Christmas Prophecies | The Woman's Offspring
The prophecy of the woman's offspring reveals four truths about God's plan that give us hope in dark times: (1) the problem of evil, (2) the promise of blessing, (3) the presence of God, and (4) the power of salvation. This sermon is part 1 of Bryan Craddock’s “Christmas Prophecies” series.
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What comes to mind when you hear the word “prophecy”? You might associate it with vague nightmarish predictions of destructive future events delivered by mysterious reclusive figures. Some people are drawn to that sort of thing, hoping to learn secrets that will satisfy their own morbid curiosity and impress their friends. But to others it all seems useless for life here and now, a ridiculous waste of time.
The Bible presents prophecy in an entirely different light. It asserts that the past, present, and future are under the control of a sovereign God who is holy and loving, gracious and wise. He has given human beings the responsibility to make real choices and holds us accountable for those decisions, yet his plan is never derailed. It moves forward with clock-like precision.
So, God has worked through prophets to call people to trust and obey him. They focus on the present more than the future. But to help them accomplish their mission, he sometimes gives them glimpses of how his plan will unfold. Some of those prophetic events have not taken place yet. Others have already happened as predicted, and their fulfillment shines greater light on what is to come.
The birth of Jesus is one of those pivotal events in God’s plan. The first glimpse of it is revealed in the garden of Eden and its ultimate effects stretch to the final chapters of the book of Revelation. His birth gives us the hope that sin and death will be defeated so that lost sinners can be rescued to enjoy eternal life in the presence of God in a new heaven and earth.
But the epic significance of that good news can get lost in all our Christmas traditions, even for those of us who genuinely believe in it. We focus on the story of Jesus’ birth, but our sentimental retellings can make it seem more like a myth or a fairy tale rather than a real event. So, with that in mind we begin this four-part series that I have titled “Christmas Prophecies.” We will trace four prophetic threads through the Old and New Testament, and we start with the oldest: the prophecy of the woman’s offspring. It reveals four truths about God’s plan that give us hope in dark times.
The Problem of Evil
We like to think of Christmas as a bright time that brings out the best in people. We imagine a pervasive spirit of love, joy, and peace blanketing the world. But sadly, that glittering fantasy shatters against the cold, hard realities of life. For many it proves to be a season of greater need, heightened conflict, sharper pain, and deeper grief. Yet we continue to pretend that it is not so. To grasp the significance of Jesus’ birth we must accept the problem of evil. In fact, the first prophecy of his birth was revealed in a curse.
Genesis 2 tells us that God created the first man and woman and placed them in a garden. Theirs was a world of perfect goodness and abundance without suffering, sin, or shame. The only restriction that God established was that he forbade them from eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did so, they would die.
Genesis 3 says that a serpent came and tempted the woman. Later it is revealed that this was the fallen angel that we know as Satan. He questioned God’s prohibition, denied its consequences, and falsely promised that eating the forbidden fruit would make the woman and her husband like God. So, they ate and began to experience the guilt of their disobedience as God came to question them.
As he pronounces judgment, God addresses the serpent first. Genesis 3:14-15 tells us,
The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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."
The relationship between Satan as a spiritual being and the serpent as a physical creature is never explained, but there are consequences for both. Perhaps the serpent was originally more like a dragon with legs. If so, God’s curse had the immediate impact of changing its physical form. On a spiritual level, the curse indicates that Satan will continue to antagonize human beings, but he will ultimately receive a knockout blow. Bruised is probably not a strong enough word. He will be crushed!
The one who will defeat the serpent is identified as the woman’s offspring, or more literally the woman’s seed. This expression is strange. From a biological perspective, seed comes from men. Elsewhere in the Bible descendants are always traced according to the male line. So, there will be something different about this serpent crusher. As we continue to trace this prophetic thread, we will see what that means.
But before continuing, we should clarify what these verses from Genesis 3 mean for our understanding of evil. We should be clear that we live in a fallen world. That is why we experience sickness, suffering, and death. Our hearts are now depraved, prone to sin. Plus, Satan is still active. He does not take the form of a serpent, but he uses similar tactics. He tempts us to doubt what God has said and to make our own determination about what is right and true. He promises that we can chart our own selfish path to personal satisfaction apart from God. He can even orchestrate afflictions to undermine our faith in God.
