The Whole Bible is about Advent
This time of year is sometimes called “Advent,” from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent has historically been observed during the four Sundays before Christmas as a time to reflect on Jesus’ coming into the world.
The Bible doesn’t command Christians or churches to observe Advent, or the liturgical calendar in general. The Roman Catholic Church does and some Protestants do and some don’t. The emphasis of the New Testament is on weekly rhythms, not yearly rhythms, with the weekly Lord’s Day gathering of the church the only event we’re commanded to observe.
During Advent, churches might study Luke or Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth or the prophecies about the coming Messiah in Isaiah in order to focus on the coming, or advent, of the Son of God into human history.
But the Bible is one big book of Advent! The story of Jesus’ coming doesn’t begin in the New Testament and doesn’t end with a baby in a manger. The whole Bible anticipates the arrival of a great king who’ll bring peace and justice to a dark and dying world.
There are whispers of the Christmas story from Genesis to Revelation. Over the next several weeks, I want us to listen to several of these “whispers.” We’ll start in Genesis today and end in Revelation at the end of the month.
The story of the whole Bible is that God has come, that God has arrived, to be with us! My hope and prayer is that our hearts will be captured by the wonder and beauty of God’s advent. What I want more than anything is for his advent to happen in your heart, for him to come to you. He has come and he will come again, but has he come into your heart?
The First Advent
The first mention of advent in the Bible is only three chapters in. God created everything out of nothing, made man and woman in his image, giving them his presence and his good word, only to see them rebel against him and follow the serpent.
God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin is judgment, but it’s also advent. There are serious consequences for their sin, but there are also serious promises about their salvation. After they sin, God promises to send a Savior who’ll defeat evil. After they sin, God promises advent. He promises Christmas. He promises Jesus.
Let’s look at the promise of Advent in Genesis 3:15. In this verse, we see that two seeds will battle (v. 15a) but one seed will win (v. 15b).
Two Seeds Will Battle
After the Lord confronts Adam and Eve about their sin, he turns his attention to the serpent in verses 14-15. The Lord’s judgment on the serpent is that he’ll be lowered to his belly and there will be enmity between him and the woman and between his offspring and her offspring. Because of his sin, the serpent will crawl and be crushed.
The serpent here is of course more than a mere snake. Satan himself took the form of this serpent in the garden. In Revelation, Satan is called “that ancient serpent” (12:9, 20:2). When God curses the serpent (v. 14), he’s not merely cursing snakes. He’s cursing Satan himself.
Most sane people are afraid of snakes. Even Indiana Jones hated snakes! There’s a reason why stories like Harry Potter use snakes to personify evil. John Calvin said, “It is regarded…that some take pleasure in them; and as often as the sight of a serpent inspires us with horror, the memory of our fall is renewed.”[1]
This verse isn’t meant to tell us why we hate snakes. But the universal dislike of snakes is meant to point to a deeper reality, namely, that there’s an ongoing conflict between good and evil, between Satan and God, and between the children of Satan and the children of God.
It says that the Lord will put “enmity” between the serpent and the woman and between their offspring. This word is used elsewhere to describe the hostility of nations at war (Ezek. 25:15, 35:5) and the level of rage that results in murder (Num. 35:21). The language suggests a violent life and death struggle. This is a deep antagonism that leads to violence.
A Struggle of the Species[2]
The struggle is initially between the serpent and the woman, but as the second phrase of the verse says the struggle will spread to their kids. There’s going to be a lifelong and vicious struggle between these families.
The serpent wins the first battle when Cain kills Abel (4:7-8). The strife continues with Noah’s sons (9:24-27) and is why the Patriarchs have an uneasy coexistence in Canaan and Egypt. The full fury of this struggle is seen in Pharaoh’s murdering of the Hebrew children and when Pharaoh’s firstborn son dies.
You can trace the line of the serpent down through those who’re cursed. God curses the serpent (3:14), Cain (4:11), Noah’s grandson Canaan (9:25), and those who oppose Abram (12:3). The seed of the serpent are those cursed like their father the serpent.
Genesis 3:15 sets the stage for the whole Bible. There will be war. The two sides are the two seeds. It’s the seed of the serpent versus the seed of the woman.
We can follow this seed versus seed theme into the New Testament. John the Baptist calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers!” (Mt. 3:7) They’re the seed of the serpent. Jesus says to his enemies, “You are of your father the devil” (Jn. 8:44). And in 1 John 3, the apostle John says there are two kinds of people, “children of God” and “children of the devil,” and the way to know the difference is to see which one’s love righteousness and love the church. He says, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (vv. 8-10).
Genesis 3:15 establishes a pattern that we see throughout the Bible: Cain versus Abel, Joseph versus his brothers, Pharoah versus Israel, David versus Goliath. There’s always been conflict between people who belong to God and people who don’t belong to God.
Since Genesis 3:15, humanity is divided into two communities: the elect, who love God, and the reprobate, who love self (Jn. 8:31-32, 44; 1 Jn. 3:8ff). Every person who’s ever lived is either of the seed of the woman or of the seed of the serpent. This begs an all-important question: whose seed are you?
One of the reasons we take baptism and church membership so seriously is because God has always been careful to distinguish between those who’re his and those who’re not. There’s always been a sharp and bright dividing line between those who love God and those who don’t.
Conflict Evidence of Mercy
Did you notice who initiated this conflict? Instead of giving them over to Satan, God started a process of defeating Satan.
The conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is evidence of God’s mercy. Moses wants us to feel the surprise of what’s happening here. God said they’d die if they ate the fruit, but they didn’t die. Instead, there’s a conflict with the serpent. This means that Adam and Eve haven’t gone over to the serpent’s side. They’re going to oppose him rather than join him.
These are words of hope to Adam and Eve. They’ll live and they’ll fight evil. They’re not surrendered to Satan.
One Seed Will Win
The second half of Genesis 3:15 tells us that the war between the two seeds won’t go on forever. One seed will win – the seed of the woman will defeat the seed of the serpent!
Notice that the pronouns are singular, “he will bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The word for “offspring/seed” in the first part of the verse can be singular or collective, meaning that it can refer to someone’s kid or kids. But when Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek in 250 BC, they translated the word “offspring” as a single individual, “he will crush your head.” These Jewish translators understood “seed” as a reference to a future individual who’d defeat the serpent.
This individual will be born of a woman and will “bruise” (or “strike”) the head of the serpent while the serpent “bruises” (or “strikes”) his heel. “Bruise” translates the same Hebrew word. In this decisive battle, there will be parallel “strikes.” But the location of the “strike” is what determines the winner. The seed of the woman will strike the head of the serpent, while the serpent will strike his heel. One is a mortal injury, one is not. The seed of the woman will be injured, but the serpent will die! The serpent’s existence will come to a violent end.
Verse 15 is the ultimate spoiler. The beginning of the Bible tells us what’ll happen in the end. God’s people never have to wonder whether evil will ultimately win. The serpent will die!
The serpent was instrumental in bringing the woman down, so in turn the woman will bring down the serpent through her seed. As Arthur Pink says, “By woman had come sin, by woman should come the Saviour. By woman had come the curse, by woman should come Him who would bear and remove the curse. By woman Paradise was lost, yet by woman should be born the One who should regain it.”[3]
Genesis 3:15 contains judgment for the serpent and a promise for mankind. God folds mercy into the middle of judgment. This is why this verse is often called the protoevangelium, or the “first gospel.” This is the first hint that God would send a Savior for mankind.
Who is the Seed?
But verse 15 leaves us hanging: who’s the seed? Who’ll crush the serpent? The purpose of this verse isn’t to answer the question but to ask it. The rest of the Bible gives the answer.
The New Testament tells us that Satan has been destroyed and will be destroyed. Hebrews says that Jesus destroyed the devil through his death (2:14-15), and that through Jesus’ death God rescued those enslaved to the fear of death.
Then in Revelation we see Satan’s final demise: “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:10).
Jesus Lifted Up Like a Serpent
But there’s more. Jesus draws a connection between the serpent of Genesis 3:15 and himself in John 3. He said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15).
He’s referring to the time when God sent snakes into Israel’s camp because of their sin (Num. 21:4-9). Many people were bitten and died and the people asked Moses to pray for the Lord to stop the snakes. The Lord told Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole and when people looked at it they’d live.
The snakes were a result of sin, and snakes are a perfect representation of sin because it was a serpent who tempted Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden.
The Lord tells Moses to lift up a serpent above the people because of their sin. But then Moses doesn’t lift up an actual serpent, but a likeness of a serpent (a bronze serpent, Num. 21:9). This is important because, though Jesus became like us, he was without sin. As Paul says, “God…(sent) his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Rom. 8:3). And, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Lord could’ve told Moses to raise up any animal he wanted but he chose the serpent because the serpent symbolizes sin. Moses could’ve lifted up a real serpent but instead he lifted up a bronze serpent, or a likeness of a serpent. This was to foreshadow Jesus being lifted up as one who “was made to be sin” for us. On the cross, Jesus was lifted up in the likeness of the serpent in the wilderness. He was lifted up like the serpent. On the cross, he became sin for his people.
Jesus the Antidote
But why? Because the only way Jesus could save people dying from the serpent’s venom was to be bit by the serpent himself. Jesus took our sin on himself, took our snake bite, so that we could live. This is the only way Jesus could provide an antidote to the serpent’s venom.
What’s an antidote? An antidote is produced when venom is injected into an animal and then the antibodies are extracted from the animal’s blood in order to make antivenoms or antidotes that can be used to counteract venomous bites from snakes or spiders.
On the cross, the venom of our sin was injected into Jesus. The serpent bit him, so to speak. He didn’t have any toxins of sin until our sin was put in him. Because our sin was put in him, saving antibodies could be “extracted” from his blood and used to cure anyone who’s dying from the serpent’s venom.
What does all this mean? It means that at the very beginning of the Bible, God promised to send someone who’d be the antidote to the serpent’s venom. Since Jesus is the One promised, he’s the antidote. His coming is the advent of the antidote.
But how do you get the antidote? Remember what Jesus said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn. 3:14-15).
Like the bronze snake on the pole that Moses lifted up, Jesus was lifted up on a cross. All the dying Israelites had to do was look to that pole and they’d live. No matter how bad their bite was or how many times they’d been bitten or how sick they were, if they looked at the serpent on the pole they’d live.
In the same way, everyone dying from the serpent’s venomous bite who looks to Jesus alone for salvation will live. This is how the seed of the woman wins: Jesus becomes sin, takes our venom, dies, and then defeats death and the devil by rising from the dead so that everyone who looks to him in faith and turns away from their sin will become a child of God.
This is what Advent is all about, God coming into the world to save sinners. Advent has happened and will happen again when Jesus returns, but has it happened in your heart? Has Jesus come to you? Are you looking to him? Which seed are you? Are you a child of God or a child of the devil?
[1]Quoted in R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 85.
[2]This phrase from Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961), 90.
[3]Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Chicago: Moody Press, 1922), 42.