Jesus Foretold: The Serpent's Curse (MP 57)

(This is the first in a series of messianic prophecies that God revealed in the Old Testament by Plan,)

Learn from the poor Serpent, who lost so much,
When he allowed Satan to lurk within,
To beguile Eve, forbidden fruit to touch,
That led Adam to commit mankind’s first sin!
From living upright to sliding in dust,
From innocent to guilty, was his lot;
From friend of all to foe, which none can trust,
For aiding the Beast, all in God’s Book blot!
Eternal enmity from woman’s Seed;
Prostrate throughout life, and killed upon sight—
These curses were among those God decreed;
Serpent and Satan both, this earth’s blight!
Eve found the fruit most pleasing to her eye—
That’s how sin always looks to you and I!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added)
Prophecy Made: Genesis 3:14-15—“So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this: Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he [Jesus/God] will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ “ (Written in the 15th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Galatians 4:4-5—“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: The Serpent’s Curse”
A major objective of God’s Master Plan is to reveal glimpses of the future, especially prophecies pointing to His coming to earth as a man to redeem mankind from condemnation. Since the sin of Adam brought huge consequencies (physical death, spiritual death, and eternal separation from God for all men that would ever live), God’s redemptive Plan (His coming as His own Son, His dying for the sins of Men, and His adoption as co-heirs those men and women who believe in Jesus as Lord) is just as huge. Therefore, He deliberately reveals in the Old Testament prophecies of future events in the life of Jesus, written hundreds of years before the events occur and that are fulfilled and written about in the New Testament. There are at least 340 such prophecies in Old Testament scripture, everyone of which He precisely fulfilled; not one has been found false.

The earliest messianic prophecy is found in Genesis 3:15 (quoted above). It is contained in the words of God when He pronounced judgment upon the serpent for allowing Satan to use his body to speak to Eve, calling her attention to the beauties of the forbidden tree and its fruit, lying to her, and causing her to eat what God had commanded Adam not to eat. He did eat it, of course, when proffered by his wife; he was with her and heard the talk between her and the serpent. There are double meanings, or even more, in some prophecies; here, God’s words have immediate application to the serpent’s lifestyle; also, there is meaning for the future—when Jesus is born of the virgin Mary, He becomes the Seed of woman that is an enemy of Satan and will crush the devil by overcoming death and rising back to life. The words spoken by God to the serpent are fulfilled in the redeeming gospel as explained by the apostle Paul in Galatians 4:4 (above). Since Mary was a virgin, Jesus’ “Father” was God the Holy Spirit, not Joseph, the man to whom she was engaged, and He was born without being condemned by Adam’s sin. He was qualified to shed His blood in atonement for all the sins of men, including that of Adam. Any man or woman is freed from condemnation and adopted into the family of God by sincere belief in Jesus as the Messiah (which means the “anointed one” or Christ); his or her sins are forgiven, and that person receives salvation to eternal life with God in heaven.

God’s Master Plan included redemption from before creation. Adam’s sin and all men’s condemnation came as no surprise to God. Neither did Israel’s being temporarily “set aside” from salvation because of their rejection of Jesus. Preplanned solutions were determined and ready to go before God launched the universe. If you read this and are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you are still under condemnation; if you die physically without ever accepting belief in Jesus Christ, you can never be redeemed—your chance is gone forever. This is being written in my hope that it will cause you to trust Jesus for your eternal salvation.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the grave, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)