The whole story of the Bible should be understood in the context of Genesis 3:15. When God promised to send a Seed to crush Satan’s head, Satan kicked into action. He made up his mind that he would not allow the promised Seed to come. And when He did come, Satan did all in his power to destroy Him. The historical events in the Bible can be understood in the context of Satan’s war against the Seed. Understanding this context will be a tremendous help to helping us prepare for the great conflicts we are facing in these last days. We must learn to read the news behind the news. Visible historical events are merely shadows of the real battle!!
1. The first example of the enmity spoken of in Genesis 3:15 is found in the story of Cain and Abel. In this story we have all the elements of Genesis 3:15: A woman, enmity, two seeds, and Satan (see 1 John 3:12). Satan wanted Abel dead because he thought that Abel might be the promised Seed. But God gave Eve another seed to carry on the holy line (Genesis 4:25).
2. Satan is a quick learner and soon he discovered that God was preparing a holy line through which He could eventually introduce the promised Seed into the world. In Genesis 4 we have the genealogy of Cain and in Genesis 5 we have the genealogy of Seth. In Genesis 6:1- 4 we find that instead of trying to kill the holy line, Satan intermingled these two genealogies in order to corrupt the holy line from which the Seed would come. Satan’s plan almost met with success because, of the millions of people who lived in the world before the flood, only eight remained faithful to God. If God had not sent the flood, the world would have been totally corrupted and the Seed could not have come.
3. After the flood, the two genealogies continued. Shem would be the progenitor of the holy line from whom the Seed would come (Genesis 10:21-29; 11:10-26)), while Ham (Genesis 10:6-20) and Japheth (Genesis 12:2-5) would found the nations which would later try to destroy Israel. Even this early in history, Satan was establishing nations which he could use to try and destroy Israel. And by destroying Israel he could keep the Seed from coming.
4. The Tower of Babel episode (Genesis 11:1-9) reveals how Satan tried to totally corrupt the world shortly after the flood. Abraham lived in the region where this tower was built and even the family of Abraham was worshiping other gods (Joshua 24:2-3). God took Abraham out of the corrupt environment of Babylon and led him to Canaan where the Seed would be born.
5. In the story of Abraham and Isaac we once again have all the elements of Genesis 3:15. God promised Sarah and Abraham a son but they doubted (who do you suppose planted this doubt in their minds?) God’s promise. But there was one who did not doubt the promise: Satan. By Sarah’s suggestion, Abraham took Hagar and had Ishmael, who would later try to kill Isaac (Galatians 4:29). This whole story reveals Satan working in the background to destroy the child of the promise. Furthermore, the war which Satan has instigated between the Israeli’s (descendants of Isaac) and the Arabs (descendants of Ishmael) has led all eyes to be directed to the Middle East as the place where prophecy will be fulfilled when these prophecies will really be fulfilled in the Christian nations of the West.
6. Genesis 3:15 once again comes to the fore in the story of Jacob and Esau. Two brothers born from a woman and at enmity one with another! In fact, Esau had every intention of killing Jacob (Genesis 27:41) but God protected Jacob from the wrath of his brother. Do we have mere sibling rivalry in this story? There is more than meets the eye here. Satan knew that the promised Seed would be a descendant of Jacob. If he could get rid of Jacob, he could get rid of the promised Seed.
7. The story of Joseph is fascinating. To make a long story short, God sent Joseph down to Egypt in order to spare the holy line from starvation during the seven years of drought. If Satan could have starved the holy line to death, there could have been no Seed. This thought comes out clearly in Genesis 45:6-7…it reads… “For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. So God sent me ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
8. In Exodus 1-2 we have the story of the enslavement of Israel by the Egyptians. If Israel had remained enslaved in Egypt the Seed could not have been born in Bethlehem of Judea. Satan therefore did all in his power to keep Israel enslaved even to the point of trying to kill the deliverer himself. He later encouraged the Egyptians to attempt to destroy Israel next to the Red Sea (Exodus 14). Interestingly, Pharaoh is called the great dragon (Ezekiel 29:3). Pharaoh’s opposition to Israel can only be explained as Satanic possession. But God manifested His Almighty power and Israel was delivered and taken to the Promised Land.
