The Bible’s First Prophecy?
In a previous article “The Scientific Accuracy of Genesis” I showed, not only that we have no reason to doubt the Genesis account from the scientific point of view, but our future destiny is absolutely dependent on accurately understanding the Genesis account. God created us in the beginning, and put before us the opportunity to enjoy a happy productive life unmarred by the unhappy conditions that we are so familiar with today. What went wrong?
To understand what went wrong, we should understand that the earth and its inhabitants are not the main players in the universe. Everything does not revolve around us. There are bigger issues involved. The material universe our planet and the life on it are only part of a larger universe that also embraces the unseen spirit realm as well. Jehovah God, the creator of all these things is responsible for the the unity well-being and smooth running of the entire universe.
Prior to our material universe God had created many spirit sons in a form similar to himself. The Bible calls these “Sons of God.” Here is a glimpse of the spiritual realm that the Bible give us.
(Daniel 7:9-10) 9 “I kept on beholding until there were thrones placed and the Ancient of Days sat down. His clothing was white just like snow, and the hair of his head was like clean wool. His throne was flames of fire; its wheels were a burning fire. 10 There was a stream of fire flowing and going out from before him. There were a thousand thousands that kept ministering to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand that kept standing right before him. The Court took its seat, and there were books that were opened.
We are not to suppose that these spirit persons and God himself literally look like this. Obviously God has to use human expressions to help us understand what his unseen spirit sons and himself look like. Because many of these spirit persons were used to bring messages to selected individuals in the past, the Bible calls them “angels.” The word”angel” means “messenger.” all these powerful spirit persons were created before the material universe
The Use of Free will
The spirit sons of God and humans were created with the power to exercise free will. How could unity be maintained in the universe if all intelligent creatures having free will could do as they please? It stands to reason that when individuals have free will some sort of control is necessary. That is why we have traffic laws. The laws that humans make are not always for our good, but God’s laws are all for our benefit. The choices that some might make may lead to rebellion. However God is capable of handing any rebellion in his universe. How does God maintain his control of the universe?
God has chosen to maintain unity amongst his creation by his use of power in a just, wise and loving way. He therefore relies on the the fact that he created his intelligent creation with reasoning powers, so they can appreciate his way of doing things. The love and the devotion that his servants have for him constitutes their worship and their recognition of his universal sovereignty, and is reflected in their obedience to his commands. What happens if some choose not to respond and rebel? Well rebellion cannot be permitted indefinitely, because of its derogatory effects on the rest of creation, so after a fair and just judgement, rebels have to be removed. Because of God’s wonderful qualities His servants fear him, in the sense that they do not want to displease him. False religions have heaped much reproach on God’s name by their false teaching of the hellfire doctrine. This doctrine turns the fear of God into dread of God. If you do not understand how the Bible treats the subject of hell, I also have an article entitled “What happened to Hell?” What we need to remember is, that once we have satisfied ourselves that there is a creator, then we can also appreciate that the creator has the right to expect us to serve his purpose, otherwise we are no use to him.
Our Obligation to God
(Revelation 4:11) . . .“You are worthy, Jehovah, even our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.”
Science can lead us to God but it cannot explain his purpose for us. Evolutionists delude themselves. Even theistic evolutionists miss the point. Only God can tell us what his purposes for us are. This is where the Bible is necessary. People foolishly theorize that we all can serve God in our own way. Does that make sense to you? Imagine that you owned a vast estate, would you permit your staff to decide what you liked, what you wanted done? They are there to serve your purpose and not themselves. Another example might be of a man that decided to build himself a house. Would he allow the builders to just build the house anyway that they liked, or would he not rather give them a plan and then expect them to adhere to the plan.
The Start of Rebellion
As a matter of fact rebellion did occur with one of God’s spirit sons getting lofty ideas, but the problem for us was that when it arose it involved us as well. This rebellious spirit son of God, God named “Satan” because the Hebrew word actually means “opposer.” It is interesting to see how the Bible describes what caused him to rebel. In later times when making appointments of men for responsible positions in the congregation the apostle Paul made this statement.
