The Prophets

And 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)

This is the curse against Satan, given to promise a redeemer who would be born of a woman and further, the redeemer would be an individual man. It was not the seed of Adam mentioned here, but of Eve. There is an interesting point to be inferred from this passage. Jesus was the only man who was born of a woman, but not of a man. The Holy Ghost “overshadowed” Mary and she conceived without the normal assistance of a male counterpart:

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (Gal. 4:4)

Jesus had his heel crushed at the crucifixion (he was no longer able to walk upon the Earth as a mortal), but Satan had his head crushed at the same time. The phrase “crush the head” is a phrase that means to “remove the authority”: “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly…”Romans (16:20). After Jesus died on the cross, he descended into Hell and removed the authority of Satan to sequester souls there. Jesus triumphed over Death, Hell, and the Grave before he returned to face the disciples as the ascended Jesus. This victory over death was prophesied by Isaiah:

He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 25:8)

The enmity placed between the woman and Satan means “warfare” or a “battle”. The war is between her seed, Jesus Christ and those who follow him, and Satan’s seed, fallen man.

Ancient Rabbinic Judaism regarded this passage in Genesis 3 as Messianic. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Ginsburger, 1903), otherwise known as the Jerusalem Targum in medieval times, refers to this event specifically. An excerpt from the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan spells out the Jewish perspective of this war:
"And it shall be that when the sons of the woman study the Torah diligently and obey its injunctions, they will direct themselves to smite you on the head and slay you; but when the sons of the woman forsake the commandments of the Torah and do not obey its injunctions, you will direct yourself to bite them on the heel and afflict them. However, there will be a remedy for the sons of the woman, but for you, serpent, there will be no remedy. They shall make peace with one another in the end, in the very end of days, in the days of the King Messiah."

Of course, the promised seed descended through Abraham, and the prophecy regarding that promised son to Abraham announces some attributes of the role of the Messiah. About 400 years after the flood God called Abraham (then called Abram) out of the city of Ur of the Chaldees, and into the wilderness where the prophetic promises were established between Abraham and God: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen 12:3). Later the details of this promise are expanded: "in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed..." (Gen 22:17, 18). The seed mentioned here is a singular seed, not many people, but a particular one. This is discussed in detail in the N.T.: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.”(Gal 3:16) Paul is pointing out to us that Jesus was the promised seed referred to in this promise to Abraham.

A detailed examination of the promise leads to several conclusions that are important. The promise of the seed was to bless “all the families of the Earth” which includes the Gentile Nations. The seed was to be that blessing, one that would produce multitudes of children so that they would be as many as the stars, or the sands of the sea. It is impossible for this one Jewish seed to produce children outside of Israel unless these children are the children of the Light who inhabit the kingdom of God, and are not directly related by human genetics to the people of Israel. Since Abraham was not yet a Jew when this covenant was made, the Gentiles are blessed with the same blessing as the people of Israel because of Abraham’s faith. This makes a spiritual kinship possible.

There are a number of prophetic references in the O.T. that place a specific set of abilities and position on Jesus Christ. For instance Moses wrote of the coming Messiah and the role he would play:

The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." (John 6:14)

This is a prophetic statement about the forthcoming prophet in a new age. God would invest in this prophet all the authority in heaven and earth. This is recognized by Jews and Christians as a specific reference to the coming Messiah. John 6:14 records that these Jewish men at the time of Christ understood he was that prophet. This prophet would be like Moses; that is one that spoke directly with God, would carry the authority of God with his words, and would carry out powerful miracles. When Jesus spoke of hearing or speaking “the words of my Father”, he was pointing out that he was that prophet who was sent that would be like Moses. The role Moses played was a very special one:

"Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face."(Num 12:6-8)

It is also important to note that the passage in Deuteronomy explains that Judaism would not be the way that Israel would bless all Nations. It will be by the words that God puts in his mouth of the Messiah when he finally arrives.

Jesus refers to this prophecy of Moses in John 5:4: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” This clearly indicates that Jesus recognized this passage as a reference to himself. Peter also pointed out that this prophecy was referring to Jesus Christ when he preached at Jerusalem on Pentecost:

But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. (Acts 3:18-26)



Finally, the scripture declares this prophetic result in a statement that prevents confusion about the identity of this Messiah: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1:20). Emmanuel is actually two different words in Hebrew. Emmanu refers to a “presence with humanity” and el is the word translated as “God” in the O.T. The scripture says it means “God with us”.

The Psalms is a large repository of prophecy concerning the Messiah. David wrote of the Messiah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit much as the prophets of the O.T. wrote to warn and instruct Israel. For instance, a phrase exclusively used for the Messiah is first written in the Psalms:

"I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, `You are My Son, today I have begotten You” Psalm 2:7

Jewish rabbis agree that this passage is referring to the Messiah and also recognize the phrase “Son of God” as a special phrase used commonly to refer to the Messiah. The term “Begotten” is a word that is from an ancient terminology found in the law code of Hammurabi and is part of a formula in that code for adoption. That is, begotten does not just denote familial genetic offspring, but is related also to adopting one into a familial position with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that would entail.