9. In the wilderness, Satan constantly led Israel into apostasy. In this way he hoped to frustrate God to the point of enticing Him to give up on Israel and destroy them. If God had destroyed Israel, the holy line would have disappeared and the Seed could not have come. Notice an example of this scenario in Exodus 32:7-10. When Israel worshiped the golden calf at Mount Sinai, God even suggested to Moses that it would be good to destroy Israel!! It is of the utmost importance to realize that the enmity of Satan in the Old Testament is not Israel focused but rather Seed focused. It was not Israel who would crush the serpent’s head but the Seed! In order to prevent the Seed from coming, Satan attempted to destroy the holy line.
10. In the Old Testament, Satan constantly tried to get Israel to lose their identity by mingling with the pagan nations. The story of Balaam makes this crystal clear (see Numbers 22-24). At other times, Satan tried to physically destroy Israel from the face of the earth, such as in the invasion of Sennaquerib (see Isaiah 36-38). No Israel, no Seed!!
11. Satan’s wrath was particularly directed against David. Three times the demon-possessed Saul attempted to kill him. David had to face Satan’s warrior, Goliath. Satan enticed David into adultery (2 Samuel 11) knowing full well that the sentence for adultery was death. Satan enticed David to do a census of Israel contrary to God’s plan (1 Chronicles 21:1). Why was Satan unrelenting in his attacks against David? The Bible makes it clear that the Son of David would sit on the throne. If Satan could get rid of David, there could be no son of David and thus no Seed! (Read Psalm 89:3-4, 26-29, 34-37, 1 Chronicles 17:11-15; Luke 1:32-35 where the son of David is also the Son of God!)
12. In the days of Queen Esther, Satan attempted to commit genocide. Was Satan’s hatred Israel centered or Seed centered? The fact is, if Satan could get rid of Israel, he could prevent the Seed from coming.
13. When Jesus finally came to the world, Satan tried to kill him as soon as He was born (Revelation 12:1-5; Matthew 2:16). Several times during His ministry, Satan tried to kill Him. He attempted to drown Him in a storm, tried to have a mob push Him over a cliff and several times people picked up stones to stone Him. Satan constantly attempted to infect Jesus with the deadly virus of sin (Matthew 4). He tried to discourage Jesus into going back to heaven by having the people whom He came to save, spit on Him, kick Him and revile Him.
Repeatedly Satan did his utmost to keep Jesus from dying on the cross. In Luke 4:5-8 Satan tempted Jesus to take an easier road to the recovery of the kingdom. In Matthew 16:22-23 Satan used Peter to tempt Jesus to not go to the cross. In John 12:20-24 some Greeks even tried to get Jesus to delay His death. In Gethsemane, Satan did his best to entice Jesus to give it all up and go back to heaven. When Jesus was spit upon, kicked, punched and the hair of His beard was ripped off His face, Satan hoped He would retaliate or give up and go to heaven. As Jesus hung on the cross, some in the mob tried to coax Him to come down from the cross. And when He was placed in the tomb, Satan influenced Pilate to put a guard to impede His resurrection! Obviously, Satan did not want Jesus to die and resurrect!
14. According to Revelation 12:5 Jesus gained the victory over Satan (see also Revelation 12:10- 12 and John 12:30-33) and ascended to heaven. Not having access to Jesus anymore, Satan launched an attack against the woman for 1260 years (see Revelation 12:6, 13-15).
15. Revelation 12:17 reads..”So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Here we catch a glimpse of the final onslaught of Satan against the remnant of the woman’s Seed, in other words, against the remnant of Jesus. It is a description of God’s people in the last days. This is what the final battle will be all about. It is not about politics, economics or ethnicity. It is about worshiping God, keeping His commandments and having the Testimony of Jesus.
Very good information