(1 Timothy 3:6) . . .not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up [with pride] and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.
Apparently Satan may have been given some position of authority and got puffed up with pride leading to his abuse of this authority. So far the Genesis account has shown that this could be true because Satan definitely thought that he was smarter than God. He selfishly cultivated a desire for the worship that Adam and Eve were rendering to Jehovah God, and thought that if he got the man and woman to disobey God and so bringing God’s sentence of death upon them, there would be no way that God could fulfill his purpose for them. However, After God sentenced the man and the woman, he spoke to the serpent and uttered the first prophecy that gave hope to mankind. This is recorded at Genesis 3:15
The First Prophecy of Deliverance
(Genesis 3:15) . . .And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.”
One of the most astonishing facts about the Bible is that although it consists of a library of sixty six books written over a period of 1656 years. It is probably the only library that can be bound together into one book and read as a single book because of the absolute harmony that exist in it from Genesis to Revelation.
I hope to prove this to the reader by pursuing this prophecy to its final conclusion. The prophecy remained a mystery for many thousands of years although God gave clues all down the centuries and faithful men trusted God’s promises and patiently awaited the progressive unfolding of the mystery. We are fortunate to have the complete Bible and so can look back and see how he fulfilled his promises. Today we are awaiting further developments regarding the fulfillment of prophecy that will bring us one step closer to the final fulfillment of God’s purposes.
The Serpent
I will attempt to identify the identities of the various characters in the prophecy. The two main characters are the woman and the serpent. The serpent was Satan.
Revelation 12:9 identifies him as the Satan the Devil. God named this rebellious spirit Son Satan (in Hebrew this means”Opposer”) and Devil (this means “Slanderer”)
(Revelation 12:9). . .So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.
The Woman
The woman is more complicated and because of this Eve thought that she was the woman and her confusion is apparent from the comparison of these two scriptures. Notice that Eve first thought that Cain was the seed. After Cain killed Abel she thought that Abel was the seed. Obviouslt from these two references it is apparent that she thought that she was the woman in the prophecy.
(Genesis 4:1-2) . . .Now Adam had intercourse with Eve his wife and she became pregnant. In time she gave birth to Cain and said: “I have produced a man with the aid of Jehovah.” 2 Later she again gave birth, to his brother Abel.. .
(Genesis 4:25) . . .And Adam proceeded to have intercourse again with his wife and so she gave birth to a son and called his name Seth, because, as she said: “God has appointed another seed in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.”.
About 1513 B.C.E. (Before our Common Era) God stepped in with miracles and saved the Israelites from extinction by the Egyptians, who were practicing genocide. He concluded a covenant (a legal agreement) with them. Using the marriage arrangement to illustrate his relationship with the Israelite nation, Jehovah referred to Jerusalem(their capitol city) as his wife, and the inhabitants of Israel as her children. This foreshadowed something greater. The marriage arrangement was an excellent way of illustrating this relationship. Up to this time men were taking a number of wives. When God entered into the law covenant with the nation of Israel, he had permitted polygamy for a time because it suited his purpose.
(Isaiah 54:5-6) . . .“For your Grand Maker is your husbandly owner, Jehovah of armies being his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Repurchaser. The God of the whole earth he will be called. 6 For Jehovah called you as if you were a wife left entirely and hurt in spirit, and as a wife of the time of youth who was then rejected,” your God has said.
So when Israel entered into alliances with the nations, God regarded this as adultery.
(Ezekiel 16:28) . . .And you went on to prostitute yourself to the sons of As·syr?i·a because there was no satisfying of you, and you kept prostituting yourself with them and also did not get satisfaction.
The apostle Paul applied all this information and helped us to see that the woman in Genesis 3:15 is referred to as “the Jerusalem above” at Galatians chapter 4.
