Is the woman in Genesis 3:15 referring to the church?

[grahampaul]

18 minutes ago, farouk said:

As a general rule, I don't see the church - a revealed mystery in the NT - occurring in the OT.

I have allways taken it to be eve, the Lord said in genisis
 " between her seed".
a woman has no seed of her own, the only time a woman had seed without man was mary. i note its seed not seeds and in galations 3v16 he saith not,and seeds,as of many but as to one,and to thy seed,which is Christ.".

that to me makes the woman eve.and the seed Christ.

peace

[farouk]

4 minutes ago, grahampaul said:

I have allways taken it to be eve, the Lord said in genisis
 " between her seed".
a woman has no seed of her own, the only time a woman had seed without man was mary. i note its seed not seeds and in galations 3v16 he saith not,and seeds,as of many but as to one,and to thy seed,which is Christ.".

that to me makes the woman eve.and the seed Christ.

peace

This would seem so. It's wonderful to trace Messianic promises in the OT.

[Jayne]

I stand by what I said the first time.

To argue with anyone on Thanksgiving day would defeat the purpose of the day.  Have a happy day.

[Selah7]

26 minutes ago, Jayne said:

I stand by what I said the first time.

To argue with anyone on Thanksgiving day would defeat the purpose of the day.  Have a happy day.

Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
He washed my sins away (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)

[Jayne]

2 hours ago, Selah7 said:

Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
He washed my sins away (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)

How'd you that song  is one of my favorites!!

[AdHoc]

17 hours ago, Not of the World said:

Genesis 3:15, ESV: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In His plan for the earth God has restricted himself to MAN (Gen.1:26-28). The MAN that would eventually fulfill this plan is Jesus. The verse assures us that God will not intervene with another creature. The Law of "Seeds" is in Genesis 1:11-12. Each living creature with its seed in itself will produce the same KIND. But immediately another problem arises. It needs a Man and Woman to reproduce. And if this happens in the case of Jesus, He would inherit the sin-nature of Adam - by the same Law of Kinds. Thus, god assures us that the conqueror of the Serpent will ONLY be "seed of the WOMAN". The conception is done by the Holy Spirit (Matt.1:18, Lk.1:35).

But this in itself causes a new dilemma. Will God achieve His plan by a divine being because the Holy Spirit is God and by the same Law of Kinds, Jesus must be God. the answer to that we have FOUR gospels to reveal this Jesus. And in three of them, He never calls Himself the "Son of God". Others did, but he never. He always answers "son of MAN". It is only in John's gospel, which deals with mankind having access to the Tree of Life, that our Lord Jesus admits and teaches that He is God. There are many allusions to Christ's deity in the four gospels, but He Himself pushed His MANHOOD to the front. E.g. Matthew 1:1 and Hebrews 2:15–17;

1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham

 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, ...

This "seed of the woman" is the cause of much mischief by the devil. He tries by all means to pollute this seed, (i) by angels mixing with women, (ii) homosexuality, (iii) bestiality and (iv) celibacy. Thus, Noah had have "his generations perfect".

The Seed emphasizes that God, despite the damage done by the fall, will still be able to carry out His plan with MANKIND. "Jesus" is the name of a MAN.

5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. (Heb.2:5-8)

[Selah7]

33 minutes ago, Jayne said:

How'd you that song  is one of my favorites!!

I love it, too! 

[JohnD]

18 hours ago, Not of the World said:

I don't know.  Is the church sometimes referred to as "the woman"? 

Nope. Bride of Christ.

[JohnD]

As most predictive prophecy does with contemporary people, I am sure Genesis 3:15 went right over the heads of both Adam and Eve.

Eve probably thought it referred to her and that her firstborn was the fulfillment of that prophecy.

The woman is Israel.

Genesis 37:9–10 (KJV)
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

Revelation 12:1–7 (KJV)
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

Her seed obviously is Jesus Christ.

 

[Jackero]

My friends, I propose a new variant of interpretation…

GOD SPEAKS TO THE ENEMY

1. After God asked Adam and Eve to render Him an account of their actions, He confronted the serpent with the following words: “And 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.” (Genesis3:15)

Like the seed of the mighty Sequoia contains the code of a huge tree within it, this verse contains the code of the whole Bible enclosed within it. In fact, the Bible in its entirety is merely an outgrowth and unfolding of this one verse. The end-time enmity spoken of in the book of Revelation 12:17 must be understood in the light of this verse.

