the ultimate triumph anticipated, the seed of the woman shall indeed confront the serpent and deal a deadly head wound.

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.(I Samuel 17:49-51)

Finally the book of Revelation features an enemy of God who has a”deadly head wound” that has been healed.The whole world will end up worshipping this “beast”, whose end will be the lake of fire.

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. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?(Revelation 13:3-4)

The crushing of the Serpent’s head in one sense has already occurred, by the victory of the Son of God on the cross of Calvary. Satan’s work has been destroyed, man has been reconciled to God, the doom of this world is assured for the final sentence has been passed. Jesus announced on his way to Jerusalem for his death,

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.(John 12:31-32)

But there is another sense in which the rebellion of man is going to be allowed to come to a final head. Satan’s man will emerge, the antichrist will emerge to unite the seed of the serpent in their final opposition to God, for “the Kings of the earth and their rulers have taken counsel together against the Lord and His Christ”. 

The “head” of the serpent will be crushed again when the Lord comes back as a “stone not made with human hands”,  and shatters the proud statue of man erected in honor of the serpent’s lie that man can be “as gods”. The Kingdoms of this world will then become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ!

The serpent’s end will be when He is thrown into the Lake of fire, with all of those who sided with Him. That will be the final crushing of the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman! Hallelujah!