Genesis 3:14 - Meaning and Application

The prisoners have already confessed their guilt, and the Judge has perfect knowledge of the case. Since nothing real is offered to stop judgment, God immediately passes sentence. He begins where the sin began, with the serpent. God does not question the serpent, asking what he did or why he did it, because the serpent was already proved to be rebellious, and his evil was open and plain. He also would never be given a chance of pardon, so there was no need to call him to repentance. His wound was not examined, because it was not meant to be healed. Some think the fallen angels were not clearly shown to be hopeless until they led mankind into rebellion.

The sentence on the tempter may be seen as falling on the serpent, the animal Satan used. The serpent, like the other creatures, was made to serve man, but it had now been used to harm him. So God puts a curse and a mark of shame on the serpent, showing his anger against sin and his concern for the wrong done to Adam and Eve. The devil’s tools must share in the devil’s punishment. In the same way, the bodies of the wicked, though they are only tools of sin, will share eternal punishment with the soul, which was the main actor. Even the ox that killed a man had to be stoned (Exodus 21:28-29). This shows how much God hates sin, and especially how displeased he is with those who lead others into it. Jeroboam’s name is forever stained because he made Israel sin.

The serpent is first placed under God’s curse. When God made the creeping creatures, he blessed them (Genesis 1:22), but sin turned blessing into curse. The serpent had been more crafty than any beast of the field (Genesis 3:1), and now it is cursed above every beast of the field. Cleverness without holiness often becomes a curse. The more skillfully people do evil, the more harm they cause, and the greater their judgment will be. Those who tempt others are among the most cursed creatures under the sun.

The serpent is also placed under man’s scorn and hatred. It will always be seen as a low and despised creature, fit only for contempt. “Upon your belly you shall go” means it would no longer move upright or on feet, but crawl on its belly, close to the ground. That picture shows a very low and miserable condition (Psalm 44:25). “Dust you shall eat” means it would be forced into a base and pitiful life. Its crime was that it led Eve to eat what she should not have eaten, and its punishment was that it would be forced to take what it would not choose. This describes both a degraded condition and a mean spirit. People whose courage is gone are said to lick the dust like a serpent (Micah 7:17). It is sad that the serpent’s curse is also the choice of greedy worldlings, whose mark is that they long for the dust of the earth (Amos 2:7).

The serpent is also made a creature men hate and fear. God says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman.” The lower creatures were made for man, so it is a curse when one turns against him. The serpent will wound man, usually at the heel, because it cannot reach higher. Yet man will be victorious over the serpent and crush its head, meaning he will give it a mortal wound and seek to destroy its whole brood. This curse also explains why the serpent, though subtle and dangerous, does not destroy mankind as it would if God allowed it. The sentence is strengthened by God’s promise to his people, “You will tread on the lion and the adder” (Psalm 91:13), and by Christ’s word to his disciples, “They will pick up serpents” (Mark 16:18). Paul showed this when he was unharmed by the viper that fastened on his hand. Notice that the serpent and the woman had just been speaking together as if they were friendly, but now they are set in lasting hostility. Sinful friendships rightly end in deadly feuds. Those who join in evil will not stay joined for long.

This sentence is also aimed at the devil, who used the serpent as his instrument but was the true mover behind it. The one who spoke through the serpent is struck through the serpent’s side. He is the main target of the sentence, which has one side dark toward the devil and one side bright toward our first parents and their offspring.

Great things are packed into these words. A lasting shame is fixed on that great enemy of both God and man. Hidden under the serpent, he is sentenced to be degraded and cursed by God. The sin that turned angels into devils is usually thought to have been pride, and pride is fittingly answered here with deep humiliation. He who wanted to rise above God and lead rebellion against him is made despicable and fit to be trampled on. Pride brings people low, and God will humble those who refuse to humble themselves.

He is also made hated by all mankind. Even those who are led into his service still say they hate him, and all who are born of God make it their constant care to keep themselves so the evil one does not touch them (1 John 5:18). He is sentenced to a life of war and lasting enmity. In the end, he will also be destroyed and ruined by the great Redeemer, shown here by the breaking of his head. His clever schemes will all fail, his stolen power will be completely crushed, and he will remain forever under the injured honor of God’s rule. Being told this now, he is tormented before the time.

