Ongoing Battle, Decisive Victory - The One Year Unlocking the Bible Devotional

The LORD God said to the serpent, . . . “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”   Genesis 3:14-15, NIV

God calls the relentless human battle against evil “enmity.” Man is always trying to get rid of evil, but evil is constantly spilling over into our communities, our families, and even our own lives. Man simply cannot get free from the knowledge of evil.

But God promises someone who will come to us through the woman’s offspring. This person is not described as the man’s offspring, but as the woman’s, and when he comes, he will engage in a great struggle against the evil one.

This deliverer will inflict a fatal blow to the head of the enemy. And in the process, the enemy will bite the heel that crushed him. Imagine standing on the head of a venomous snake. In the same moment, he bites you and inflicts a wound, but then that wounded foot bears down on him and brings his destruction.

All this points to the coming of Jesus Christ, the Deliverer, who was born of a virgin—without a human father. He would not come from us; he would come to us. And he would not face the enemy in a beautiful garden filled with fruit, but in a barren wilderness, weak and hungry after forty days of fasting.

Satan tried all the same strategies in a vain attempt to bring Jesus under the control of evil, but Christ stood his ground against the enemy and triumphed where Adam failed. When all his efforts failed, the devil withdrew in defeat to wait for another opportunity.

Three years later, through his death on a cross, Jesus inflicted a mortal wound on the enemy. When the sword of God’s judgment struck Jesus—instead of us—it broke, clearing a new and living way into the presence of God. Jesus has opened the way to all who will come to God through him.

For further reading, see Matthew 4