This heavenly city like earthly Jerusalem is populated by heavenly creatures that individually are God’s sons. Heavenly Jerusalem brings forth these sons just like a woman giving birth to her husband’s offspring. Lets check the account. I want you to notice that we are not supplying the meanings to the scripture but allowing the Bible itself to supply the meanings. You can check these scriptures in any Bible translation. I have chosen the NW translation of the holy Scriptures because it is very accurate and brings out God’s name wherever it appears in the original documents. It is not a paraphrased version but is a literal translation although it is in modern English.
(Galatians 4:21-26) 21 Tell me, YOU who want to be under law, Do YOU not hear the Law? 22 For example, it is written that Abraham acquired two sons, one by the servant girl and one by the free woman; 23 but the one by the servant girl was actually born in the manner of flesh, the other by the free woman through a promise. 24 These things stand as a symbolic drama; for these [women] mean two covenants, the one from Mount Si?nai, which brings forth children for slavery, and which is Ha?gar. 25 Now this Ha?gar means Si?nai, a mountain in Arabia, and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. . .
The prophecy may sound complicated but for the sake of our discussion consider these facts. In the drama the apostle Paul explained that Abraham pictured God. Let us first consider the facts about Abraham. Because of Abraham’s faithfulness. God promised that He would produce a seed from Abraham’s body. Abraham was married to Sarah, but Sarah was getting old and was past childbearing age. She wondered how they would be able to produce a child when she was past childbearing age and so she offered her slave girl Hagar to Abraham to produce the seed. Now up to that time it was the custom for people to have more than one wife, God did not interfere with this arrangement at this time because it suited his purpose, so Sarah was not breaking God’s laws by doing this. Later God caused Sarah herself to fall pregnant and produce Isaac. This was a miracle because she was past childbearing age.
Paul used this drama to show that God was illustrating an important truth. The law covenant, mediated by Moses at Mount Sinai and pictured by Hagar was a temporary arrangement that ended when the nation put Jesus to death. In this way Jehovah divorced earthly Jerusalem just as Abraham had sent Hagar away.
Jeremiah had predicted that the time would come when Jehovah would make a new covenant with his people. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy the night before his death.
(Luke 22:28-30) . . .However, YOU are the ones that have stuck with me in my trials; 29 and I make a covenant with YOU, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom,
(Jeremiah 31:31-32). . .“Look! There are days coming,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; 32 not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, ‘which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.. . .
Just as Moses mediated the law covenant between Jehovah and Israel so Jesus mediated a new covenant between his faithful followers and God and so spiritual Israel came into existence.
The Two Covenants
Paul explained that the two woman in their relationship with Abraham symbolized the two covenants. Because Sarah was Abraham’s actual wife, Isaac was the seed of promise, whereas Hagar and her son Esau was the result of Sarah’s human attempt to fulfill the prophecy. Paul announced that Abraham pictured Jehovah and earthly Jerusalem was pictured by the concubine Hagar, whereas Jerusalem above pictured Sarah, Abraham’s actual wife.
The actual significance of this is very important. Like Abraham’s marriage arrangement with Hagar, God entered into a marriage with Jerusalem. Earthly Jerusalem was divorced because of her unfaithfulness. Paul’s explanation revealed the identity of God’s actual wife-like organization, the Jerusalem above. In certain respects, like the earthly Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem was an organized body of individuals. The Jerusalem above was God’s universal organization of heavenly creatures and they were in a marriage arrangement with Jehovah God. This was the woman of Genesis 3:15. So just as the serpent was a spirit person and not a literal snake that later produced seed both heavenly and earthly. So God’s heavenly organization, heavenly Jerusalem was a spiritual woman and not a literal woman and produced a spiritual seed who was destined to crush the Serpent’s head. However first, the seed had to endure a temporary bruising in the heel. Part 2 will proceed to identify the seed of the woman and move on to the final fulfillment to the prophecy.
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