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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

Monday Morning Prophecy #16 – Born from the Seed of a Woman

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We just completed a series of prophecies related to birth and childhood of the coming Messiah.  In this installment, and for the next several weeks, we will look at eight prophecies regarding the lineage of the coming Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament thousands of years before his birth.

In this first prophecy, we will look at the proto-evangelica – the very first prophecy contained in the Old Testament.  In Genesis 3, we read the story of The Fall of Man in which Adam and Eve are tempted by the serpent and disobey God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As part of the curse brought on by that disobedience, God tells the serpent (Satan):

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  [Genesis 3:15]

The implication if that the offspring of the woman would be bruised by Satan (fulfilled in the crucifixion).  Meanwhile, the seed of woman (Christ) would crush Satan (bruise his head).

Now, let’s look at the New Testament fulfillment of this prophecy that the Messiah would come from the seed of woman.  It may seem obvious to us in hindsight that a man would have to be born of a woman, but we should keep two things in mind.  First, God is all powerful and presumably could have chosen to send the Messiah in any number of ways which would not have involved being born of a woman.  Secondly, in a very patriarchal society, it is extraordinary that this very first prophecy of the coming Messiah points not to a father of the Messiah but to the woman.

Now, let’s look at several New Testament passages indicating that Jesus was indeed offspring of the woman:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [Matthew 1:18-21]

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy–the Son of God. [Luke 1:34-35]

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,” [Galatians 4:4]

The New Testament leaves no doubt that Jesus was born a baby to a woman in the town of Bethlehem.  He was indeed from the seed of the woman.

Furthermore, the New Testament confirms that the seed of woman, though bruised in the heel, did conquer Satan:

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,”  [Hebrews 2:14]

The proto-evangelica as it is called is an amazing prophecy.  Just three chapters into the story, and immediately following man’s rejection of God, God tells man that he will save him and conquer the enemy all of which was fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Return to the Monday Morning Prophecy index page.

Image courtesy of Abby Reed

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