At this point in time, Adam and Eve had become enemies of God. The enmity in this verse runs three ways: 1) Serpent-Woman, 2) seed-Seed, and 3) Serpent-Seed.

Though there is enmity between the woman and the serpent and between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the primary enmity is between the serpent and the woman’s Seed.

2. Who is this serpent of Genesis 3:15? “So, the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9)

God was telling Satan: “You turned the human race against Me and have made them my enemies. But I am going to send a Seed to the world who will do battle with you. In the process of this battle, you will be successful in striking His heel, but He is going to crush your head! These words, heard by Adam and Eve, must have brought them much comfort and hope!

3. Who is represented by the seed of the serpent? “Cain, who killed his brother Abel, is spoken of as being “OF THE WICKED ONE.” (1 John 3:12). Jesus said to his enemies: “You are of your FATHER the devil.” (John 8:44) And in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, the tares are “the SONS of the wicked one” (Matthew 13:38)

4. Who is represented by the woman? God spoke about His church in the Old Testament in the following terms: “I have likened the daughter of ZION to a lovely and delicate woman.” (Jeremiah 6:2)

5. Who is the Seed of the woman? “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” WHO IS CHRIST.” (Galatians 3:16)

6. From where did this Seed come from and when? “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). And, speaking of the birth of Jesus, we are told in Revelation 12:5. “She (the woman) bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.” (Revelation 12:5)

7. In John 1:1-3 Jesus is presented as the Creator. In verse 14 we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Thus, the Creator became one with us in order to redeem us.

THE CREATOR REDEEMS THE FAILURE OF HIS CREATURES

1. In Genesis 2:17 God promised Adam and Eve that if they sinned, they would certainly die.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God was put between a rock and a hard place. God’s justice required the death of sinners, but God’s mercy wanted to save them. How could God resolve this seeming conflict between His justice and His mercy? The answer is found in Jesus. The Creator of humanity chose to take upon Himself the punishment which they deserved. In this way, God’s justice was satisfied, and His mercy was also revealed.

2. Genesis 3:21 describes how God chose to cover man’s spiritual nakedness: “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

In order to get the skins of animals, it was necessary for them to be sacrificed. The sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament represented the death of Jesus on the cross (1 Peter 1:18-20; Isaiah 53:3-8). By His death, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), He took away our condemnation (Romans 8:1), He reconciled us to God (Romans 5:10), He recovered the lost dominion (John 12:31-33), He paid our death penalty (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13), He gave us peace with God (Romans 5:1) and He eliminated any reason for fear (Romans 8:15).

SATAN’S INCESSANT WARFARE

1. The story of Cain and Abel reveals that early on, Satan suspected that Abel might be the promised Seed. For this reason, Satan influenced Cain to murder his brother (1 John 3:12). But God’s plans were not to be thwarted because He gave Adam and Eve “another seed” from whose line the Messiah would eventually come (Genesis 4:25).

2. From the moment that God spoke the words of Genesis 3:15, Satan made up his mind that he would do all in his power to keep the promised Seed from coming to the world; after all, his very existence was at stake! Satan was determined to kill and/or corrupt the lineage from which the Seed was to come. The Old Testament, in its entirety contains the story of how God prepared the way for the Messiah to come into the world and how Satan worked to prevent this from happening. (For example, think about these passages: Gen. 16; 2 Kings 11).

3. When Jesus was born into the world, the dragon tried to devour Him as soon as He was born (Revelation 12:3-4).

4. When Jesus was born, King Herod had all the male children two years and under slaughtered (Matthew 2:16). Who do you think was behind this?

The life of Jesus reveals that the events we see around us are really visible manifestations of an invisible warfare between Christ and Satan. In other words, we must read the news behind the news. We must read history with enlightened eyes!

5. When the male child ascended to God and to his throne, whom did the serpent persecute? The woman. (Revelation 12:6)

6. At the very end of human history, Satan will be enraged with the woman and will go away to make war against the rest/remnant of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17). This verse is only the introduction to this spiritual war which is described in the following chapters… But I must say that the theme of Rev. 12 is that Jesus always wins the battle and Satan always loses. That is why this chapter is especially encouraging for us because we can experience a full victory under the flag of Jesus.