Time to Start Believing in Spiritual Battles, Because You're In One

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“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed…” - Genesis 3:15.

Like a good mystery? If you were an ancient Hebrew, and you read this prophecy for the first time, you would reply with a “What in the world?”

Understand that in biblical terminology, women don’t have seeds. They’re the gardens. Men have the seeds that get planted in the gardens to produce fruit. (Is that PG-rated enough?) Yet here, God tells a woman about how her Seed was going to go to war against the Snake.  

If ever you were looking for an early allusion to the virgin birth, I think this is it. God is describing a woman producing an offspring without the involvement of a husband! And if we kept reading, we would see that this Seed from a woman, Who didn’t come from a man, was going to go to war to crush the Snake’s head. Apparently, God had the nature of Jesus’ birth mapped out from the very beginning!

But did you catch the rest of the phrase? The battle wasn’t only going to be between the Snake and the woman’s Seed; it was also going to be between the woman’s Seed AND THE SNAKE’S SEED.

Wait! Satan has kids?

Satan didn’t get married and raise a family, no. But when a person takes on the characteristics of something in the Bible, he can be called a “child of…” For example, Paul called people “children of disobedience” in Ephesians 2:2. In John 8:44, Jesus described a bunch of Jews as children of the devil because they were lying murderers like the devil is.

And from Genesis 3 on, children of the devil were going to be in a constant conflict with the Seed of the woman.

Ultimately, it seems pretty safe to interpret this as the final showdown of human history when Jesus comes in on His white horse and takes out Satan and his AntiChrist. (In Revelation, the AntiChrist is actually described as being possessed by Satan and granted Satan’s power.) But is that ALL this prophecy is referring to? The Bible’s plotline would seem to say, “No.”

Throughout Scripture, on one side, we have people who, through faith, resemble the woman’s ultimate Seed – Jesus. On the other, we have people who resemble Satan in their rebellion against God’s clear instructions. For example:

  • Abel and Cain
  • Isaac and Ishmael
  • Jacob and Esau
  • Joseph and his brothers
  • Moses and Pharaoh
  • Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness
  • Joshua and the kings of Canaan
  • Hannah and Peninnah
  • David and Saul
  • Solomon and Adonijah

The list goes on, but you get the idea. The point is whenever God chooses to raise up and use someone who loves Him, follows Him, and is Christlike in their behavior, it seems Satan is raising up someone from his ranks as opposition. (So THAT’S why that co-worker the next desk over is always giving me such grief!)

It’s frustrating, but it shouldn’t be surprising. God said it would happen. The bigger question is what do we do about it?

It depends on how Christlike we truly want to be, because Jesus turned this conflict on its head. Rather than coming to wage war against all these children of the devil who were rebelling against Him as His enemies, rather than outmatching them or overpowering them, He came and served them. Then He died for them. Then He saved them and brought them over to His side. I know He did that because I’m one of the former children of the devil that He did that for.

So when we see that we’re in this conflict that’s nearly as old as time between the children of the woman and the children of the devil, instead of resenting the battle, fearing it, or finding ways to crush them all, we can do what Jesus actually told us to do. “Love your enemies. Pray for them who despitefully use you so that you may be called children of your Father in Heaven.”

Dear Heavenly Father, this doesn’t come easy for us! Please give us the heart and mind to serve like Jesus served and love like Jesus loved. We want to be like Him and not like that ol’ Serpent who only lives for himself. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.  

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