Many people say that we can all be good if we just keep trying, but that is not true. Evil exists, and it is the worst problem that we face. But Genesis 3:15 gives us the hope that God has a plan to defeat Satan and to vanquish all evil, even death itself. We must keep tracing the prophetic thread of the woman’s offspring, and as we do it leads us to a second truth.
The Promise of Blessing
It can take a while to learn our Christmas traditions. Young parents get so excited about giving their new child gifts, grandparents even more so. They are tempted to spend far more than their budget allows. But during the first year or two of life, children are typically more interested in the box and its wrappings than what is inside. How disappointing! Never fear! They will grow into little materialists soon enough. With our depravity it is inevitable.
Perhaps God experiences something similar as he observes us. The birth of Jesus ties back to his promise of blessing, the restoration of what was lost at the fall: an unhindered relationship with him. This is an amazing gift of his grace, but we are more interested in its wrappings, things like being prosperous and experiencing good health. Our materialism blinds us to what is important.
To see clearly, we need to understand God’s promise. Genesis 12:1-3 tells us how he first revealed it.
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
You might expect there to be some elaborate backstory for Abram, but there is not. He was from a place called Ur of the Chaldeans on the Euphrates River around 150 miles southwest of Babylon in what we now know as Iraq. There is no indication in Genesis that he merited God’s attention. The Lord simply chose to work through him to initiate this restoration of blessing throughout the earth.
The key to the Lord’s plan was for Abram to become a great nation. It all hinged upon him having offspring. In fact, Genesis 12:7 tells us,
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
No mention is made here of the woman’s offspring from Genesis 3:15. But in its genealogies, the book makes a clear connection from Adam to Abram. Just like in Genesis 3, there is an immediate fulfillment of this promise to Abram and an ultimate one. The immediate concern was that Abram was seventy-five years old, his wife Sarai was sixty-five, and they had no children. Fifteen years later God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah and miraculously enabled them to conceive a son.
Over four centuries, their descendants multiplied to become the nation of Israel. The Lord manifested his glory to them and lead them out of slavery in Egypt.
He then gave them his Law and dwelt among them in the Tabernacle. To enjoy the full blessing of that relationship, they had to obey him. But generation after generation failed to do so and ended up being cursed.
For the world to experience the promise of God’s blessing, an ultimate fulfillment of it was needed. In Galatians 3, Paul argues that Jesus is the true offspring of Abraham. In verses 13-14, he explains,
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"--so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
When we believe in Jesus we are rescued from the curse, and we receive the Spirit. We embark on a relationship with God in which he helps us grow in obedience and experience a foretaste of his blessing. He also gives us the hope that we will participate in his ultimate blessing. Before I elaborate on how that will come about, we need to consider a third essential truth that we find in tracing this prophetic thread.
The Presence of God
When my children were young, there were a few times when I had to stay up late on Christmas Eve to assemble their gifts. The worst was a toy kitchen for my daughters. It had hundreds of parts, and the later it got, the more I questioned whether all of them were necessary. I was tempted to ignore the instructions and find a shortcut. But I kept at it, figuring that the makers must have had a purpose for every nut and bolt.
We have the same problem with our Maker’s plans and instructions. We are tempted to ignore parts and find shortcuts. Some people even feel that way about this idea of the woman’s offspring. But another prophecy gives us a better understanding of why it is necessary. The coming of the woman’s offspring relates to the presence of God with his people.
At one point during the ministry of the Prophet Isaiah, Jerusalem was under siege by armies from Syria and Ephraim. The biblical response would be to humbly pray and trust the Lord. But Ahaz, the king, decided to ignore that part. His shortcut was to pursue an alliance with the mighty nation of Assyria to frighten off his enemies.
One of the problems with such alliances was that they often involved adopting the other country’s religious practices. So, the Lord sent Isaiah to confront Ahaz. He revealed to Ahaz that the attacking nations would not succeed. He even offered him a sign. Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the Prophet said,
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Immanuel means, “God with us.” The Lord would demonstrate the power of his presence with his people.
Isaiah goes on to say that before the child is old enough to refuse evil and choose good, the lands of Syria and Ephraim will be deserted. This prophecy had an immediate partial fulfillment. In verse 3 of chapter 8, Isaiah speaks of his wife conceiving a son whose growth coincided with Assyria’s conquest of Syria and Ephraim.
