A Promise of Victory

In our studies last month we looked briefly at covenants, the basic structure in the Bible that defines human beings’ relationship to God. At the heart of any covenant are the promises made by the parties to the agreement. As we saw in that study, God sets the terms of the covenants He makes with men. But His terms are gracious, for He makes great and wonderful promises in His covenants and swears by Himself to fulfill them for those who keep covenant with Him. A prime example of this is the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham to give the land of Canaan to his descendants, a promise we have just seen fulfilled in our studies from the book of Joshua. Yes, the fulfillment of this promise came hundreds of years after it was made, but God proved Himself faithful in His time. We will see God’s faithfulness clearly as we pause in our studies in the book of Joshua to give more consideration to His promises—particularly those relating to redemption and the Redeemer—and their fulfillment. To guide our study, we turn to Dr. R.C. Sproul’s audio-tape teaching series Promises.

We saw in our study of covenants that God’s first promise of redemption occurred in the awful aftermath of Adam and Eve’s violation of the covenant of creation. They had been told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But at the serpent’s instigation, they did so. Therefore, in Genesis 3, God pronounces judgment on the serpent, Eve, and Adam. But He weaves in a wonderful promise.

The serpent, God says, will crawl on his belly and eat dust all his days. But then God adds that He will “ ‘put enmity’ ” between the serpent and Eve, and between the serpent’s “ ‘seed’ ” and her “ ‘seed.’ ” This seems to indicate that humans will have a God-given distaste for snakes, and vice versa. But orthodox Christianity traditionally has seen these words also as a promise that a Redeemer—the “Seed”—will come to crush the serpent’s head. However, He will have to suffer to do it (a “ ‘bruised heel’ ”). This promise has been understood to mean that one would come who would have the strength to battle the evil one, the enemy of man, absorbing his harshest blows before breaking his power forever. In short, this has been seen as a promise of an end to the tyranny of Satan. And as we will see tomorrow, it has been gloriously fulfilled in the work of Christ on the cross.