"And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, And you shall crush His heel." (Genesis 3:1-24)
In the name of Jesus. Amen. The Gospel is always in the words! An "enmity" is a "hostility," the kind of hostility like that between enemies.
Who is the enemy? What is the hostility? We should be! We are hostile toward God. St. Paul says, "The carnal mind is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can it be." (Romans 8:7).
It all started when Adam and his wife thought it better to listen to the serpent’s preaching than to the Word of God. When they ate from the fruit that God forbade, they made themselves and their seed enemies of God. But God doesn’t wait for them to fix the situation themselves. He fixes it for us all. If God waited for Adam and Eve or you and me to fix our sins, we’d still be hiding in the garden wearing leaves for clothing. We’d be lost. We’d be forever separated from God.
What does God do? He gives Gospel words! He promises to place an enmity, a hostility, between the devil and the woman and between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This enmity will crush the head of the serpent and shall have his heel crushed by the serpent.
What is the enmity? It’s not a what, but a who! Who is it that crushes the head of the serpent? Who is it that, when He crushes the head of the serpent, is Himself wounded?
Jesus! Right after the Fall into sin, just after Adam and his wife are hiding from God, he Lord God promises to send Jesus. Jesus is the enmity, the enemy-hostility, Who God puts between you and me and all the seeds of Eve and the seeds of the devil. Jesus is the One who saves you and me on the Cross, where He is crucified for our sins. He is wounded by the serpent and dies.
The Gospel is that when the head of a serpent is crushed, the serpent dies. Jesus wins salvation for you and me by crushing the serpent ’s head from the Cross! The Gospel is in the Lord’s words! For in the Word, Jesus delivers what He won for us when He crushed the serpent ’s head on the Cross. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
"What mercy God showed to our ace, A plan of rescue by his grace: In sending One from woman’s seed, The one to fill our greatest need – For on a tree uplifted high His only Son for sin would die, Would drink the cup of scorn and dread To crush the ancient serpent ’s head!" (HS98 873, v.3)
Higher Things Reflections are written by Rev. George F. Borghardt III, Assistant Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church, Conroe, TX