But the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy happened around 700 years later. Luke 1 records that the angel Gabriel was sent to a young virgin named Mary who was betrothed to a man named Joseph. He announced that she would conceive and bear a son. When she asked how that could be possible for her as a virgin, verse 35 tells us,
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."
For the first time, a woman had an offspring who was not the seed of man. Mary miraculously conceived and gave birth to the true Immanuel. The eternal Son of God took on flesh and was born in the likeness of men. God was present in his creation like never before. He did not just observe the suffering of humanity from afar. He joined us in it.
He even experienced the pain and humiliation of dying on a cross. But he did not remain in the grave. He demonstrated his power by rising from the dead three days later with scars in his hands and feet. Perhaps those marks are what God had in mind in Genesis 3:15 when he foretold the bruising of the offspring’s heel.
So, as we face times of suffering, we can find comfort and help in Immanuel. We can humbly trust in him and pray. Hebrews 4:15-16 says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We should never forget the truth of God’s presence that we see in Christ. But as important as his sympathy is, it does not fulfill what God announced in Genesis 3:15. How will the serpent be crushed? We need to consider a fourth truth.
The Power of Salvation
Each year people count down the days to Christmas. Some use advent calendars with pieces of candy or small gifts. Others try to maintain a spiritual focus, but for most it's about how much time they have left to buy gifts. There are early shoppers, and there are procrastinators who keep telling themselves that they have plenty of time.
One year when I was young, my dad rushed out to Sears about an hour before closing on Christmas Eve to find something for my mom. With choices limited, he ended up getting her an electric can opener. They say it's the thought that counts, but I don't think that she was too impressed.
Perhaps that is why no prophecy ever foretold the date of Jesus' birth or his return. Knowing the timing of what is coming makes you feel that you are in control. But God wants us to live with a consistent sense of dependence and anticipation. We must rely upon the power of his salvation, and that is where the prophetic thread of the woman’s offspring leads us.
The miracle of Christ’s incarnation was an essential step toward the defeat of Satan. Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us,
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, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
The death of a normal human being could never overcome Satan's power. Only the incarnate Son of God could break through to rescue us. His resurrection confirmed it. So, when you believe in him, you can have the immediate assurance that you have eternal life. You are set free from the fear of death.
But as powerful as Christ’s salvation of believers is, it is not the end of the story. In Revelation 12, Satan is described as a great dragon, the serpent of old. Chapter 20 says that he will be bound as Christ reigns for a thousand years. He will then be released to lead the nations in a futile final rebellion. But Revelation 20:10 tells us,
and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
That final judgment prepares the way for the new heaven and earth described in Revelation 21 and 22. In Revelation 21:3-4, John says,
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
That first prophecy from Genesis 3:15 will finally be fulfilled. The woman’s offspring will achieve his goal of saving creation itself. The serpent’s influence and all its heinous consequences will be no more. All the redeemed will enjoy the full blessing of living in God's presence forever.
That is the power of salvation, and it is worth waiting for! Is that your hope? If not, don’t procrastinate. Turn to Jesus today.
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God’s prophetic plan keeps moving forward like clockwork, and tracing the prophecy of the woman’s offspring from beginning to end shows us these essential truths about it. We have fallen hearts and live in a broken world with an evil enemy. But God has given us the promise of blessing, of being fully restored to his presence through the power of salvation. He has sent his eternal Son to be the woman’s offspring, the true seed of Abraham, the virgin born Immanuel, Jesus who lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and will one day return to defeat the serpent and to establish a perfect world.
Are you trusting in Jesus? If not, I encourage you to place your hope in him. If you would like to learn more about him, Luke 1 would be a good chapter to read. Perhaps you need to reaffirm your hope in him. We can easily drift away and end up relying entirely upon our own plans. Entrust your life to Jesus and share your great hope with others.
Next time we will trace a different prophetic thread through the Bible focusing on the place where Jesus was born. But for now, may God fill our hearts with hope!
Reflect
Before today, which of these truths have had the greatest impact upon you? How so?
Which of these truths encourages you most? Why?
Who do you know that needs to hear these truths? What would be a good way to share them?