A lasting conflict also begins here between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil among men. War is declared between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The war in heaven between Michael and the dragon began here (Revelation 12:7). One result of this enmity is the ongoing struggle between grace and corruption in the hearts of God’s people.

Satan attacks people by their own corrupt desires. He harasses them, tests them, and tries to destroy them. But believers, by using the graces God gives them, resist him, struggle against him, put out his flaming darts, and make him flee. Heaven and hell can never be made friends, and neither can light and darkness. In the same way, Satan and a holy soul are at odds, because they are set against each other.

There is also a constant conflict in this world between the wicked and the godly. Those who love God count as enemies the people who hate him (Psalm 139:21-22). The anger and hatred of persecutors against God’s people come from this enmity. It will continue as long as there is one godly person on earth and one wicked person not yet in hell. So do not be surprised if the world hates you (1 John 3:13).

Here God also gives a gracious promise about Christ, the Deliverer who would rescue fallen humans from Satan’s power. Even though these words were spoken to the serpent, our first parents heard them, and they surely caught the hint of grace in them. They could see that a door of hope had opened, or else the judgment that followed would have crushed them. This was the first light of the gospel. As soon as the wound was given, the remedy was also provided and revealed. Right at the beginning of the Bible, in the place where it says Christ would do God’s will (Hebrews 10:7), we are told of him.

By faith in this promise, our first parents, and the patriarchs before the flood, were likely justified, that is, counted right with God, and saved. They served God day and night, hoping to come into the full benefit of this promise. Three things about Christ are made known here.

First, his coming in human form. He would be the seed of the woman, the seed of that woman. That is why Luke traces his family line so far back, to show that he is the son of Adam. Yet God gives the woman special honor by calling him her seed, because she was the one Satan deceived, and Adam blamed her. In this way God shows his grace. Even though the woman was first in sin, she would be saved through childbearing, as some read it, that is, through the promised child who would come from her (1 Timothy 2:15). He would also be the seed of a woman alone, born of a virgin, so he would not be stained by the corruption of our nature. He was sent forth, made of a woman (Galatians 4:4), so this promise would be fulfilled.

This gives sinners great encouragement, because their Savior is the seed of the woman, bone of our bone (Hebrews 2:11, 14). Human beings are sinful and unclean because they are born of a woman (Job 25:4), and their days are full of trouble (Job 14:1). But the seed of the woman was made sin and a curse for us, and so he saves us from both.

Second, his suffering and death are pictured in the serpent’s bruising of his heel, meaning his human nature. Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, trying to lead him into sin. Some also think Satan was the one who frightened Christ in his agony, trying to drive him to despair. The devil put it into Judas’s heart to betray Christ, into Peter’s heart to deny him, into the chief priests’ minds to prosecute him, into the false witnesses to accuse him, and into Pilate’s hands to condemn him. In all this he meant to destroy the Savior and ruin salvation. Yet, in the opposite way, Christ destroyed the one who had the power of death through death itself (Hebrews 2:14).

Christ’s heel was bruised when his feet were pierced and nailed to the cross. His sufferings continue in the sufferings of his saints for his name. The devil tempts them, throws them into prison, persecutes them, and kills them, and so bruises Christ’s heel, because Christ feels what happens to his people in their afflictions. But while the heel is bruised on earth, it is good to know the head is safe in heaven.

Third, his victory over Satan would come through this very suffering. Satan had trampled on the woman and mocked her, but the seed of the woman would be raised up in the right time to avenge her cause. He would trample on Satan, strip him of his power, lead him away as a captive, and triumph over him (Colossians 2:15). He shall bruise his head, meaning he will destroy all Satan’s schemes and all his power, and bring his kingdom and rule to a total ruin.

Christ defeated Satan’s temptations, rescued souls from his hand, cast him out of people’s bodies, drove out the strong man armed, and divided his spoil. By his death, he gave the devil’s kingdom a deadly and incurable blow, a wound to the head of this beast that can never be healed. As his gospel advances, Satan falls (Luke 10:18) and is bound (Revelation 20:2). By his grace, Christ will soon crush Satan under his people’s feet (Romans 16:20), and he will finally cast him into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10). The devil’s lasting defeat will be the full and eternal joy and glory of God’s chosen people.