Did you know that the first prophecy ever spoken was to Satan? God bypassed using a person as His mouthpiece and instead He personally spoke the prophecy directly to Satan. What was His message? He would deliver His beloved man and all his descendants and, moreover, He would crush Satan's head! He would not leave them in their fallen state! The prophecy He gave to Satan was a declaration of war! God had come into the Garden of Eden to do war for all of humanity. This prophecy was given after Adam and Eve had sinned and had fallen from their righteous state. When God gave it to Satan, He was angry and was pronouncing judgment on him. The reason for God's anger? Satan had messed with God’s highest creation, even the apple of His eye. And God came as the Man of War to battle for the souls of Adam and Eve and all their offspring.
The cherished fellowship between God and His man and woman had been broken. Sin separated them from their Creator. Adam and Eve were ashamed and hid themselves from Him, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees” (Gen. 3:8). It was difficult for Adam and Eve to be in God’s presence since they were “out of fellowship” with Him. Instead of running to God, they hid among the trees even though “they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day...hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees” (Gen. 3:8). It was God’s love that compelled Him to come and search for them.
God came to Adam and Eve when it was evening time and a cool breeze was blowing in the garden. He would not leave them sitting in their sin, but came to them, to help them, and to restore them to fellowship with Him. Take note that “the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). God still calls unto those who are prodigals. He loves them.
Adam answered God when He called to them, saying, “I heard your voice in the garden...I was afraid, because I was naked” (Gen. 3:10). The place to begin, when one sins, is always with confession. The believer must look to a compassionate and merciful God and humble himself before Him, confessing his sins. Adam began his confession to God, saying he was afraid and wanted to hide himself when he heard God’s voice. Adam was ashamed to be in the presence of a Holy God.
Adam’s fourfold confession was as follows:
1. He heard.
2. He was afraid.
3. He was naked.
4. He hid.
Although God knew the answer to His question, He asked anyway, saying, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree?" (Gen. 3:11). God desired Adam to tell Him all about it, and he did. He told how Eve had given him the apple and he ate it. Upon hearing this from Adam, God addressed Eve, “What is this that you have done?" (Gen. 3:13). The Lord did not ignore Eve, but sought to bring her to repentance as well. The woman also confessed all to the Lord, saying, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Gen. 3:13). Satan had spoken through the serpent to Eve and because the serpent submitted to Satan, the serpent was judged. The judgment God placed on the serpent seemed to indicate that the serpent may have been walking on all fours, like cattle, and he also talked! God's judgment reduced the serpent to slithering on the ground, representing utter humiliation for the serpent.
“The Lord God said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14).
God initiated restoration of fellowship with Adam and Eve because they were tempted. He had mercy upon them. Satan, however, had no tempter. There was no record of God seeking to restore Lucifer to Himself because the sins of pride and rebellion originated in him. The Man of War declared that His Son would defeat Satan through the virgin birth!
“And the Lord God said unto the serpent...And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; It shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:14-15).
In referring to her Seed, God was speaking of Eve’s Descendant (Jesus Christ), Who would be at war with Satan and all of his spiritual seed. This is a good example of the Law of Double Reference, which means that although a statement is addressed to one person it is further directed to another person not present ( i.e., the address made to the King of Tyre that went further to Lucifer and his fallen angels—Eze. 28:15; and, when Peter opposed the Lord going to the cross and was rebuked by Jesus, Who said to Peter and, moreover, to Satan, “Get you behind Me, Satan”—Mat. 16:22-23 ). So here in Genesis, not only was the Lord speaking to the serpent, but to Satan as well. He was saying that the serpent (Satan) would inflict temporary sufferings on Jesus ( “bruise His heel” ), but that the Seed (Jesus) of the woman (Mary) shall bruise Satan’s head! Who is the Seed of the woman? Jesus. Jesus is not the seed of a man, for He was born of a virgin.
This is the first Biblical reference to the Messiah and Savior and the first reference to the virgin birth. Amazingly, God gave the first prophecy to Satan! Take note of this first prophecy - it was woman who first fell, and it will be woman who would succeed in delivering a Savior to the world! God looked past Eve and saw Mary.
“For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9).
Excerpt From Christ Exalted Seminary, Course 101-Genesis
www.ChristExaltedSeminary.org